Kathy Hochul
Hochul is defending New York's ICE cooperation ban, climate superfund law, and pied-à-terre tax against federal and legal challenges while running for re-election with a 10-point poll lead and $20M war chest over Republican Bruce Blakeman. She accused the Trump administration of "defunding the police" by withholding $87M in counterterrorism funding and is pushing back on federal immigration raids.
Kathy Hochul is governing and campaigning simultaneously, running for a second full term with a 10-point Siena poll lead and a $20 million war chest while waging a multi-front defense of New York policy against the Trump administration and legal challenges from sheriffs, gun-rights groups, and fossil fuel interests.
Her sharpest current fight is over counterterrorism funding. After a monthlong federal immigration enforcement push arrested 2,197 people in New York, Hochul accused the administration of withholding $87 million in counterterrorism money, calling it "defunding the police" and a betrayal of 9/11 families. She rejected DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin's claim that all arrestees were dangerous criminals, saying there is no way that number constitutes people who committed crimes as commonly understood.
She is also defending her Local Cops, Local Crimes Act, which bans local police-ICE cooperation agreements and took effect August 25. Fifteen county sheriffs sued to overturn it; her administration countersued Rensselaer County Sheriff Kyle Bourgault to force compliance. She and AG Letitia James are jointly defending the law.
A federal judge blocked her $75 billion Climate Change Superfund Act, ruling it preempted by the Clean Air Act and foreign affairs doctrine. Her office is reviewing the decision. She signed the pied-à-terre tax on luxury second homes to raise roughly $500 million but publicly criticized NYC's rollout of the notices. Trump vowed to eliminate the tax, though legal experts say the Tax Injunction Act likely blocks federal action.
On immigration, she announced $7.25 million for legal aid to roughly 1,400 unaccompanied immigrant children after the federal contract lapsed. She is lobbying Trump directly to extend Temporary Protected Status for Salvadoran and Haitian immigrants and has warned that ICE agents might intimidate voters in November.
Her Republican challenger, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, is attacking her on immigration enforcement and crypto regulation, pledging to repeal the BitLicense framework. Rep. Mike Lawler is also hitting her, saying she responds to polls rather than leading.
With Mayor Zohran Mamdani, she is aligned on housing, childcare, and transit and jointly confronted the administration over the funding cut. But she publicly pressed him to focus on city governance rather than international rhetoric on Gaza, warning his rhetoric could raise tensions for Jewish New Yorkers. Her data center moratorium faces pressure from State Senator Kristen Gonzalez to go further, and she launched a tourism campaign offering discounts to Canadian visitors after a 26 percent drop in cross-border travel.
On their plate
Hochul accused the Trump administration of withholding $87 million in counterterrorism funding after a monthlong federal immigration enforcement push arrested 2,197 people in New York. She called it "defunding the police" and a betrayal of 9/11 families, and pushed back on DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin's claim that all arrestees were dangerous criminals.
Hochul signed the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act banning local police-ICE 287(g) agreements, effective August 25, and warned non-compliant agencies will face legal action. Fifteen county sheriffs sued to overturn it; her administration countersued Rensselaer County Sheriff Kyle Bourgault to force compliance. She and AG Letitia James are jointly defending the law.
A federal judge blocked New York's $75 billion Climate Change Superfund Act, a 2024 law Hochul signed to collect $3 billion annually from fossil fuel companies, ruling it preempted by the Clean Air Act and foreign affairs doctrine. Her office is reviewing the decision for next steps.
Hochul is campaigning for a second full term with a 10-point Siena poll lead and $20 million war chest over Republican Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County executive. She centers her pitch on public safety and family policies; Blakeman is attacking her from the right on immigration enforcement and crypto regulation, pledging to repeal the BitLicense framework.
Hochul signed the pied-à-terre tax on 11,200–13,000 second homes valued at $5 million or more to raise roughly $500 million. She publicly criticized NYC's rollout of the tax notices, saying she "wasn't a fan of the rollout." Trump vowed to eliminate the tax, though legal experts say the Tax Injunction Act likely blocks federal nullification.
Hochul announced $7.25 million for legal services for roughly 1,400 unaccompanied immigrant children facing deportation after the Trump administration let the federal contract expire July 31. She called the refusal to renew "nothing less than a deportation order for children as young as five years old."
Hochul's one-year moratorium on large-scale AI data centers, signed in July, is part of a bipartisan backlash blocking or delaying at least 75 projects worth $130 billion nationally. State Senator Kristen Gonzalez is now pressuring her to sign the Responsible Data Center Development Act, which would lower the threshold from 50MW to 20MW.
Key relationships
Blakeman, the Nassau County Executive, is Hochul's 2026 Republican opponent for governor. He terminated his county's ICE partnership under state pressure but directed his acting sheriff to join the federal lawsuit challenging the ban's constitutionality. He is also attacking her on crypto, pledging to repeal the BitLicense framework.
Hochul and Mayor Mamdani jointly confronted the Trump administration over the $87M counterterrorism funding cut and together announced immigrant children's legal aid funding. They remain aligned on housing, childcare, and transportation. But Hochul also publicly criticized NYC's pied-à-terre tax rollout and urged Mamdani to focus on city governance rather than international rhetoric on Gaza.
Hochul and AG Letitia James are jointly defending the ICE cooperation ban against sheriffs' lawsuits and dismissing the suits as frivolous. They also appeared together on the immigrant children's legal aid funding announcement.
State Senator Kristen Gonzalez is urging Hochul to sign the Responsible Data Center Development Act, which would expand her executive moratorium by lowering the threshold from 50MW to 20MW and applying it to existing centers.
Hochul's administration countersued Rensselaer County Sheriff Kyle Bourgault, the last holdout among 12 ICE cooperation agreements, to force compliance with the Local Cops, Local Crimes Act.
Rep. Mike Lawler is directly attacking Hochul, saying New York leads the nation in "all the wrong categories" and that she responds to polls rather than leading. He also defended federal Essential Plan cuts that stripped 400,000 New Yorkers of coverage.
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