New York State Maintains Its Deep Blue Hue Despite GOP Gains
The win makes Governor Hochul not only the first woman governor of New York but also the first woman elected to the position.

Democrats swept election races across New York state, winning every statewide office and a majority of district-wide offices, though by smaller margins than in previous years.
On Tuesday night, Governor Hochul declared victory over Representative Lee Zeldin in a race that turned out to be more competitive than expected several months ago.
She led the Republican by about 5 percent as of 6:15 a.m. EDT Wednesday, with 93 percent of the vote in. Recent polls had shown the two candidates within a percentage point of each other.
Mrs. Hochul narrowly avoided the fate of two past New York governors who acceded from the lieutenant governorship. Governor Malcolm Wilson, who succeeded Nelson Rockefeller after his resignation in 1973, lost the gubernatorial race just more than a year later. Martin Glynn, the state’s first Catholic governor, also lost his election bid.
The win makes Ms. Hochul not only the first woman governor of New York but also the first woman elected to the position. She became governor last year when Governor Cuomo resigned amid a flurry of sexual harassment allegations.
In the race, Ms. Hochul painted her opponent as too reactionary to represent the state of New York. She pledged to defend abortion rights while stoking fear about Mr. Zeldin’s anti-abortion record in Congress. She also attacked Mr. Zeldin for his ties to President Trump.
Mr. Zeldin, for his part, painted Ms. Hochul as soft on crime and vowed to usher in a new public safety regime.
While Ms. Hochul’s message ultimately won more votes, Mr. Zeldin’s campaign made significant headway in the blue state.
According to a map prepared by the New York Times, every single county in the state has drifted more toward the Republicans since 2020.
The margins of the races were much closer than the 2020 election, in which President Biden trounced Mr. Trump 60 percent to 36 percent — a nearly identical margin to the one that carried Mr. Cuomo to victory in the previous gubernatorial race, in 2018.
It’s the tightest race for the governorship since George Pataki’s upset win over Mario Cuomo in 1994.
In the race for attorney general, the incumbent, Letitia James, defeated her Republican challenger, Michael Henry. That race also hinged on similar principles: a Democratic antagonist of Mr. Trump vs. a tough-on-crime Republican.
Ms. James has made big waves with her high-profile investigations into Mr. Trump’s business assets and practices, as well as the sexual harassment allegations against Ms. Hochul’s former boss, Mr. Cuomo.
Mr. Henry, meanwhile, promised to tackle crime and hammered Ms. James for her support of “legislation that would make it harder for law enforcement to do their jobs” — including bail reform.
In recent weeks, Ms. James walked back her support for bail reform “We need to address a wide range of issues, including but not limited to looking at bail reform,” she told WGRZ in Buffalo last month.
In districtwide races, Republicans claimed some wins — though it was far from a sweep.
This was the first general election with New York’s new districts in place. The redistricting that had once boosted GOP hopes could not change that New York is a solidly blue state.
Democrats are on track to defend their majorities in the state legislature. As of 6:30 a.m., though, only 37 of the 63 state senate races had been called 90 of the 150 assembly races. Republicans are likely to pick up seats but it remains to be seen how many — and whether they’ll be able to disrupt the Democratic supermajority in Albany.
In New York’s 26 congressional races, 14 Democrats and at least four Republicans will be headed to Washington in January. Seven races had yet to be called early Wednesday, and in six of those seven, Republican candidates had a slight lead — so it looks as if Republicans may pick up seats across the state.
Currently, eight Republicans represent New York districts in the House of Representatives, compared to 19 Democrats. The state lost one congressional seat this past cycle.
One of the most powerful House Democrats could be saying goodbye. Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney, the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, remained neck-and-neck with the Republican challenger, Michael Lawler. The race in the newly drawn district became unexpectedly competitive over the past month.
Messrs. Lawler and Maloney both courted the large fervently Orthodox population of Rockland County. While exact numbers of Orthodox Jewish voters are unknown, Rockland County went red last night in the gubernatorial race.
With promises to enshrine abortion rights, revisit bail reform, and tackle crime, the new crop of lawmakers — and the returning incumbents — have their work cut out for them.