Kathy Hochul

Kathy Hochul grew up in Buffalo as one of six children, watching her father work in a steel plant by day and pursue his education at night.¹ She and her husband, Bill, have two children and are grandparents.² Reliable childcare was an issue in her own early career: difficulty finding it contributed to her move home from Washington.³

Hochul graduated from Syracuse University and earned her law degree at Catholic University.⁴ She practiced law and worked for Representative John LaFalce and Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan before returning to western New York.⁴ Her local government experience included the Hamburg Town Board and the Erie County clerk's office.¹ She later won a 2011 congressional special election and was elected lieutenant governor in 2014.¹

Hochul became New York's first woman governor in 2021 and won a full term in 2022.²¹ Her 2025 budget legislation expanded the state child tax credit, cut middle class income taxes and funded free school breakfasts and lunches statewide.⁵ The expanded credit provides up to $1,000 for a child younger than four, with a separate maximum for older children.⁵

Her current campaign emphasizes universal childcare, affordable housing and public safety, alongside opposition to Trump administration policies.¹ She faces Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman while seeking a second full term.³ Both candidates have made the cost of living central to their campaigns, while disagreeing about the policies New York should pursue.³