Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman met Tuesday night for the lone debate of their closely watched New York gubernatorial race. The candidates sparred over affordability, immigration, President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Hochul has maintained a steady lead in polling with the Nov. 3 election less than three weeks away. Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, is trying to narrow that deficit after Hochul defeated Lee Zeldin by only 6.5 percentage points four years ago.
Below, The Post’s panel of experts weighs in on the night’s biggest moments and declares who came out ahead. Their comments have been lightly edited for clarity.
O’Brien O.B. Murray, Campaign strategist
Winner: Blakeman.
“Hochul demonstrated why she has been reluctant to debate: She appeared out of practice. From her opening statement, she looked like a deer in the headlights and remained on the defensive for most of the night.
“Following Republican Saritha Komatireddy’s impressive showing in the attorney general debate, Blakeman needed to deliver. He did, and the performance should boost his fundraising while energizing his supporters.”
Best moment for Blakeman: “The opening stretch. He controlled the first 15 minutes by focusing on immigration and New York’s soaring energy costs — issues likely to resonate with viewers before some may have tuned out.”
Worst moment for Blakeman: “He tried to keep the conversation on expensive utility bills and interrupted the moderator, who was asking Hochul whether pressure from progressive allies could lead her to raise income taxes.”
Best moment for Hochul: “Whenever she brought up Trump. She was reinforcing her central argument that Blakeman is essentially a stand-in for the president.”
Worst moment for Hochul: “Again, whenever she invoked Trump. She needed to offer voters more reasons to support her rather than simply reasons to oppose Blakeman.”
Liz Benjamin, Marathon Strategies operative and ex-Spectrum News political anchor
Winner: Tie.
“Neither candidate committed a fatal mistake, but neither delivered a knockout performance, either. Both had their share of awkward moments, verbal slips and pointed one-liners. Some connected with the audience; others fell flat.”
Best moment for Blakeman: “He put Hochul on the defensive over her handling of the corrections officers’ strike. The attack was politically logical, given that the union has endorsed him. He also scored points by highlighting Hochul’s position on Cornell’s board while the university faces scrutiny over how its leadership handled an alleged gang rape that drew national attention.”
Worst moment for Blakeman: “His statement that ‘Donald Trump is my friend’ is almost certain to appear in a future attack ad. He tried to soften it by pointing to policy disagreements with Trump, including abortion, but the initial line had already done its damage.”
Best moment for Hochul: “She deftly sidestepped Blakeman’s effort to link her to Mayor Mamdani, who performs poorly in polling outside New York City and among Jewish voters. Instead, she pointed to Jewish NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, whom Mamdani himself has resisted calls from the left to remove.”
Worst moment for Hochul: “By the fifth or sixth reference to Trump — a predictable strategy given the president’s unpopularity in his home state — the repetition began to validate Blakeman’s argument that Trump is the only subject she can discuss.”
Alyssa Cass, Democratic strategist and partner at Slingshot Strategies
Winner: Hochul.
“Blakeman was making an argument that might work in a midterm election, but not necessarily in this race. He appeared trapped in a 2022 political framework, while Hochul was focused on the issues shaping the campaign now.”
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Best moment for Blakeman: “Hochul responded to the energy-cost question by blaming Trump, the war in Iran and stalled federal approvals. Blakeman answered with his sharpest line of the evening: ‘Kathy, Donald Trump didn’t raise utility rates 48 times. You did. Donald Trump didn’t increase our utility bills by 50% since you became governor … You gave $150 back to people in a rebate in an election year … when you’ve raised the average bill $4,000 a year.’”
Worst moment for Blakeman: “Whenever he stressed that he differed substantially from Trump, only to cite the same two policy issues.”
Best moment for Hochul: “She make Blakeman look really small and lame when she dismissed his endorsements with an effortless ‘You’ve got two votes, good for you.’”
Worst moment for Hochul: “She dodged whether she’d sign the bill expanding the data center moratorium, and Blakeman jumped on it: ‘You say what you want to do, and then you don’t do it.’”
Rob Ryan, Republican strategist, aide to former Gov. George Pataki
Winner: Blakeman
“Hochul’s performance was better Tuesday night than it was four years ago when she debated Lee Zeldin. For the most part she did well, though Blakeman managed her to flustered her a couple of times.
“At points, the governor showed us her snarky side with swipes at Blakeman which came off as mean-spirited. She seems to have a natural talent for looking straight at the camera while casually twisting the truth.
“Blakeman was confident and well-prepared. He did a great job at hitting Hochul on a litany of vulnerable issues, including repeatedly asking her if she was a board member at Cornell and why she hadn’t called the Gorman family after their daughter was murdered by an illegal alien.
“He definitely came off as the candidate who supports law enforcement. He knew his issues, how to couch them and how to smoothly pivot when needed.”
Best moment for Blakeman: “When he spoke about supporting law enforcement and federal and state laws.”
Worst moment for Blakeman: “The exchange about Nassau County’s auxiliary police force.”
Best moment for Hochul: “When she described the ‘special deputies’ team as Blakeman’s private militia.”
Worst Moment for Hochul: “When she was called out for squandering four years without crafting policy for AI data centers, then kicking the can down the road with a moratorium.”
Shawn Donahue, Assistant political science professor, University at Buffalo
Winner: Tie
“Both of them came prepared with their lines that they wanted to use and issues they wanted to hit on. They had their good moments and stumbles, but it doesn’t feel like this debate will be that memorable. I don’t think I can say that either person won the debate. If you came in predisposed to vote for Hochul, you probably were cheering her on, and vice versa with Blakeman.”
Best moment for Blakeman: “When he tried to separate himself from Trump by pointing out that he was pro-choice on abortion.”
Worst moment for Blakeman: “Having to defend his statements about Trump. Calling him the ‘best president of my lifetime’ probably does not go over well in New York, though he tried to couch it by saying Eisenhower actually was, but Trump still has two more years to go.
Best moment for Hochul: “When Blakeman was making several campaign promises as far as lowering costs and she came back with ‘just like Donald Trump.’”
Worst moment for Hochul: “She was caught off guard a bit by Blakeman noting she was on the Cornell board, and only belatedly recovered by saying she was just an ex officio member.”