As Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York strode to the stage to accept the Democratic Party nomination in Syracuse on Friday, she quickly made clear who she perceived was her overarching enemy.
It was not her wayward lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado, whose bid to get an automatic spot on June’s primary ballot fell short at the Democratic convention. It was not even her likely Republican opponent, Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County executive.
Ms. Hochul said her main adversary was President Trump and his Republican cohorts who ran a “personality cult” that has allowed immigration agents to kill American citizens.
“What we’ve done in New York shows the clear difference between leaders who intimidate, subjugate and dominate, and those who wield power to actually improve people’s lives.”
“We know what this moment demands of us,” she added. “It’s asking whether we’re going to fall backward or march forward, whether to let complacency fit in, or lock arms, my friends, and fight.”
The governor’s aggressive stance toward Mr. Trump has seemed to restore her standing with voters in recent polls, and it struck a chord at the convention. Delegates cheered her on as she was showered in blue and white confetti.
Ms. Hochul wound up with 85.3 percent of the weighted vote from state committee members, cementing her role as the party’s front-runner. She also enjoys a huge fund-raising advantage, and has racked up nominations from across the state and political spectrum, from labor unions and business groups to New York City’s popular socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani.
Yet questions remain about whether Ms. Hochul’s pragmatic brand of center-left politics will be able to unite her party to meet the moment.
It was a question Ms. Hochul seemed eager to answer in her speech to delegates on Friday, which touched briefly on her accomplishments before focusing on the importance of Democratic unity to beating back the Trump administration.
“They talk about freedom, then they tell women they can’t make decisions about their own bodies,” she said, her voice husky with anger. “Who’s free?”
Her comments hinted at the historic nature of her ticket: Adrienne Adams, the former New York City Council speaker, will be her running mate, the first time two women have run for governor and lieutenant governor in New York.
The selection led to some friction earlier this week, with the Brooklyn Democratic Party issuing a scathing statement opposing the choice and rescinding its endorsement of Ms. Hochul. (By Friday, the county party and its leader, Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, reversed course, saying in a statement that they were “prepared to move forward in unity.”)
More friction emerged on Friday, when the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America blasted Ms. Hochul, saying she had “demonstrated time and again that she will only prioritize the needs of working-class New Yorkers when she is forced.” In its statement, the group all but threatened to put its army of door-knocking activists to work to push lawmakers to enact Mr. Mamdani’s agenda, should Ms. Hochul stand in their way.
But the group steered clear of backing Mr. Delgado, a former congressman from the Hudson Valley, who has been waging an uphill campaign against the centrist governor.
Before the nomination process began on Friday, Mr. Delgado argued that her opposition to measures like taxing the rich put her out of step with voters’ needs.
“What does the unification actually mean?” he asked. “What I sense from the people is they don’t quite understand what that means, and right now, the person that is projecting that message of unity hasn’t put forth any bold solutions that speak to those needs.”
Mr. Delgado spent Thursday and Friday trying to drum up energy for his candidacy, mingling with delegates late into the night on Thursday at a hotel bar.
By Friday, it was clear he had more work to do. He collected just 14 percent of the support of convention delegates, short of the 25 percent required to automatically appear on the Democratic primary ballot. Mr. Delgado will now need to collect and submit 15,000 petition signatures from registered Democrats by April 6 to qualify.
One of the handful of delegates who did back Mr. Delgado, State Senator Jabari Brisport, a D.S.A. member from Brooklyn who is close to Mr. Mamdani, alluded to the awkwardness of the mayor’s endorsement of Ms. Hochul.
“Thankfully our movement is bigger than any one decision by any individual,” Mr. Brisport said on social media. “Tax the rich.”
But Ms. Hochul has closed off many of the avenues that Mr. Delgado would have sought to use to his advantage, pulling in both ideological opponents like Mr. Mamdani, as well as those with whom she has clashed on more personal terms.
Those include Representative Tom Suozzi, who represents northern Nassau County on Long Island and had challenged Ms. Hochul for governor in 2022. He and the rest of the state Democratic congressional delegation endorsed her re-election bid on Friday.
Similarly State Senator James Skoufis, whose past critiques of Ms. Hochul may have played a role in her vetoing seven of his bills, applauded the energy and combativeness that the governor was bringing to this election.
“There is this misconception that you have to be left to be aggressive,” said Mr. Skoufis, who, like the governor, is a moderate. “She has really found a sweet spot whereby she has maintained her center-left ideology, while becoming more comfortable with being aggressive.”
Benjamin Oreskes is a reporter covering New York State politics and government for The Times.
The post Hochul Takes Aim at Trump as She Wins N.Y. Democrats’ Nomination appeared first on New York Times.
