Lieutenant Gov. Antonio Delgado blasted his boss and rival for next year’s Democratic gubernatorial nomination Gov. Kathy Hochul for a lack of vision when it comes to addressing New York’s largest problems, even as he praised her work ethic and insisted his primary challenge against her was nothing personal.
Delgado made his remarks at a Crain’s New York event Wednesday morning that took place barely one week after he announced he would challenge Hochul in her 2026 re-election campaign for governor. He criticized her for what he called an “outside in” style of leadership, focused on reacting to hot button issues of the moment, and for taking half measures to solve New York’s affordability crisis.

“You have to have a vision,” he said. “It’s not enough to just sort of maintain a broken status quo.”

Delgado singled out the governor’s efforts on housing as an example. He argued that her ambitious 2023 plan, which focused on requiring communities to build more homes, was launched with a lack of foresight and coalition-building that ultimately led to its collapse, while the plan that passed in 2024 was a pale imitation of those larger goals.

“We’re claiming victory, and yet we’re talking about victory when the plan is really to build 100,000 new homes,” he said. “It’s not transformational.”

Delgado had an unusual path to his role as lieutenant governor, a position he still holds despite his very public break with Hochul. The governor initially tapped former state Sen. Brian Benjamin for the role, but Benjamin was indicted on bribery charges in April 2022 and stepped down. Delgado, who was twice elected to a Hudson Valley swing district in the House of Representatives, gave up his seat in Congress to become his replacement that same year.

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