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NY Gov. Hochul’s running mate shortlist includes Brooklyn DA, state lawmaker
By
Jon Campbell
Published Nov 12, 2025
Modified Nov 13, 2025
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By
Jon Campbell
Published Nov 12, 2025
Modified Nov 13, 2025
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New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is hoping the third time’s a charm when it comes to picking a No. 2.
Hochul, a Democrat, is actively on the lookout for someone to serve as her running mate in 2026, when she’ll be asking New York voters to elect her to a second full term as their governor. Her search comes as she faces a primary challenge from her current No. 2, Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado.
In recent weeks, Hochul and her team have been scoping out potential candidates for lieutenant governor, including state Assemblymember Brian Cunningham, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez and state Dormitory Authority President & CEO Robert Rodriguez, according to four sources with knowledge of the search who weren’t authorized to speak publicly.
New York State Secretary of State Walter Mosley, a former state assemblymember whom Hochul appointed to her administration last year, is also among those receiving consideration, according to two of the sources.
The governor met with at least one of those candidates — Cunningham — over the weekend in Puerto Rico, where the New York state and city political class gathers for a see-and-be-seen conference immediately following Election Day each year.
So far, Hochul hasn’t given an indication of whom she will pick. A Hochul campaign spokesperson declined comment.
She has until the state Democratic Party’s convention in February to make a selection.
“If the governor offered me an opportunity to serve with her as her lieutenant governor, it is certainly something that I would accept,” Cunningham told Gothamist on Monday. “But ultimately, at the end of the day, it’s the governor's decision to make.”
Hochul’s search appears focused on finding someone from downstate New York that can add balance to her political ticket. Hochul is a white woman from Buffalo; the known candidates under consideration are men of color from New York City.
Cunningham, a Democrat from Flatbush, Brooklyn, is serving his first full term in the Assembly after previously serving as a state Senate and City Council aide.
Gonzalez has been the Brooklyn district attorney since 2016 after serving in lower roles in the office since the mid-1990s. He flirted with a run to succeed Attorney General Letitia James when she launched a campaign for governor in 2021. James changed course and ran for reelection instead.
Rodriguez represented Harlem in the state Assembly for a decade before Hochul appointed him state secretary of state in 2021. She then moved him to head of the state Dormitory Authority, which finances public construction projects, in 2024. Mosley is a Brooklyn Democrat who served eight years in the Assembly before he was defeated in a primary in 2020; he then succeeded Rodriguez as secretary of state.
Neither Gonzalez nor Mosley could be reached for comment. Rodriguez declined to comment.
In an interview with Gothamist, Cunningham confirmed he spoke with Hochul at the Somos conference. The meeting was first reported by NY1.
Cunningham said Hochul will have his support regardless of who she picks for lieutenant governor. He’s positioned himself as a major supporter of Hochul and her policies , and has made little secret of his desire for the lieutenant governor role.
“It’s a decision that she has to make obviously with a lot of caution, and a decision she has to make in terms of both the calculus of who can help her win her election — which I think she's going to outperform, as she always does — but also as a governing partner,” he said.
Brooklyn Democratic Chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, a state assemblymember, said it makes perfect political sense that Hochul is looking to the five boroughs for a running mate.
“That's where most of the votes come out of, especially Brooklyn,” she said. “It’s very strategic to consider someone from Brooklyn, and Brian Cunningham has name recognition, he works well with all different groups, all different ideologies, and he's certainly an ally.”
Latino leaders, meanwhile, have long urged Hochul to tap a Latino for major statewide positions, including chief judge — which she did when she nominated Hector LaSalle for the role in 2023, a pick the state Senate ultimately rejected. Both Rodriguez and Gonzalez are Latino; Cunningham and Mosley are Black.
Breaking an unlucky streak
Next year will mark the first year of a new system for electing a lieutenant governor in New York.
Previously, candidates for governor traditionally named their preferred pick for lieutenant governor prior to the primaries. But they ran in separate party primaries, with the winners linked up as a single ticket for the general election in November.
That’s no longer the case.
Following Delgado’s gubernatorial campaign launch, Hochul successfully pushed state lawmakers to change the system. Now, gubernatorial candidates will pick their own running mate ahead of the party primaries, and they’ll both appear on the same ballot line.
The governor surely hopes her next pick for lieutenant governor turns out differently than her first two picks for the job.
Her first lieutenant governor, Brian Benjamin, resigned in 2022 after he was indicted on bribery charges that were later dropped. She then appointed Delgado, a congressional representative from the Hudson Valley, to the role; the pair was elected to a full term later that year.
But Hochul and Delgado’s relationship rapidly deteriorated. Delgado launched his own bid for governor earlier this year. Hochul stripped him of much of his office space at the Capitol in Albany. The two are set to square off in next year’s Democratic primary election.
The lieutenant governor serves as first in the line of succession to the governor, as Hochul knows well: She was lieutenant governor for more than six years before she was elevated to the governor’s office in 2021 following then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s resignation. But the position’s lone constitutional responsibility beyond that is to serve as president of the state Senate, a largely ceremonial position.
As lieutenant governor, Hochul served as a messenger for Cuomo, criss-crossing the state many times over to tout his administration’s major policies and accomplishments. She kept a busy media schedule, pushing the governor’s agenda in corners of New York where Cuomo didn’t regularly venture.
Albany County Executive Dan McCoy, a Hochul ally, said the next lieutenant governor would be wise to do the same. The lieutenant governor should be the person who travels the state “with pompoms in their hand, rallying what the governor's doing and what the state's doing,” he said.
“The governor needs that partnership, and I hope she finds somebody,” McCoy said. “But it's hard, right? Because everyone has ambition. If they want to be lieutenant governor, they probably really want to be governor. You need a lieutenant governor that’s going to complement the governor and talk about her record.”
Aside from Delgado, Rep. Elise Stefanik — a Republican from northern New York — has also entered the gubernatorial race. She has not named a running mate.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, another Republican, has also been weighing a run for governor.
Includes reporting by Jimmy Vielkind.
This story has been updated.
Tagged
Kathy Hochul
governor
new york state
Jon Campbell
Jon Campbell covers the New York State Capitol for WNYC and Gothamist. Prior to that, he covered the Capitol for more than a decade for the USA TODAY Network. He has twice earned the Walter T. Brown Memorial Award, an honor given annually by the Legislative Correspondents Association alumni for outstanding state government coverage. Jon grew up in the Buffalo area and graduated from the University at Albany. Got a tip? Email Jon at [email protected] or Signal at JonCampbellNY.90.
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