Hochul’s new agenda blends Trump fighting with affordability

ALBANY, New York — Gov. Kathy Hochul is making a simple pitch to New Yorkers: Defying President Donald Trump will be good for your pocketbooks.

The moderate Democrat will unveil her 2026 agenda Tuesday with the interlocking goals of tackling wide-ranging affordability woes — while also making New York a bulwark against the Trump administration’s aggressive policies on immigration, energy and funding cuts.

Her State of the State speech, set against the backdrop of her looming reelection bid, is expected to back legislation that would make it easier to sue federal immigration enforcement officials if they violate a New Yorker’s constitutional rights. The governor is pressing to expand wind energy as the federal government rescinds approval, casting it as a way to aid blue-collar construction workers. And, in a previously unreported proposal, Hochul will call for a bill to block civil immigration enforcement actions without a judicial warrant in sensitive locations, like schools, hospitals and houses of worship.

The governor will propose protecting student loan borrowers — a reaction to Trump’s effort to overhaul repayment rules. She wants to bolster farmers whose businesses have been disrupted by Trump’s tariffs and plans to propose $30 million in direct payments to agricultural producers.

Hochul is also pushing a muscular proposal to boost free child care statewide, a signature policy for her and New York City’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani.

Some Democrats see her agenda of countering Trump, framed around protecting New Yorker’s bottomline, as a replicable strategy for blue states nationally as the party struggles to adapt to the Republican president’s whipsaw policies.

“We have an obligation to set the pace and the tone for what the rest of the country is doing,” said Brooklyn Assemblymember Brian Cunningham, a Democrat and potential Hochul running mate. “Given New York’s reputation, we’re the Empire State, we’re the natural cultural setter. Just having that kind of bravado in film, Broadway and sports, we apply that to our politics.”

Hochul holds large polling advantages over her Democratic primary rival, Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, as well as likely Republican nominee, Trump-endorsed Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman. But the stakes for the governor go beyond her own reelection bid. Democrats are counting on her to mount a robust campaign at the top of the ticket this year to support down-ballot candidates running in crucial House races that may determine control of the chamber next year — and the course of Trump’s presidency.

“Unfortunately for New Yorkers, Gov. Hochul wants illegal criminals on the streets, unreliable and unaffordable green energy sources to drive up prices for families and businesses, and hard-earned taxpayer dollars wasted on fraud,” said White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers. “It’s a shame that governors in blue states refuse to implement President Trump’s commonsense agenda that is making America safer and more affordable.”

The governor’s policies will also set the tone for the next four years in New York City, a financial powerhouse for the country where voters elected Mamdani, an inexperienced democratic socialist who ran a campaign focused on bringing down the cost of living.

At the federal level, the temperamental Trump’s maximalist view of power underscores his desire to control Democratic-led states — withholding cash for child care and infrastructure projects while dramatically reducing health care funding.

As she rolls out her agenda and campaigns for reelection, Hochul is walking a narrow line between two polarizing figures who command zealous support. She must navigate the tricky politics of Trump’s immigration enforcement as Empire State Democrats push to broaden so-called sanctuary protections for undocumented residents. At the same time, the governor is also resisting a push to boost taxes on rich people — a red line that’s angered Mamdani supporters. Hiking taxes would open her up to criticism from the right, and Blakeman has already knocked her for presiding over a high-tax state.

Taken together, Hochul has little room for error when it comes to alienating the untested mayor, an unpredictable president and her own state’s voters — especially among suburbanites, with whom she’s struggled to gain traction.

“If she goes too far to the left on ICE, or anything really, there will be two people cheering her on, Zohran Mamdani and Bruce Blakeman,” said Republican former city Councilmember Joe Borelli. “But for vastly different reasons.”

Hochul, a reserved 67-year-old Democrat, has tried a menu of affordability measures — suspending state gasoline taxes, reducing a controversial Manhattan toll from $15 to $9, and sending rebate checks to taxpayers. Her favorability rating among New Yorkers has risen slightly over the last year and stands at 43 percent. A similar slice of voters, 44 percent, believe the state is heading in the right direction, a Siena University poll found last month.

Few voters appear to link Hochul with some of her more popular policies, like middle-income tax cuts and a push to expand home building in order to drive down stubbornly high housing costs.

“Affordability is certainly at the forefront right now, but that has been what she’s focused on since she first took office,” New York Democratic Chair Jay Jacobs said. “There are budget policies and initiatives that back that up, this isn’t new to her. She didn’t read a poll and decide to do this. It’s deep in her roots and where she came from.”

President Trump remains far less popular than Hochul in his home state. The same voter survey in December found Trump is viewed unfavorably by 62 percent of voters. Since then, Trump has conducted a risky seizure of Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro, withheld child care funds to New York citing a Minnesota fraud scandal and offered his full-throated support to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who shot and killed a 37-year-old woman.

The events of the last several weeks have emboldened New York Democrats to take a more assertive approach with the federal government, even as they pledge to address the cost-of-living problems facing New Yorkers.

The top Democrat in the state Senate, Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, kicked off the legislative session in Albany last week with a call to approve a bill that would prevent local and state law enforcement officials from working with federal immigration agents. Lawmakers are also weighing bills intended to guarantee legal representation for people facing deportation proceedings and prohibit ICE agents from wearing masks while on duty.

Hochul has typically walked a cautious line around immigration, which is seen as a third rail for Democrats. As a local official in western New York, she opposed allowing undocumented immigrants to access driver’s licenses — a position she later reversed. Yet in the wake of Renee Good’s shooting in Minneapolis, the governor is embracing a measure that would enable New Yorkers to sue federal officials in state court when they’re accused of violating their constitutional rights.

Hochul also signaled that she’s arm-in-arm with Mamdani on opposing ICE expanding its efforts in New York.

“The mayor and I will stand together and reject any efforts to try and militarize our streets, but they never should have been in Minneapolis in the first place,” Hochul told MSNOW last week. “That's the catalyst for this.”

Underscoring the multi-dimensional challenge for Hochul is Trump’s predilection for punishing Democratic-led states. He’s tried to kill Manhattan’s congestion pricing toll program, withheld funding for infrastructure projects like the Gateway tunnel and cut off billions of dollars in child care reimbursement funds to blue states.

Hochul has managed up with the often difficult president and frequently speaks with him on the phone. She’s met twice with him in the Oval Office to discuss energy projects and the Manhattan tolls. Yet she’s publicly expressed exasperation with his administration and cheered lawsuits meant to claw back money, including the child care funds.

The governor this month rallied with construction union members to blast the Trump administration’s decision to yank approval for offshore wind projects around the country, including one off the Long Island coast. Hochul struck a populist note with the workers — playing up her own blue collar roots in a historically hardscrabble part of the state.

“My uncles are longshoremen, carpenters, plumbers,” she said. “They help build the economy where I come from, a steel town, a tough, gritty place. That actually prepares you very well for the rough and tumble of politics.”

New York Democrats, though, will likely pressure Hochul to go further against Trump in the courts and in their own legislation — testing the governor’s mettle against a powerful political foe.

“If you ask me, ‘Is he going to come after New York state because we’re a progressive state that tries to do all the right things?’” said influential Senate Finance Chair Liz Krueger. ”Of course he will.”