Lieutenant Governor Antonio Delgado’s abrupt announcement that he will challenge Governor Kathy Hochul in next year’s Democratic primary defies all the usual rules of political timing and calculation. Normally, politicians wait for a relatively quiet news cycle to announce their campaigns in order to gain maximum public attention. Instead, Delgado is asking us to think about the 2026 primary when most of the state’s donors, strategists, party leaders, and voters are focused on hotly contested races for mayor happening less than three weeks from now in Buffalo , Syracuse , Rochester — and the main event here in New York City.

By trying to displace the same governor he ran with on a ticket, Delgado is planning a rare, exceedingly difficult maneuver that has been attempted only twi

See Full Page