Troubling Times in the Empire State Governor’s Race – RedState

This week there have been a lot of news stories surrounding the New York gubernatorial race.

In my previous column about this race, I wrote about Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman. I finished the column at the end of December 2025 with:

Blakeman needs to fundraise big. In 2025, he did very well, but that was as a sitting county executive who was favored for re-election in that county. Now he’s the underdog, and Blakeman himself isn’t wealthy enough to finance his own campaign.

READ MORE: New York’s (likely) GOP candidate for governor has potential, but he needs to start raising money

Well, guess what? So far, Bruce Blakeman hasn’t raised the money he needs to win.

Reportedly, Blakeman has only raised $1.6 million in cash in the four months since he was announced as governor (he announced in December 2025). Additionally, records show that total is “supported by more than $1.1 million in transfers from the Nassau County GOP since January.” Blakeman also “enrolled in the state’s public matching funds program, which could unlock up to $3.5 million for his campaign if he meets certain fundraising thresholds. But Democrats are wondering if a paperwork issue could prevent him from qualifying for the funds.”

Meanwhile, Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul hasn’t released her latest numbers, but she has $20.2 million in her campaign account, while the New York State Democratic Committee has another $13 million.

Blakeman, as I described in my previous article, had surprisingly entered the Republican gubernatorial race to challenge the (then) heavily favored Republican nominee, Rep. Elise Stefanik (NY-21). This prompted Stefanik to unexpectedly drop out of the race. Stefanik did so primarily because she now faced a potentially tough primary race, which, although she would be favored to win, would certainly bleed her campaign war chest and increase her negative results. Then, assuming she wins the nomination, Stefanik would still be the underdog in a Democratic-leaning New York, facing an incumbent with far more money.

READ MORE: Just In: Elise Stefanik makes a shock announcement about her future

But here’s the important part: When Stefanik dropped out of the race in December 2025, she had a campaign kitty of more than $12 million, according to Axios.

Returning to the previous gubernatorial race, the (then) Republican candidate, Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York’s 1st District, as of March 2022 had more than $4.2 million in the bank. And he lost that general election race by six points, even though he did much better than expected.

Let me be frank: There is no excuse for Blakeman’s inability to raise money for this race.

I have worked on four statewide political races and volunteered for many others. During my studies, I also attended the Campaign Management Institute at American University, which focused on managing a political campaign. So, I can tell you with certainty that when a credible candidate announces a campaign for major public office, they are expected to already have a credible plan to raise a credible amount to run for that office. Often, this plan is written, with a list of names of potential donors and a short biography of them that leads to a suggested amount for donations. When the candidate enters the race, all that remains is to implement this plan.

In 1996, when I attended the Campaign Management Institute, my three teammates and I – you all know one of my teammates, this guy – had to write a comprehensive campaign plan, with a section detailing our planned fundraising.

Bruce Blakeman should have done the same. However, either he didn’t bother to plan to raise the money, or he had a plan, but it wasn’t a credible plan that could actually raise that money. And what makes that inexcusable is that he’s a county executive, which is an important elected position in the state, so he knew what was expected of him. Regardless, he still entered a race without the ability to raise the necessary funds, and then eliminated another candidate who had already shown the ability to raise those funds.

My good friend Cameron, who is a huge fan of Elise Stefanik, was very upset when this happened. And given what’s happened since then, I can’t blame him.

So now the Republican Party finds itself in a deep hole, facing a governor who can overwhelm the Republican Party’s efforts with his own millions.

The sad thing here is that there is a major opening to oust Governor Hochul in the Empire State. Blakeman’s own poll — which he just released to spark his own fundraising — demonstrates that Hochul is not a solid bet for re-election. Even the public poll that gives Hochul a firmer lead has him barely winning a majority of the vote, and that against a candidate who is largely unknown statewide. Indeed, Hochul is an uncharismatic left-wing extremist who has completely mismanaged the Empire State, as my RedState colleague Sister Toldjah recently reported. And the outgoing Domocrat president faces the added weakness of New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who needs her to implement his big spending plans, which means she either helps him raise taxes or refuses to do so and antagonizes him and his fellow communist Democrats.

It would be nice if the GOP had a candidate who could take advantage of these weaknesses, wouldn’t it?

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