In her white Bills bomber jacket, Gov. Kathy Hochul was in her natural habitat on Sunday as she navigated the sticky floors of Murphy’s Sports Bar in Astoria, Queens.
There was scarcely a hand she wouldn’t high-five, a wing she wouldn’t eat or a chant she wouldn’t yell as the Buffalo Bills, her favorite team, stormed to victory.
But the bigger contest lies ahead on Tuesday for Ms. Hochul, who is running for a second full term as the state’s first female governor against Bruce Blakeman, the Republican executive of Nassau County.
As the Democratic Party in another state appears to be splitting apart at the seams, Ms. Hochul sat in the bar beside two progressive icons turned surprising allies: Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Their kibitzing over wings and beers (Mr. Mamdani drank water) underscored the New York Democrats’ support for Ms. Hochul despite intense ideological fissures over taxes and Israel.
“This has never been about my political viewpoints dominating the conversation,” Ms. Hochul said, seated beside Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and Mr. Mamdani. “It’s about who are the other leaders in governing the state that I can roll up my sleeves with and get real accomplishments for New Yorkers. ”
Mr. Blakeman, who spent Sunday stumping upstate and on the North Shore of Long Island, spent parts of the week dwelling over what he viewed as the unfairness of polls that showed him trailing the governor by between 11 and 14 percentage points. He called them “voter suppression” and a “gift to Kathy Hochul.”
At the bar in Astoria, the scene at times verged on sketch comedy.
Mr. Mamdani, who appeared to have shaved his beard leaving only a mustache, wore a plastic chicken wing around his neck and told reporters that his two favorite Bills were Josh Allen, the quarterback, and Mr. Allen’s wife, the actress Hailee Steinfeld. He sidestepped questions about whether he and the governor had discussed proposing higher taxes during the next legislative session that starts January.
At one point, a Hochul aide marched through the crowded bar and placed a baby boy in the governor’s lap. He sat there for 20 minutes before his parents took him back.
Before the mayor and Ms. Ocasio-Cortez arrived, Ms. Hochul shook hands with Phil Sutherland, 34, a local public-school teacher and Bills fan. He thanked her “for the check,” an apparent reference to the $100 to $200 energy rebates that the state recently sent out to residents.
Mr. Blakeman has called these disbursements “peanuts” and an “election-year scam.” Mr. Sutherland said he appreciated the governor’s efforts to get the Bills a new stadium and her investments in universal prekindergarten.
“Of course she has my vote,” he said.
Ms. Hochul used Sunday — the final day of early voting — to traverse the city. She visited the diners of the Upper West Side and the gay bars of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, reminding voters of the election’s high stakes.
As for turnout, far more residents had cast early ballots than four years ago. Through Saturday, about 1.7 million New Yorkers had voted, including about 573,000 city residents. Those numbers were 75 percent more early voters statewide and 65 percent more in the city than four years ago.
Both campaigns are wondering whether these numbers represent changed voting habits or signal enthusiasm in a moment when Democrats believe the political environment favors them.
Some voters who plan to cast their ballots for Ms. Hochul are nonetheless agitated. At a diner on the Upper West Side, the governor met Judith Thatcher, 82, a Democrat, who told Ms. Hochul she would vote for her, but also for Saritha Komatireddy, the Republican running against Letitia James for state attorney general.
“Her entire work product has been self-promotion,” Ms. Thatcher said of Ms. James.
As for the governor, she said, “She’s done a decent job,” adding, “the guy she’s running against is a Trumper.”
At a rally in Juniper Valley Park in Queens on Saturday, Mr. Blakeman spoke to about 100 people from the neighborhood on the back of a flatbed truck.
He touched on public safety in a stump speech and covered high state taxes, the high cost of living, immigration and trans athletes. He added a broadside at Mr. Mamdani and a swipe at Ms. Hochul for a suite of statewide criminal justice reforms.
“Kathy Hochul has made you miserable with the high taxes, the high utility bills, but she’s also made you unsafe,” Mr. Blakeman said, before listing initiatives “all designed to make it easier for criminals to prey on our communities.”
“Call people who will vote the right way,” he added. “Make a list and call them and call them and call them.”
Among the rally attendees was Indira Moskowitz, a self-described registered Democrat who held a sign supporting Mr. Blakeman. She said she also backed “good Democrats” such as her City Council member, Phil Wong.
Ms. Moskowitz reeled off the issues that motivated her: a spate of violent attacks in the subway system committed by homeless people, a costly influx of undocumented migrants, a shortage of affordable housing and a congestion pricing toll that she finds obnoxious.
“I have to go to the city twice a week and I have to pay that congestion tax,” Ms. Moskowitz said, “and I think it’s unfair.”
Other issues aside, an overriding anger with Mr. Trump and his policies appeared to be animating voters across the state. The Hochul campaign has focused on tapping into that emotion and tying Mr. Trump to Mr. Blakeman, his longtime friend.
Democrats who could benefit include Cait Conley, who is challenging Representative Mike Lawler, a Republican incumbent, in a purple suburban district just outside New York City. The race is proving to be one of the closest — and most costly — House contests in the country and is considered crucial for control of the chamber.
John Luongo, 73, a retired New York City firefighter, said residents of Rockland County, in Mr. Lawler’s district, understood that the election in their backyard would have an outsize impact on the nation’s legislative makeup.
He said he supported Ms. Conley and was appalled by the actions of the Trump administration, including a proposal to cut funding for a program for 9/11 survivors, a decision that the president eventually reversed.
“This is not the America that I grew up in, and I want to go back to the America that we all grew up in,” Mr. Luongo said.
Wesley Parnell and Miles G. Cohen contributed reporting.
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