During the Friday afternoon commuter rush, Mayor Zohran Mamdani greeted G train riders with a smile — and a nod to the woman standing beside him.
“This is our governor here,” Mr. Mamdani said, pointing toward Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat who is running for re-election this fall against Bruce Blakeman, the Republican chief executive of Nassau County.
Ms. Hochul and Mr. Mamdani traversed Greenpoint, Brooklyn, perhaps the epicenter of the so-called Commie Corridor, on Friday, and they joined up together again in the borough on Sunday in Crown Heights. In between, Mr. Mamdani said he cast his vote for Ms. Hochul on the Working Families Party line on Saturday.
“I always ride the train, sit down next to somebody, ask them where they are going, how their school is going,” Ms. Hochul said on the subway amid requests for selfies.
Their retail politicking reflected the durable and surprising political alliance Ms. Hochul and Mr. Mamdani have forged since he won office last year. Their appearances also underscored the key role he is now playing in her campaign, as early voting began Saturday and with the election just nine days away.
The hope for Ms. Hochul is that the mayor — whose popularity remains sky-high in these voter-rich pockets of Brooklyn — can remind his legions of younger and more progressive supporters that keeping the governor in office matters greatly to his agenda.
“The last time we spent the morning together, we were with a family that was able to enroll their child into 2-K. That is only possible because of the governor’s leadership delivering $1.2 billion in funding,” Mr. Mamdani told voters at McCarren Park, which is right on the border between Williamsburg and Greenpoint.
“We appreciate the 2K,” one onlooker told Mr. Mamdani.
Ms. Hochul’s advisers have in recent weeks expressed concern that any drop-off in enthusiasm among Mr. Mamdani’s base could dampen turnout. There are not yet indications of that taking place, based on the kickoff of early voting, which runs from Oct. 24 to Nov. 1.
About 265,000 people across the state, and 87,000 in New York City, voted early on Saturday, according to state elections officials. Both tallies were almost double the number of people who showed up on the first day of early voting four year ago, when Ms. Hochul eked out a six-percentage-point victory over her Republican opponent, Lee Zeldin.
Sam Rothschild, a 36-year-old Greenpoint resident, dropped into a local restaurant, Bernie’s, on Friday and was surprised to find the governor there. He said he supports Ms. Hochul, in part of because of her partnership with the mayor, who he said is “bringing joy back to the city.”
“I like her a lot,” said Mr. Rothschild, who works in liquor brand marketing and described himself as leaning in the democratic socialist direction. “She has a good stance on gun safety. I know there was some controversial stuff around congestion pricing, but I just think overall she’s tough.”
Recent public polling shows Ms. Hochul leading Mr. Blakeman by between 10 and 14 percentage points. The stable margin has not slowed Mr. Blakeman, who campaigned across Staten Island, Queens and Brooklyn on Saturday, hitting the same messages he has relied on throughout his campaign.
That included bashing Ms. Hochul’s alliance with Mr. Mamdani.
“Under this mayor our future is very dim unless we have a governor that will keep him in check,” Mr. Blakeman said on Saturday in the crowded backyard of a former Knights of Columbus social club in the South Brooklyn neighborhood of Dyker Heights.
Calling Ms. Hochul “the worst governor in America,” Mr. Blakeman said she has presided over a shrinking population with residents fleeing high taxes, soaring utility bills and declining economic prospects.
“People are leaving because they don’t see a future in New York,” he added.
He was joined by a group of local party figures, including the city’s only Republican member of Congress, Representative Nicole Malliotakis, who drew big cheers from the crowd when she said, “In the United States of America we will not allow a socialist takeover of our state.”
On Sunday, Ms. Malliotakis and Mr. Blakeman appeared in Yorktown alongside Representative Mike Lawler, who represents Rockland County and part of Westchester and is fighting a fiercely contested battle to hold onto his seat.
Mr. Blakeman also picked up the endorsement of The New York Post, which wrote that he “would also be a vital check on Mamdani’s extremism.” At the same time, Ms. Hochul received the backing of Newsday, the largest newspaper on Long Island; The Times-Union; and The Buffalo News.
After spending Saturday in Syracuse, Rochester and her native Buffalo where she voted early, Ms. Hochul ate on Sunday afternoon with her husband and sister at Mike’s Pizza in Brooklyn. She then joined Mr. Mamdani in a small auditorium at Medgar Evers College, which was overflowing with members of some of the city’s largest labor unions, including the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council and the Professional Staff Congress, which represents 30,000 CUNY employees.
After hearing from Mr. Mamdani, Ms. Hochul and other elected officials, the union members fanned out into nearby neighborhoods to knock on doors in support of Democrats.
Both the mayor and governor reminded the crowd that Mr. Blakeman planned to reverse their signature accomplishment of the last year: a multibillion-dollar expansion of free child care. That should be reason enough for people not to vote for him, Ms. Hochul said.
“I am in my game now. I really love campaigning,” Ms. Hochul said. “But he said that parents who use child care are lazy. He said it! How do you insult our hard-working moms and dads by saying that you’re lazy if you need child care?”
The crowd erupted in laughter when a small child in the crowd yelled “boo” in response.
“That baby gets the last word,” Ms. Hochul said.
Sean Piccoli and Eric Berger contributed reporting.
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