The race for New York governor came to Syracuse Tuesday as Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado made several stops across the city. The first was a conversation and rally with the grassroots group Citizen Action, where members from across Upstate gathered to show their support. Syracuse volunteer Yvonne Griffin told the crowd the state needs to do more to address serious challenges.
“We have the highest in childhood poverty, the highest in lead cases being taken to court by our Attorney general,” she said. “We need a new direction and that direction, in my opinion, is Delgado,” Griffin said to cheers.
Citizen Action officially announced its endorsement of Delgado, a Democrat. So far, he’s the only candidate from any party to declare his intention to unseat incumbent Kathy Hochul in 2026. He told the crowd the status quo is broken, and a $254 billion state budget isn’t reaching New Yorkers the way it should.
“[We have] the ninth largest economy, if we were independent country, right here in New York and yet and still we had the largest wealth inequality gap of any state in this country,” he said. “So we got the money. The question is where the hell is it going? It's not going to the people. It's been happening for far, far too long.”
WAER News caught up with Delago following the rally. He said the governor and state lawmakers need to show more strength in their response to federal funding cuts and immigration enforcement.
“Go back to Albany and do the work to raise revenue on billionaires, big corporations, to make sure we can plug that economic hole that's going to be in the billions,” he said. “To pass the New York for All Act that's going to protect our immigrant communities that are being scapegoated every single day. There's things that we could be doing right now that would demonstrate a real fight, and not just words.”
Delgado also made stops at food pantries, a barber shop, and the Dunbar Center. He said it’s part of a strategy to connect with New Yorkers and share his decidedly more progressive agenda on universal health care, affordable housing, and livable wages.
Meanwhile, Gov. Hochul spent the day in northern New York announcing investments in border security and cutting the ribbon on a new bus manufacturing plant in Plattsburgh.
