Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
WATCH: When it comes to the issues facing New York, 'it's personal' to Gov. Hochul
By
Jon Campbell
Published Oct 6, 2023
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
By
Jon Campbell
Published Oct 6, 2023
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
On MSNBC’s "Morning Joe" last month, a panelist asked New York Gov. Kathy Hochul how schools will handle the wave of migrants coming to New York City with their children.
“I’m a mother,” Hochul said. “This is personal to me.”
The same was true when she cut the ribbon on a childcare facility on Long Island in August.
“This is personal to me as a brand new governor,” the Democratic governor said.
And in July, when Hochul announced a new round of funding for grants to spruce up downtown areas in upstate cities?
“I cut my teeth and ran for office in one of those communities that we always felt were overlooked,” she said. “So this is personal to me."
As New York's first female governor and the first to hail from outside the New York City metropolitan area in a century, Hochul’s background is unique compared to any other governor in the history of the Empire State.
Hochul, a former lieutenant governor, was thrust into the governor’s mansion two years ago after her predecessor Andrew Cuomo resigned following allegations of sexual harassment. Cuomo denies the accusations.
The Buffalo native, who previously served for a single term in the House, found herself having to introduce herself to New Yorkers who were largely unfamiliar with her, according to political observers, particularly in New York City and its surrounding suburbs.
“I think she's still, in many ways, introducing herself to New Yorkers,” said Christina Greer, a political science professor at Fordham University. “It's not like she's from a family like the Cuomos. She didn't have a very large media profile, even though she was a member of Congress and worked for [former Sen.] Daniel Patrick Moynihan.”
“She's had a very storied career in public service, but most people didn't know her when she was appointed governor,” Greer added.
Like any skilled politician, Hochul frequently makes a point of highlighting her lived experience as a way of trying to connect with a crowd.
Since she took office, Hochul has sprinkled variations of that phrase – “This is personal to me” – into her speeches more than two dozen times, according to Gothamist’s review of transcripts of public remarks distributed by her office.
The phrase is often accompanied by an anecdote drawing from her experiences as a working mother or growing up in the Buffalo area — like when she was discussing a boost in environmental funding during a speech to Long Island business leaders in January 2022.
“This is personal to me,” she said. “I grew up near a steel plant. I saw what happened when Bethlehem Steel, where my dad and grandpa worked — they were good paying jobs, but you could see the orange clouds. I didn't know that the sky was supposed to be blue.”
In a statement, Hochul spokesperson Avi Small said Hochul’s work is “directly informed by her personal experiences” – including being the first New York governor who is a mother and grandmother, as well as a former member of Congress and a county clerk.
“New Yorkers know Gov. Hochul is one of them, and she’ll continue sharing her story with them every chance she gets,” he said.
Sarada Peri, a former speechwriter for President Barack Obama who is now a communications consultant, said that drawing on personal experience is a way for leaders to talk about policy without making peoples’ “eyes glaze over.”
"Ultimately, when you're talking about policies and programs, what you're talking about is people,” Peri said. “And maybe you are, as a leader or as the person speaking, one of those people. That can absolutely give you some credibility."
When touting her efforts to boost state childcare funding, Hochul tells the story of being a young working mother who was forced to leave a job she loved — working for Moynihan — because she couldn’t find reliable childcare options.
“All of a sudden, we couldn't find childcare when our baby Billy came along,” Hochul said in July. “So all of a sudden, I'm now out of the workforce, and we went from (a) modest (income) down to zero. So, it was tough. I remember praying for the day … when we don't have to spend most of our salary on diapers and formula, we're going to feel rich.”
“So this is personal to me,” she said.
Other times, it’s more lighthearted, like when Hochul noted she was a “baseball mom" and "a baseball fan” when she cut the ribbon on the renovated Doubleday Field, a small stadium in downtown Cooperstown, the disputed birthplace of baseball.
“This is where it all began,” she said. “So this is personal to me.”
This was also the case when she made note of her frequent travels across the state when she set aside $1 billion in the budget to fix potholes earlier this year.
“I have had a personal encounter with every single pothole,” she said in February. “I said, ‘I'm declaring war on them when I become governor.’ And we did. And we did. And so, this is personal to me.”
At a Democratic political rally in September 2018, Hochul, who was then the lieutenant governor, referenced the recent arrest of one of her foremost political foes: Rep. Chris Collins, who narrowly knocked her out of Congress during the 2012 elections.
“He’s going to jail, he’s not going back to Congress,” Hochul said at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel. “How about that for revenge? Just saying. It’s a little personal with me, OK?”
She continued: “I’ll get over that someday.”
Peri said dispensing personal anecdotes can come with some risk of overuse. Since women leaders are often held to a higher standard than their male counterparts, it makes threading the needle all the more difficult, she said.
“In some ways, I think a female leader has to balance the personal with offering the most robust argument that makes sure that she's suggesting hyper-competence and toughness and balancing competence with likability — all the double standards that any woman in the workforce faces,” she said.
Greer agreed, saying that Hochul has to “create a larger vision where she's tough, but not too tough where she intimidates people.”
“She has to be soft, but not too soft where people don't think she's a leader,” Greer added. “These are all the things that ... women have to go through when they're running for office."
Tagged
new york city
Kathy Hochul
new york state
Politics
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.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
NYC has a plan to stop homeless people from cycling between hospitals and the streets
The Bridge to Home program, which began last year, will officially expand to Brooklyn on Tuesday.
By
Karen Yi
Published Sep 29, 2026 at 8:00 a.m. ET
Early Addition: Billy Joel is auctioning off 70 of his motorcycles
Because he doesn't need that many bikes, here are your early links: NYC Ferry fares could be going up, Hell's Kitchen climbing gym closing, Jalen Brunson just wasn't that funny on SNL and more.
By
James Ramsay
News
Early Addition: Billy Joel is auctioning off 70 of his motorcycles
Because he doesn't need that many bikes, here are your early links: NYC Ferry fares could be going up, Hell's Kitchen climbing gym closing, Jalen Brunson just wasn't that funny on SNL and more.
By
James Ramsay
Man dragged to death by Subway in Brooklyn after getting caught on closing doors
By
Brittany Kriegstein
Upper East Side braces for affordable housing fast track, and backlash from residents
By
David Brand
Plan to modernize NYC's diesel-spewing produce market falls apart under Mamdani
By
Elizabeth Kim
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .