On a recent Sunday, Gov. Kathy Hochul wandered down Roosevelt Avenue in Woodside, Queens, a stronghold of New York City’s democratic socialist movement.
She embraced curious passers-by and business owners, gamely posing for selfies as she hoped to capture the kind of voter excitement that Zohran Mamdani generated in his run for mayor.
But as she strode past Filipino street vendors grilling chicken intestines, it was fairly apparent that Ms. Hochul, who is running for re-election in November, was missing something: the presence of Mr. Mamdani.
Since taking office, Mr. Mamdani has shown how his star power can excite Democratic voters and decisively influence elections across New York City. His support could be crucial for Ms. Hochul, given that the young progressive masses that powered his victory last year continue to view the governor, a moderate Democrat from Buffalo, with a mix of skepticism and derision.
Yet so far, Mr. Mamdani has done little to outwardly help Ms. Hochul’s re-election bid against her Republican challenger, Bruce Blakeman.
The mayor has privately committed to record videos on Ms. Hochul’s behalf, according to two people familiar with the plan. The videos, which would appear on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, have not been shot, but the people expected that at least some of them would show the mayor and governor together.
Mr. Mamdani and the governor are also expected to make a series of joint appearances across the city in the campaign’s final weeks. He has expressed a willingness to stump for Ms. Hochul in whatever ways her campaign sees fit, five people familiar with the matter said.
“I think being visibly out with her will be a powerful call to action,” said Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, a state assemblywoman who campaigned with the governor in Queens. “Zohran can uplift the strong partnership he has had with her and tell voters he won’t have that with Blakeman.”
Ms. Gonzalez-Rojas, a democratic socialist like the mayor, acknowledged that Ms. Hochul could have used the mayor in Woodside.
“There wasn’t the same energy that Zohran brings,” she said.
How effectively and how often Ms. Hochul deploys Mr. Mamdani, who endorsed her in February, is a high-stakes question for her advisers. While the mayor is popular in New York City and among most Democrats, Republicans and other conservative voters still view him suspiciously.
Mr. Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, has begun to pepper social media with advertisements, some of which were generated by artificial intelligence, to depict her as a comrade in arms with Mr. Mamdani.
“The Hochul-Mamdani team is a threat to everything you and your family have worked for,” the spots state.
Recent polls suggest that the governor leads Mr. Blakeman by anywhere from nine to 19 percentage points. One of those surveys, conducted by Siena University, found that half of the likely voters surveyed and 72 percent of the Democrats surveyed think that Mr. Mamdani’s endorsement of Ms. Hochul would help her campaign.
The governor is also expected to receive help from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who recently announced a $300,000 donation to the state party to boost the Democratic ticket and will be campaigning across New York. Several of these events in the coming weeks are expected to include Ms. Hochul.
Ms. Hochul said in an interview that during her last re-election run, when she was little more than a year into office after Andrew M. Cuomo’s resignation, “I needed someone to introduce me to the neighborhood.”
That is no longer necessary, she asserted, though she said she welcomed the support from left-leaning luminaries like Mr. Mamdani and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez.
“He is probably better going out and motivating people that are part of his natural base,” Ms. Hochul said of the mayor. “I’ll keep doing what I’m doing. So I think it’s the cumulative effect.”
During the midterm primaries, Mr. Mamdani helped lift like-minded allies to victory. He barnstormed through New York neighborhoods like Harlem, Bushwick and Ridgewood with Assemblywoman Claire Valdez and Darializa Avila Chevalier, two fellow democratic socialists who are now heavily favored to win in November, and also appeared with them in campaign ads.
Celia Castellan, Mr. Mamdani’s campaign manager, said in a statement that the mayor would be “out on the campaign trail to mobilize New Yorkers in the run-up to this pivotal election.”
“The mayor will speak directly on what is at stake for working New Yorkers in this election: advancing the affordability agenda, delivering universal child care and keeping our immigrant neighbors safe,” she added.
Given their starkly different backgrounds and political styles, the alliance between the governor and mayor has been a surprise to many of their aides.
Ms. Hochul was one of the first prominent moderate Democrats in New York to endorse Mr. Mamdani for mayor after his primary win. (Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand made no endorsements in the race; Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, endorsed Mr. Mamdani a month after the governor.)
In the wake of Mr. Mamdani’s victory, a governing partnership began to bloom. Days after taking office, the mayor joined Ms. Hochul to announce a multibillion-dollar investment to expand child care in the city.
Weeks later, Mr. Mamdani endorsed Ms. Hochul and worked to kill off a primary challenge from Antonio Delgado, the lieutenant governor who was running to her left. (He dropped out in mid-February.)
The timing of Mr. Mamdani’s backing of Ms. Hochul, which came during negotiations over the state budget, angered many of his most ardent supporters on the left. They were frustrated and felt that Mr. Mamdani had relinquished his leverage over the governor, who firmly opposed the billions of dollars in tax increases that Mr. Mamdani had vowed to seek during his campaign last year.
She eventually announced the creation of a new tax on second homes in New York City, which Mr. Mamdani framed as a win even though it was projected to bring in far less revenue than he wanted.
So far, Ms. Hochul has been singularly focused on tying Mr. Blakeman to President Trump, spending about $4.7 million since July 1 on television spots, which mostly show the close ties between the two men, according to AdImpact, a media tracking firm.
Her campaign had about $20 million still to spend as of the last fund-raising deadline in mid-July; the state’s Democratic Party had another $22 million earmarked to help Ms. Hochul and other Democrats down ballot.
The Hochul campaign is expected to use much of its ad budget toward spots that bash Mr. Blakeman, while others will focus on her administration’s accomplishments, such as expanding free school lunches and placing a yearlong moratorium on building certain kinds of data centers.
Some of Ms. Hochul’s aides have expressed concern that with only a few House races in New York expected to be competitive, voter turnout may be lighter than expected for a midterm election. And voters’ general lack of enthusiasm for her also does not help.
In Woodside, most who encountered the governor needed little persuasion to vote for her, even if some were not particularly enthusiastic about their choice.
Justin Castillo, an avid critic of Israel and its treatment of Palestinians, said he would vote for Ms. Hochul but with some reservations.
“I’m not the biggest fan, but like over Blakeman,” he said. “I mean we can’t have no Republican.”
During their tour of Woodside, Ms. Hochul and Ms. Gonzalez-Rojas repeatedly heard from residents about their fears of harassment or deportation after raids by federal immigration agents.
It was important to remind them, Ms. Gonzalez-Rojas said, that Mr. Blakeman was an enthusiastic backer of Mr. Trump’s immigration enforcement strategy.
She added that while the governor could do more on immigration, she had made a lot of progress already.
“The other option,” she said, “is voting for a Trump figure who has fueled this ICE machine that is tearing families apart.”
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