The 2022 New York gubernatorial election took place on November 8, 2022 to elect the governor and lieutenant governor of New York.
In August 2021, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul ascended to the governorship after Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned in the wake of allegations of sexual harassment. A Democrat, Hochul sought a full term as governor in 2022 and defeated Jumaane Williams and Tom Suozzi in the June 28, 2022 Democratic primary. Antonio DelgadoâÂÂwho had been appointed lieutenant governor by Hochul earlier in 2022 to fill a vacancyâÂÂdefeated Ana Maria Archila and Diana Reyna in the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor.
Lee Zeldin ran as the Republican nominee, having defeated Rob Astorino, Andrew Giuliani, and Harry Wilson in the Republican primary. Zeldin selected Alison Esposito, an NYPD officer, as his running mate. Esposito won unopposed in the primary for lieutenant governor, becoming the first openly gay major party nominee for statewide office in New York. This election was the first New York gubernatorial election in over 80 years not to feature any third-party candidates, although the Working Families Party endorsed Hochul and the Conservative Party endorsed Zeldin.
On Election Day, Hochul won a full term in office defeating Zeldin by a margin of 53.1%-46.7% and becoming the first woman to be elected governor of New York. This was New York's closest gubernatorial election since 1994.
In August 2021, after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his resignation, then-Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul announced that she would run for governor in 2022. Hochul was sworn in as governor of New York on August 24, 2021. Hochul was elected to the position of lieutenant governor in 2014, and was re-elected in 2018; in both elections, she was Cuomo's running mate.
New York Attorney General Letitia James garnered attention for releasing a report on her office's investigation into alleged sexual harassment by Cuomo; the release of this report helped lead to Cuomo's resignation in August 2021. James announced her gubernatorial campaign in October 2021 and was considered a formidable challenger to Hochul.
On November 12, 2021, Newsday reported that Hochul had raised $10 million in campaign donations since taking office as governor. On November 16, 2021, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, described by CNN as "a progressive favorite from Brooklyn", announced his 2022 gubernatorial bid. Williams had run for lieutenant governor against Hochul in 2018, losing a close race. On November 29, 2021, U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi of Long Island announced that he was running for governor. According to The New York Times, Suozzi was known as a "vocal centrist" and announced an intent to bill himself as a "'common-sense Democrat'". Suozzi was considered to have the potential to siphon votes away from Hochul.
In early December, James withdrew her gubernatorial candidacy and chose to seek re-election as attorney general instead. James' withdrawal from the race was seen as a positive development for Hochul, as James had been considered the second-strongest candidate in the race. The exit of James boosted the campaign of Williams, who became the only major candidate from New York City and the clear choice for the left wing of the Democratic Party.
On February 17, 2022, at the New York State Democratic Convention, Hochul was selected as the preferred Democratic candidate for governor of New York in 2022. At the convention, Hochul received 85.6% of the weighted vote, while Williams received 12.5%. Neither Williams nor Suozzi received sufficient support to obtain automatic ballot access and force a primary election; however, both candidates later gathered sufficient signatures to qualify for the Democratic primary ballot.
On June 28, 2022, Hochul won the Democratic gubernatorial primary with 67.6% of the vote, defeating Williams (19.4%) and Suozzi (13.0%).
On April 12, 2022, incumbent lieutenant governor Brian Benjamin resigned from office after being arrested for campaign finance violations. On May 3, 2022, Hochul announced her intent to appoint Representative Antonio Delgado to the position of lieutenant governor. He was sworn in on May 25. Delgado ran for lieutenant governor in the June 2022 primary, winning by a large margin.
In June 2020, Lewis County sheriff Mike Carpinelli became the first Republican to enter the race. He was the only announced challenger until Long Island congressman Lee Zeldin announced his own campaign in April 2021. By the end of April, Zeldin had announced that the Republican Party chairs of Erie County and Niagara County had endorsed his campaign, giving him the necessary 50% of state committee support to gain the Republican nomination. Trump administration official Andrew Giuliani and 2014 New York gubernatorial nominee Rob Astorino made campaign announcements the following month. Contractor and podcast host Derrick Gibson also entered the race.
In June 2021, Zeldin was named the presumed nominee of the New York's Republican Party by state chairman Nick Langworthy after he earned 85 percent of a straw poll vote of county leaders, and was also called the presumptive nominee of the Conservative Party by Conservative state chairman Gerard Kassar. As of February 2022, Zeldin had received the endorsements of 59 of New York's 62 county Republican committees.
In February 2022, shortly before the Republican convention, businessman Harry Wilson announced his candidacy for governor of New York. Wilson stated that he intended to invest $12 million of his own money in the race.
At the Republican convention in Nassau County, Zeldin received 85 percent support from the party's voting committee members, with Astorino and Wilson each receiving 7 percent of the vote and Giuliani receiving less than one percent.
On June 28, 2022, the primary election was held. Zeldin prevailed, receiving the most votes in 48 of New York's 62 counties and earning 76% of the vote in his native Suffolk County. Zeldin received 43.6% of the vote, defeating Giuliani (22.9%), Astorino (18.7%), and Wilson (14.8%).
Zeldin selected Alison Esposito, an NYPD officer, as his running mate, and she won unopposed in the primary. Esposito is the first openly gay major party nominee for statewide office in New York.
