Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman met Tuesday night for the sole debate of their fiercely contested New York gubernatorial race. The candidates clashed over affordability, immigration, President Trump and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Hochul has maintained a steady lead over Blakeman in polling with the Nov. 3 election less than three weeks away. Still, the Nassau County executive is looking to narrow the gap, pointing to Hochul’s 6.5-point victory over Lee Zeldin four years ago as evidence that the race could tighten.
Here are the key takeaways from The Post’s panel of experts on Tuesday night’s debate. 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 looked out of practice. From her opening statement, she appeared like a deer in the headlights and remained on the defensive for most of the night.
“Following Republican Saritha Komatireddy’s impressive performance in the attorney general debate, Blakeman needed to deliver. He did, and the showing should boost his fundraising efforts and energize 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. Those are precisely the issues many viewers would have heard before tuning out.”
Worst moment for Blakeman: “He tried to keep the discussion centered 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 reinforced her central argument that Blakeman is essentially Trump.”
Worst moment for Hochul: “Again, whenever she mentioned Trump. She needed to offer more reasons for voters to support her, rather than focusing so heavily on opposition to 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 sarcastic jabs. 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. Since the union has endorsed him, the attack was predictable. He also scored points by highlighting Hochul’s position on the Cornell board while the university faces national scrutiny over how its leadership handled an alleged gang rape.”
Worst moment for Blakeman: “The statement ‘Donald Trump is my friend’ is almost certain to appear in an attack ad. Blakeman attempted to soften it by pointing out that he and Trump disagree on important issues, including abortion, but the damage had already been done.”
Best moment for Hochul: “She deftly sidestepped Blakeman’s effort to link her to Mayor Mamdani, who polls poorly outside New York City and among Jewish voters. Instead, she pointed to Jewish NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, whom Mamdani himself has declined calls from the left to remove.”
Worst moment for Hochul: “By the fifth or sixth reference to Trump — understandable given the president’s deep unpopularity in his birth state — the strategy began to support Blakeman’s criticism 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 one. He seemed trapped in a 2022 time capsule, while Hochul was addressing the political moment in front of her.”
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Best moment for Blakeman: “Hochul responded to the energy question by blaming Trump, the war in Iran and delays in federal approvals. Blakeman delivered his sharpest line of the night in response: ‘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 argued that he held major policy differences with Trump, only to cite the same two 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.”
