(CNN Spanish) — Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul will win a first full term, CNN projects, defeating Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin in what has proved to be a surprisingly tense contest in her final weeks.
Hochul’s win keeps New York Democrats on track to maintain their nearly two-decade winning streak in state elections. A Buffalo native, Hochul took office in August 2021 following the resignation of Andrew Cuomo, the three-term governor who faced impeachment over a sexual harassment scandal. Despite being her lieutenant governor, Hochul and Cuomo were never closely aligned, and she moved quickly to take office to clear him of her allies.
Hochul celebrates with his Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado after winning re-election in New York, New York, on Tuesday, Nov. 8. (Brendan McDermid/Reuters)
Already the first woman to hold the governorship of New York, Hochul will now become the first to win it in an election. Zeldin, a conservative acolyte of former President Donald Trump, has led a “law and order” campaign focused almost entirely on fears about rising crime, and a 2019 criminal justice reform bill that made it more difficult for judges keep suspects in custody. But it also drew on frustration with the state of the economy, which has been slow to recover in and around New York City after the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic, and working-class concerns about environmental initiatives such as a plan to raise tariffs for cars entering busy areas of the city.
Hochul, who in the latter part of the campaign increased his political outreach to New York City, where Democrats typically need about 70 percent of the vote to secure victory statewide, criticized Zeldin for throughout the election campaign for his anti-abortion positions and his vote in Congress against the certification of the election of President Joe Biden.
Like other blue state Republicans, Zeldin has repeatedly insisted that he had no intention of changing the abortion law in New York, where Democrats both before and after the leak of the Supreme Court opinion overturning the ruling Roe v. Wade, approved a comprehensive set of protections for abortion patients and providers.
But Zeldin undermined his promise with comments to an anti-abortion group suggesting he would appoint a like-minded state health commissioner who would have significant power to shape policy. She backed down, but in her only debate with Hochul, she also sidestepped whether she would support Planned Parenthood funding.
You can read the complete profiles of the two candidates here.
The results of the congressional elections
According to CNN projections:
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will win re-election in New York.
Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will win re-election in New York’s 14th congressional district.
Representative Elise Stefanik, the third Republican in the House of Representatives, will win her re-election in New York’s 21st district, CNN projects.
New York also elects 2022 Senators and Representatives for the House of Representatives, as well as renewing the state Congress. New Yorkers were also called to vote on an amendment to the Environmental Bond Act to “address and combat the impact of climate change and damage to the environment,” among other initiatives.
See the results of the Congress here.
With information from CNN’s Sofia Benavides.