At the 2022 Conservative Party convention, the party endorsed Congressman Lee Zeldin for governor and NYPD deputy inspector Alison Esposito for lieutenant governor.
On February 8, 2022, the Working Families Party endorsed New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams for the governorship. On February 28, 2022, the party announced that its preferred candidate for lieutenant governor was activist Ana Maria Archila.
Following Hochul and Delgado's respective wins in the Democratic gubernatorial and lieutenant gubernatorial primary, the party filed to put the two Democratic nominees on the Working Families ballot line.
In an unprecedented decision, the New York State Board of Elections rejected all petitions for non-qualified party ballot access in July 2022. Among the parties who submitted rejected petitions:
On February 16, 2022, Larry Sharpe, the Libertarian Party's candidate for governor of New York in 2018, officially announced his campaign to run for governor of New York on Kennedy. He received his party's nomination at the convention in Albany on February 19, 2022. In July 2022, the New York State Board of Elections disqualified Sharpe for not meeting the qualifications for ballot access.
On April 25, 2022, Howie Hawkins, who had run for numerous elected offices including Governor of New York, launched his campaign. In July 2022, the New York State Board of Elections disqualified Hawkins for not meeting the qualifications for ballot access.
Aggregate polls<br />
Kathy Hochul vs. Rob Astorino<br />
Kathy Hochul vs. Andrew Giuliani<br />
Kathy Hochul vs. Harry Wilson<br />
Tom Suozzi vs. Harry Wilson<br />
Tom Suozzi vs. Lee Zeldin<br />
Jumaane Williams vs. Rob Astorino<br />
Jumaane Williams vs. Andrew Giuliani<br />
Jumaane Williams vs. Harry Wilson<br />
Jumaane Williams vs. Lee Zeldin<br />
Andrew Cuomo vs. Rob Astorino<br />
Andrew Cuomo vs. Elise Stefanik<br />
Andrew Cuomo vs. Lee Zeldin<br />
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez vs. Elise Stefanik<br />
Andrew Cuomo vs. generic Republican<br />
Letitia James vs. generic Republican<br />
Generic Democrat vs. generic Republican<br />
Generic Democrat vs. generic Republican with Andrew Cuomo as an independent<br />
Kathy Hochul vs. generic opponent<br />
Antonio Delgado vs. Alison Esposito<br />
Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic
Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican
Hochul won 42 of 51 city council districts, while Zeldin won 9 of 51 city council districts, including three held by Democrats.
Hochul won 14 of 26 congressional districts, with the remaining 12 going to Zeldin, including one that elected a Democrat.
In 2022, New York was a solidly Democratic state where Republicans had not won a statewide election since the 2002 election for governor of New York. The main focus of the election was crime. Zeldin accused Hochul of being weak on crime, promising to declare a statewide crime emergency and to repeal cashless bail, while Hochul attacked him for his ties to former president Donald Trump and to the anti-abortion movement.
In October, the Associated Press stated that Zeldin's focus on crime was persuasive and was making the race closer; however, Hochul was still favored to prevail. Hochul's campaign ramped up in the final weeks in an effort to prevent an upset loss. She pivoted her messaging to focus more on crime. She also reached out to the Working Families Party and campaigned with Democrats such as Hillary Clinton.
On Election Day, Hochul won a full term in office, defeating Zeldin by a margin of 53.1%âÂÂ46.7% and becoming the first woman elected to the state's governorship. The election was New York's closest gubernatorial election since 1994, and the closest Democratic win since 1982. Hochul was criticized for prevailing "by single digits and only after some of the biggest names in the Democratic Party traveled to New York in the election's final days to help her". Former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi blamed Hochul's lack of coattails for Democrats' poor showing in U.S. House races in New York in 2022 and, by extension, for contributing to the Democrats' loss of control of the U.S. House of Representatives. Specifically, Pelosi said that Hochul "'didn't realize soon enough where the trouble was'". Hochul disagreed with this criticism, stating that "'no governor in the history of the state of New York has worked harder to elect members of Congress'" than she had.
Despite his loss, Zeldin's performance helped Republicans to flip four congressional seats in New York, contributing to the GOP's majority in the House of Representatives. Due to his overperformance, Zeldin was considered to be a potential challenger to Ronna McDaniel as chair of the Republican National Committee; however, he later declined to challenge McDaniel.
This election was the first New York gubernatorial election in over 80 years not to feature any third-party candidates, although the Working Families Party endorsed Hochul and the Conservative Party endorsed Zeldin.
Hochul won the city of New York with 69.8% to 30.2%, the latter being the highest vote percentage for a Republican since 2002. Zeldin carried voters outside New York City by a 54.1âÂÂ45.9% margin and carried Upstate New York by a 54.6%âÂÂ45.4% margin. Zeldin received the most votes for a Republican since 1970. Exit polls from Fox News Voter Analysis showed that Zeldin won White voters (54%âÂÂ46%), while Hochul won African Americans (82%âÂÂ17%), Latinos (64%âÂÂ35%) (including Puerto Rican Americans (66%âÂÂ33%)), and other minorities (58%âÂÂ41%).
Partisan clients<br />
Official campaign websites