Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York Democratic leaders have promised $5 million and significant campaign infrastructure to seven U.S. House candidates in tight races that could determine control of Congress.
After a disastrous 2022 cycle — and years of party infighting — Hochul has spent 2024 trying to improve Democrats’ chances in key House races.
“Building upon the incredibly strong foundation of our coordinated campaign, I’m also committed to rebuilding Party infrastructure to ensure a Democratic future in our state for years to come,” she said in a statement.
Hochul, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said the plan will focus on two districts that are now represented by Democrats — the 3rd and 18th — and five by Republicans, the 1st, 4th, 17th, 19th and 22nd.
The 4th, 17th and 19th districts all flipped in the 2022 election cycle, part of a statewide Republican push that gave the GOP 11 New York House seats — their most since 2000. That GOP success came despite six of the seven current toss-up districts preferring Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, some by double-digit margins.
Republicans narrowly took the House nationwide, and then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi blamed Hochul for the Democratic capitulation.
In an attempt to reverse those results, Hochul announced $5 million in funding, 35 field offices and 80 on-the-ground staff across the seven districts.
“I am immensely proud of this unprecedented coordinated campaign, which will play an enormous role in taking back the House and electing Democrats up and down the ballot,” Gillibrand said in a statement.
Though New York has long been a solidly Democratic state, the party’s campaigns have rarely been well-coordinated statewide. In 2018, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo promised a unified effort, but ultimately failed to deliver.
In the newest cycle, Hochul said the $5 million had already been raised and 65 of the promised 80 staffers were already hired.
“Throughout this campaign cycle, the New York State Democratic Party’s coordinated campaign has achieved extraordinary success,” Jeffries said, focusing on Rep. Tom Suozzi’s defeat of Mazi Melesa Pilip in the 3rd District after George Santos was expelled from Congress.
Though Hochul hopes her presence and support in the campaign will boost Democrats, Republicans have previously argued they’ll be the ones who benefit. An advisor to Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, told Politico in March Hochul would be “starring in Republican ads across the state” due to her mediocre polling numbers.
Nonpartisan analysts at Cook Political Report consider three of the districts — the 4th, 17th and 19th — to be toss-ups, with the 1st as likely Republican and the 3rd as likely Democratic. The 18th and 22nd districts are expected to lean Democratic.
Hochul hopes the coordinated campaign effort could move some of those numbers leftward.
“As someone who has run for office at every level of government, I know firsthand that resources and support can make or break a campaign,” she said.