Delgado Drops Primary Challenge to Hochul for NY Governor

New York Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado dropped out of the 2026 New York gubernatorial election on Feb. 10, leaving Gov. Kathy Hochul without a challenger in the Democratic primary.

Delgado said he had no viable path forward to winning the primary election amid Hochul’s lead in fundraising, polling, and endorsements. At the recent New York State Democratic Convention, Delgado received just 14.7 percent of support from delegates, falling below the amount necessary to appear automatically on the primary ballot.

Delgado’s decision means that Hochul—who currently leads the Democratic primary—is likely to win reelection as governor of New York, given the state’s heavy Democratic lean.

“I continue to serve the people of New York as Lieutenant Governor,” Delgado wrote in his statement. Delgado’s term will expire on Dec. 31, 2026.

Delgado had announced on Feb. 24, 2025, that he would not seek reelection to a second four-year term as lieutenant governor, breaking with Hochul, who chose him as her running mate in the 2022 election. He announced on June 4 that he would run for governor and proposed a progressive platform while frequently criticizing Hochul’s policies.

“Hochul approved a Trump-backed pipeline, sided with billionaires over working families, stalled climate rules, vetoed childcare expansion, and let ICE run wild,” Delgado said in a social media post last month.

Hochul’s office has criticized Delgado in turn. “[H]e is simply not interested in doing the job of the Lieutenant Governor of the State of New York,” Anthony Hogrebe, Hochul’s director of communications, said in a statement on Feb. 24.

“We will also be reallocating responsibilities within the administration to ensure that important initiatives that had been within the Lieutenant Governor’s office are no longer neglected,” Hogrebe added.

Hochul and Delgado also diverged on election endorsements. In the 2024 presidential election, Delgado called for President Joe Biden to withdraw from the race, while Hochul remained a supporter of Biden until his eventual withdrawal.

In 2025, Delgado demanded that New York City’s then-Mayor Eric Adams resign from office after he was indicted on since-dismissed felony charges. A spokesperson for Hochul, who as governor had the power to remove Adams from office, rebuked Delgado for those remarks.

Hochul announced on Feb. 4 that her running mate would be former New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams. The Hochul–Adams ticket has been endorsed by many state political leaders, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

“The governor and I do not agree on everything,” Mamdani said in his endorsement message. “We must be able to disagree honestly while still delivering for the people we serve. Over the past six months, Governor Hochul and I have done exactly that.”

Delgado’s platform called for taxing the wealthy and corporations, limiting residential rent increases, creating a single-payer public health care system, and passing state laws to inhibit arrests and removal operations by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He was endorsed by a handful of progressive organizations, including Third Act New York and New York Communities for Change.

The primary contest in the race will be on June 23. For the Republican nomination, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman is currently the frontrunner after Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) dropped out of the race.