By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2026-06-24 21:19:29 | Updated at 2026-06-24 22:38:55
1 hour ago
She got buffaloed.
Gov. Kathy Hochul-backed candidates largely got slaughtered in Tuesday’s primaries by a murderers’ row of Democratic Socialists of America insurgents — raising questions over how much political sway she holds after selling out to Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his “tax the rich” comrades.
On primary day, Hochul was notably checked out – instead of hitting the campaign trail, she was sprawled on the grass of the new Buffalo Bills stadium, hobnobbing with the team’s billionaire owner Terry Pegula as the DSA swept.
“She controls the levers of government, the state party infrastructure, and has a proven ability to win statewide. But Mamdani has demonstrated that there is growing political value in being perceived as an outsider willing to take on the establishment,” former Democratic state Sen. David Carlucci told The Post.
The moderate Hochul — who symbolically leads the state Democratic party in New York and controls a vast and powerful fundraising network — formed a tenuous political alliance with the socialist firebrand Mamdani after his meteoric rise in last year’s mayoral election.
But Mamdani has done little-to-nothing to back Hochul’s preferred candidates. He instead endorsed a slate of DSA and progressive congressional and state legislature candidates in direct opposition to Hochul’s picks – who floundered in Tuesday’s primaries.
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Not only did high-profile Hochul endorsees such as Reps. Dan Goldman and Adriano Espaillat get cut down by Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s preferred picks, but even the candidate she endorsed — Karen Hoak — for her home Assembly district in Buffalo lost to DSA candidate Adam Bojak.
Another ally and endorsee, state Senator Jeremy Zellner (D-Erie) got rocked by WFP-backed progressive assemblyman Jon Rivera (D-Erie). Zellner anointed himself to the seat when it was vacated by now Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan.
“The pendulum is swinging so hard it has broken free from the clock,” Hudson Valley state Sen. Jim Skoufis (D-Orange) posted to X.
One Hochul pick who actually did win was state Assemblyman Micah Lasher in the crowded 12th congressional district race in Manhattan.
The governor scrambled down to Lasher’s victory party to bask in her one big W.
Only two of Hochul’s endorsees facing competitive primaries were successful — Lasher and Assemblyman Jordan Wright (D-Manhattan), who survived a DSA challenger.
As Hochul’s candidates faltered, she was able to carve out a few hours earlier in the day to party with her precious Buffalo Bills who cut the ribbon on their new stadium in Orchard Park.
But she was able to carve out a few hours earlier in the day to party with her precious Buffalo Bills who cut the ribbon on their new stadium in Orchard Park.
“Is this heaven?” Hochul’s office posted to X with a photo of her sprawled out on the new Highmark Stadium grass with Terry Pegula, the Bills owner who made billions from fracking and fossil fuels.
When asked by the DSA’s successes over establishment Dems, Hochul said Wednesday that she’d work with “everyone” to fight President Trump. She cast the vast gulf of differences within the party as a strength.
“I never said we’re united as a party,” she said. “No one has ever accused us of being fully united behind one individual, one concept. That’s okay. We speak for many voices.
“That’s the beauty of the Democratic Party, we’re not beholden to one voice of Donald Trump. We’re not all lockstep with his MAGA agenda, which is, which is crushing our economy and hurting individuals.”
Former state Sen. Diane Savino said she thinks results show the power of the DSA’s turnout operation in targeted races. She said if Hochul is re-elected she can “wait them out” and use her structural influence in Albany to stay alive.
“It’ll be a different environment,” Savnio said. “But at the end of the day, the governor still holds all the cards. She’s proven more than once that she will wait them out and she doesn’t care.”
She laughed at Hochul’s framing that she unites Democrats.
“The idea that we’re a big team and we all play under one banner is absurd. That’s never been true.”
