Gov. Kathy Hochul won a second full term Tuesday, defeating Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman by roughly 20 points, ABC7 New York reported. The Associated Press called the race minutes after polls closed at 9 p.m.
Her running mate, former New York City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, will become the state's first Black woman lieutenant governor. Together they are the first all-woman ticket ever elected to lead New York.
Blakeman called Hochul to concede, CBS News reported.
"Thank you for once again putting your trust in me," Hochul told supporters at a Midtown Manhattan hotel. "I will never, ever, ever take your faith in me for granted."
Hochul spent the campaign tying Blakeman to President Donald Trump, Gothamist reported. She pointed to a ban on smartphones in schools, an expansion of free school meals and her push for wider access to child care.
In her speech, Hochul acknowledged that the win would not immediately ease the financial pressure on New Yorkers, the Long Island Press reported.
Adams led the City Council from 2022 through 2025 as its first Black speaker. At the Democratic watch party, she called standing beside Hochul "the honor of my life," the Amsterdam News reported. She takes office in January. The lieutenant governor presides over the state Senate and is first in line to succeed the governor.
Democrats held the rest of the statewide ticket. Attorney General Letitia James won a third term, and Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli was reelected.
Blakeman had hoped to become the first Republican governor since George Pataki left office in 2006. Republicans have not won a statewide race in New York since Pataki's reelection in 2002.
Hochul became governor in August 2021 after Andrew Cuomo resigned and won her first full term in 2022.