Rebecca C. Lewis

Gov. Kathy Hochul, gearing up for reelection, is ready to ‘fight like hell’ She’s taking on Trump, Stefanik, Delgado – and running the Empire State.

2026 is going to be an eventful year for Gov. Kathy Hochul, between midterm elections, own reelection, a new socialist NYC mayor, an unpredictable president and federal cuts. I sat down with her recently to chat about how she plans to tackle it all www.cityandstateny.com/personality/...

Public defender and DSA organizer challenges Ritchie Torres Dalourny Nemorin says that Rep. Ritchie Torres is focused more on his donors than serving his constituents

Rep. Ritchie Torres is getting another primary challenger in Dalourny Nemorin, a Legal Aid attorney and DSA organizer who is being propelled by Zohran Mamdani's victory www.cityandstateny.com/politics/202...

NEW: Gov. Hochul announces state agencies can once again issue SNAP benefits following USDA guidance. A recent court decision ordered the Trump administration to end the SNAP freeze that started this month. (Deleted a previous post that inaccurately said the state was paying)

Gov. Hochul tells me the approval of the NESE pipeline did not involve President Trump, despite reports of a deal around congestion pricing. "Obviously not, no. The one he really wanted was turned down," Hochul said, referring to the Constitution pipeline

New: The NY DEC has given the controversial NESE Pipeline the green light to move ahead

Spotted at Somos: leading City Council speaker candidate Crystal Hudson meeting with DC37 President Henry Garrido

Kinda did a double take at this notification

Rep. Elise Stefanik paints dire picture of NY in gubernatorial campaign launch The Republican announced her campaign for governor in a new video that heavily featured New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.

Elise Stefanik launched her campaign for governor with an attack ad-like announcement video that promised she would help NY "rise from the ashes" of Gov. Hochul's "failed policies." It led with attacks of the guv rather than introducing Stefanik www.cityandstateny.com/politics/202...

Oh, THAT'S where the joke comes from

Puerto Rican socialists: We want Zohran Mamdani!
Puerto Rican moms: We have Zohran Mamdani at home.
Zohran Mamdani at home:

Oh god, Grok is trying to revive the Independence Party 😭
(As an aside, this is a very real reason not to blindly trust AI chatbots because this is WILDLY incorrect)

A fight for the progressive soul of Western Queens Assemblywoman Aravella Simotas and DSA-backed Zohran Mamdani compete over the same platform in Astoria.

Throwback to five-and-a-half years ago, when I covered then political newbie Zohran Mamdani's first campaign for Assembly as a DSA insurgent. "Meteoric" has been used to describe many politicians' rises, but it really is true for Mamdani www.cityandstateny.com/politics/202...

In case you were busy paying attention to the mayoral election (fair), the ballot prop to move NYC elections to even years failed pretty handily

Zohran Mamdani, jubilant, takes New York More New Yorkers voted in this year’s mayoral election than in any over the past 50 years.

Zohran Mamdani has won the race for mayor, becoming the first Muslim mayor in NYC's history and the youngest in recent history. From my colleagues @anniemcdonough.bsky.social and @sahalied.bsky.social www.cityandstateny.com/politics/202...

Overheard from two different people at the Sliwa party: "Get ready for communism" and "This is going to be another Islamic city... Look at Dearborn"

Sliwa wishes Zohran Mamdani the best, but has another message too for the "mayor elect" whose name he doesn't actually say. "If you try to implement socialism... We're not only organizing, we are mobilizing and we will become the mayor elect's and his supporters worst enemies"

Curtis Sliwa arrives at his election night party, beginning his remarks by praising rhe turnout in this race. Over 2 million cast ballots, the first time in over half a century

First tranche of results, representing early voting totals and mail ins counted so far. Mamdani ended up with over 50% of the 820k cast before Election Day, which could be a good sign for his ability to break 50% overall

It's 9 p.m., polls are closed. But if you're on line, you can still make your haters your poll site coordinators at the polling place of success, so STAY ON LINE

Not campaign merch, but someone is handing out these stickers at Sliwa's party. The QR code leads to a Sticker Mule shop. In case you forgot, that's Anthony Constantino's business, the famous right wing personality who is also running for Elise Stefanik's seat. So on brand

Curtis Sliwa is giving away (?) swag at his election night party

So we're all workshopping our 9 pm "polls are closed," "if you're on line, stay on line" tweets in our drafts right?

Live blog: New York Election Day 2025 Updates from three mayoral candidates, juggernaut voter turnout, one divided city.

In case you've been at work and that work doesn't revolve 24/7 around NY politics, you can catch up on what's been happening in the elections today here! www.cityandstateny.com/politics/202...

The non-New York mind cannot comprehend fusion voting (begging a certain richest man on earth to learn just a little about it before tweeting)

Gov. Hochul was out stumping for the housing-related Props 2-5 in NYC. No thoughts on Zohran Mamdani not backing them. "There's going to be 1000 issues that come up, and I think you ought to ask the candidates how they feel about them." Says she hasn't spoken to him about them

Me at the club on Halloween: They don't know I have three new horror novels in my bag I bought before coming here, including from USA Today bestseller Chuck Tingle

Decided to take the bus directly to my building instead of walking the last few blocks when given the opportunity, but wound up stuck for 30 minutes trying to go one ave west before the driver let us off and walked it anyway. Hubris, thy name is Rebecca

New: Hochul is declaring an official "food emergency" and has announced an additional $65 million for food assistance, bringing total to $106 million dedicated in the past few days

Gov. Hochul is at a Harlem food pantry, flanked by Rev. Al Sharpton, other clergy and local lawmakers, to once again decry the planned shut off of SNAP benefits on Saturday l. "I'm looking at the whole scale of this," she says. "This is all bad."

So City & State fans, how have you been spending your day since the website is down and thus preventing you from the hours I know you spend consuming our reporting?