Troubling Times in the Empire State Governor's Race

This week, there was a flurry of news reports concerning the race for governor in New York.

In my previous column on this race, I wrote on Bruce Blakeman, 

 

the Nassau County Executive. 

 I ended the late December 2025 column with:

Blakeman needs to raise money, big time. In 2025, he did very well, but that was as the sitting County Executive who was favored to win re-election in that county. Now, he is the underdog, and Blakeman himself is not independently wealthy enough to fund his own campaign.  

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READ MORE: The New New York GOP (Likely) Nominee for Governor Has Potential, but He Needs to Start Raising Money

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

Reportedly, Blakeman has only raised $1.6 million cash in the almost four months since he announced for governor (he announced in December of 2025).  Further, records show this total is “buoyed by more than $1.1 million in transfers from the Nassau County GOP since January.” Blakeman has also “registered for the state’s public matching fund program, which could unlock up to $3.5 million for his campaign if he meets certain fundraising thresholds. But Democrats have questioned whether a paperwork snafu could keep him from qualifying for the funds.”  

Meanwhile, Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul has not 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 on hand.

Blakeman, as I described in my earlier column, had surprisingly jumped into the Republican gubernatorial race to challenge the (then) heavily-favored Republican candidate, Rep. Elise Stefanik (NY-21). This prompted Stefanik to unexpectantly 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 drive up her negatives. Then, assuming she won the nomination, Stefanik would still be the underdog in Democrat-leaning New York, facing an incumbent with far more money.   

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READ MORE: Just In: Elise Stefanik Makes Shock Announcement About Her Future

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But here is the important part – when Stefanik dropped out of the race in December of 2025, she was sitting on a campaign kitty of over $12 million, according to Axios. 

Going back to the previous race for governor, the (then) Republican nominee, Rep. Lee Zeldin of NY's 1st district, in March of 2022 had over $4.2 million in the bank. And he lost that race in the general election by six points, although doing far better than what was expected.

Let me be blunt – there is no excuse for Blakeman’s inability to raise funds for this race.  

I have worked on four statewide political races and volunteered for numerous others. During my schooling, I also attended the American University’s Campaign Management Institute, which was all about managing a political campaign. So, I can tell you with certainty that when a credible candidate announces a campaign for a significant public office, it is expected that he already has a credible plan to fundraise a credible amount to run for that office. Often, this plan is written out, with a list of names as potential donors, and a short biography of them that leads to a suggested amount for the donations. When the candidate gets into the race, all he then has to do is to implement that plan.

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

Bruce Blakeman should have done the same. However, either he didn’t bother planning 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 this inexcusable is that he is a County Executive, which is a prominent elected position in the state, so he knew what was expected of him. Regardless, he still jumped into a race without the ability to raise the necessary funding, and then he pushed out another candidate who already had shown the ability to raise that money.

My good buddy Cameron, who is a major Elise Stefanik fan, was very upset when this happened. And considering what has since occurred, I can’t blame him.  

So now, the GOP finds itself in a deep hole, facing a governor who can swamp the Republican Party's effort with her own millions. 

What’s sad here is that there is a major opening to oust Gov. Hochul in the Empire State. Blakeman’s own polling – which he just released to spark his own fundraising – demonstrates that Hochul is not a solid re-election bet.  Even the public polling that has Hochul more firmly ahead still has her only barely winning a majority of the vote, and that is against a candidate who is largely unknown across the state. This is because Hochul is an arch leftist, without charisma, who has totally mismanaged the Empire State, as my RedState colleague Sister Toldjah recently reported.  And the Democrat incumbent faces the added weakness of NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who needs her to implement his big spending plans, meaning she either assists him to 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?