Hochul Wins, Zeldin Leads in New York Gubernatorial Primaries

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who as lieutenant governor assumed office in Albany last August when Andrew Cuomo was forced to resign amid scandal, is one step closer to being the first woman ever elected as chief executive of the Empire State.

The Buffalo native defeated moderate Long Island Congressional Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) and Brooklyn progressive Jumaane Williams in New York’s June 28 Democratic primary to earn the party’s gubernatorial berth in fall’s general election,

Hochul will face the winner of the Republican primary in November. Four-term Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) was in the lead as of 9:49 p.m. ET on Tuesday, but the race was still too early to call.

The June 28 primary was only for statewide offices and state assembly races, essentially serving as New York Primary Day Part 1. Primaries for the state’s 27 congressional districts and 63 state senate districts, will be staged on Aug. 23.

A May court ruling that threw out and refashioned the new post-2020 Census political maps drawn by the Democrat-controlled State Assembly fostered the delay of congressional and state senate elections to August.

In March, there were 11.9 million registered voters in New York, down from 12.4 million in 2020, with 5.93 million or 49.8 percent registered as Democrats. There were 2.65 million registered as Republicans, less than half those registered as Democrats, with more than 3 million unaffiliated voters not registered with any party. Only voters registered with a party can participate in the state’s closed primaries.

New Yorkers haven’t elected a Republican to statewide office since George Pataki’s second re-election in 2002 and have never elected a woman to serve as governor.

Before being selected by Cuomo as his 2014 running mate, Hochul served between 2011 and 2013 as New York’s 26th congressional district representative, the first

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