{"id":316,"date":"2026-06-24T22:15:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T22:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=316"},"modified":"2026-06-24T22:15:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T22:15:18","slug":"hochul-has-her-strategy-and-shes-sticking-to-it-after-primary-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=316","title":{"rendered":"Hochul has her strategy, and she\u2019s sticking to it after primary day"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

There may have been a wave of democratic socialist and progressive primary victories in New York City and other parts of the state Tuesday, but Gov. Kathy Hochul isn\u2019t preparing to join the Democratic Socialists of America any time soon, especially not as she prepares for her own general election. In her first comprehensive remarks on Tuesday\u2019s election results, she said Wednesday morning she\u2019s ready to harness the energy that attracted voters to populist candidates by huge margins in order to combat a common enemy among Democrats: President Donald Trump.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Who is Frank Carone, the former Eric Adams official who allegedly accepted $120K in bribes?<\/a><\/p>\n

Hochul\u2019s endorsed candidates had a mixed bag on Tuesday, with those in direct contest with candidates backed by New York City Zohran Mamdani losing their races. Those included Reps. Dan Goldman and Adriano Espaillat, with Espaillat\u2019s loss being an upset. Socialist momentum against Hochul endorsees wasn\u2019t limited to New York City either. Assembly Member Bill Magnarelli, a longtime incumbent in Syracuse, found himself narrowly trailing the DSA-backed Onondaga County Legislator Maurice Brown at the end of the night. Still, Assembly Member Jordan Wright survived his challenge, and Assembly Member Grace Lee, whom Hochul campaigned for over the weekend, defeated lefty former Assembly Member Yuh-Line Niou in a fight for a lower Manhattan state Senate seat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Hochul seemed unbothered by the fact that socialist populism was favored over her flavor of traditionally moderate messaging Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI never said we\u2019re united as a party,\u201d Hochul told reporters at an unrelated press conference at her Manhattan office on Wednesday. \u201cI\u2019ve been involved in this political party my entire life. No one has ever accused us of being fully united behind one individual, one concept. That\u2019s OK. We speak for many voices. That\u2019s the beauty of the Democratic Party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, Tuesday\u2019s results don\u2019t mean the governor should get her DSA dues ready yet. \u201cThe governor\u2019s task during the campaign, and then when she’s governing, is not to chase that energy ideologically, but it\u2019s to make sure that she\u2019s responsive to those concerns that are fueling it, right, affordability, housing, cost of living issues,\u201d Democratic strategist Marc Cohen told City & State. \u201cI think that\u2019s her challenge, goal and mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amit Bagga, a progressive Democratic consultant who has worked for Hochul in the past, said the governor has demonstrated a pragmatic approach to both governing and coalition-building he imagines will serve her well in the general election later this year, despite many Democrats backing candidates to her ideological left in the primaries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe governor has a very specific and tough job to do, which is to govern a state that is as diverse as any, politically diverse as any nation,\u201d Bagga told City & State. \u201cAnd she has already demonstrated a unique acumen in being able to do so in the last year through what has become a partnership \u2013 and not a rivalry \u2013 with Mayor Mamdani.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hochul, who will lead the ticket for Democrats in November, said she found the \u201cpalpable energy and excitement\u201d for socialist and progressive candidates in the city \u201cexciting\u201d \u2013 and she wants to make use of that in the general. \u201cWhat I already spoke to the mayor about was, how do we harness this energy and this excitement about the political process \u2026 and direct that against the biggest threat to our country, and that\u2019s Donald Trump,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That will mean getting some of that Zohmentum in battleground areas in the Hudson Valley and on Long Island that perhaps aren\u2019t as progressive as the Big Apple. \u201cI\u2019ll be working with everyone,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s the beauty of the Democratic Party, the internal debates are over as of last night.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read more Cait Conley wins NY-17 primary to take on Lawler<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cInternal debates\u201d are not always over following a primary though, and lack of enthusiasm from the base to turn out has hurt Democrats in the past. But even as populist messages resonated across New York City, as well as in her home of Buffalo with the win of DSA-backed Assembly candidate Adam Bojak and the narrow lead of Brown in Syracuse, Hochul said she doesn\u2019t have any plans to change her own campaign strategy heading in November based on the primary results.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI know what it takes to win statewide, and there are many, many disparate voices outside of New York City,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are independents who need to be courted and brought to us to vote for Democrats in November. There\u2019s disaffected Republicans who’ve had it with the MAGA movement.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Likewise, Cohen said the successes of candidates like Rep. Joe Morelle in Rochester and Assembly Member Didi Barrett in the Hudson Valley in fending off left-wing challenges demonstrated that the Democratic base around the state still is not unified in downstate progressivism, even as a few populist candidates performed well in Buffalo and Syracuse.<\/p>\n

Bagga concurred that Hochul likely doesn\u2019t need to shift her strategy or underlying ideology following the primaries, as significant as they might have been. \u201cIt\u2019s not as though anyone who handed the victor their victories last night is going to vote for Republican, and so if I\u2019m Kathy Hochul, I\u2019m not particularly concerned that those voters are not turning out for me in November,\u201d he said. Nor would he, were he the governor, be concerned about Republican attacks ramping up negatively tying her to the populist socialist successes. \u201cI think the question becomes, \u2018What is her posture with the Legislature going into next year?\u201d Bagga said.<\/p>\n

Hochul said people are \u201cfrustrated\u201d right now, in large part thanks to Trump, and that frustration helped to propel those candidates with populist messages against more traditional Democratic candidates, including those she endorsed. \u201cIt is exasperating to live in this Trump America right now,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that is, I think \u2026 what many of these individuals have capitalized on (in) this movement, which is exasperation and frustration with the status quo.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hochul cited a variety of affordability agenda items that passed through Albany this year that she will campaign on to quell those frustrations \u2013 though did not mention her changes to the state climate law until asked about it, an action that has drawn strong condemnation from the very candidates who just won many of the Democratic primary elections. But even on that Hochul expressed confidence that the electorate will recognize her argument that Trump policies interfering with green energy advancement forced her hand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI just deal in realities, and I think there\u2019s a lot of people (that) understand that I, as a candidate, will be far better off than someone who\u2019s literally running around the state of New York with the head of the EPA calling for fracking and more fossil fuel generated power,\u201d she said, \u201cso they will understand that I am their ally in this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more DiNapoli easily wins his first primary challenge in nearly two decades<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even as left-wing candidates thrived, the moderate governor is staying focused on fighting Trump as general election season begins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,27,92],"tags":[8,29,93],"class_list":["post-316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2026-new-york-gubernatorial-election","category-kathy-hochul","category-politics","tag-2026-new-york-gubernatorial-election","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nHochul has her strategy, and she\u2019s sticking to it after primary day - Business Relocation Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/businessrelocationdigest.com\/?p=316\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hochul has her strategy, and she\u2019s sticking to it after primary day - 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