Kathy Hochul won reelection as governor of New York on Tuesday night, defeating Bruce Blakeman and extending her hold on the state's top job. Adrienne Adams was elected lieutenant governor, giving New York its first all-female statewide executive leadership team and, for the first time in state history, placing women in both of the state's top executive offices.
The result gives Hochul a second full term after first becoming New York's first female governor in 2021. She won by roughly 20 points statewide and ran up large margins in New York City, a showing that helped settle a race that had been closely watched far beyond New York as voters tracked the rest of the night on election night.
That sweep came alongside other Democratic gains that widened the picture. ABC News projected that Democrats would take control of the Senate and the House, called the U.S. Senate race in New Jersey for Cory Booker, and called the gubernatorial race in Connecticut for Ned Lamont, who was seeking his third term in office. The New York result also helped define the stakes for New York State elections 2026, with the governor's race becoming the clearest marker of how the state was shifting.
Cait Conley, an Army veteran and former national security official, defeated Rep. Mike Lawler in New York's 17th Congressional District on Tuesday night. In New Jersey's 7th District, Rebecca Bennett was projected to defeat Rep. Tom Kean Jr. After Bennett was projected ahead, Kean called to congratulate her and pledged a peaceful transition of power.
Even as the winners were being called, Westchester County election officials were still counting thousands of ballots after Election Day scanner problems. Many voters there had placed ballots in secure emergency bags rather than voting machines, and officials said the ballots remained secure and would be counted. The margin in the governor's race makes the final tally unlikely to alter the outcome, but the unfinished count left one piece of the night still moving after the rest of the map had already snapped into place.
Hochul and Adrienne Adams now take office as the first all-female statewide executive leadership team in New York history, while the unanswered question is narrower and more practical: how many Westchester ballots were delayed before the count was finished.
