A call to Challengers: Please Run
Reporting and Commentary by Councilperson Robert Lynch; February 12, 2026
I probably would never have voted for Antonio Delgado as Governor. His platform ran pretty far to the left for me. But I would gladly have signed a petition to get him onto the ballot. We need choices. This year for governor—and for other key offices—we won’t have many.
On Tuesday, February 10, Delgado, a former Hudson Valley Congressman and picked by Governor Kathy Hochul in 2022 to be her Lieutenant Governor, dropped out as a challenger to Hochul in the June Democratic Primary. That leaves only Hochul and Republican nominee Bruce Blakeman, a county executive on Long Island, as candidates for the November gubernatorial election. Blakeman has staked his flag firmly on Donald Trump’s right-tilting turf. Governor Hochul is… well, Kathy Hochul.
We need other choices. But we won’t get them. Delgado is out. No one has emerged to challenge Blakeman within the GOP. North Country Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, now retiring from Congress at year’s end, had toyed with a Republican run for Governor last year. But either Blakeman’s perceived strength or political reality as to the Empire State’s partisan leanings chased her away.
And no, not a single Independent candidate—someone neither registered within nor aligned with either major political party—has emerged to seek New York’s highest political office.
Within Enfield and Tompkins County, the prospects for choice get even dimmer.
As of this writing, no person of any party—or any Independent—has registered with the New York State Board of Elections to oppose incumbent State Senator Lea Webb or Assemblymember Anna Kelles.
Should the current status continue, this November’s elections for New York State Legislature in the 52nd Senate District and the 125th Assembly District will become a coronation for each incumbent. If a few (or a lot) of us don’t like the course of New York governance, too bad. Aside from that single office at the top of the ticket, the one holding the power of the veto, we’ll get no legislative say-so.
For the record, Assemblymember Kelles—full disclosure; a personal friend of mine and a commendable foot soldier in local constituent service—ran unopposed in both 2022 and 2024. Political operatives have likely concluded that the 125th District, one bounded within the true-blue comfortable confines of Tompkins County with a slice of Cortland County added-on, is just too Democrat-friendly for anyone else to win.
In Lea Webb’s 52nd Senate District, the two-term incumbent has faced opposition each time she’s previously run. When she first competed, in 2022, her win was narrow, 51 to 49 percent over former Binghamton Mayor Rich David. Two years later, with the help of both incumbency and a Presidential election, Webb beat Lansing Tompkins County Legislator Mike Sigler, 57 percent to 43 percent.
Republican Sigler has not this year signaled any plans for a rematch. And so far, no other challenger to Webb has registered with the New York State Board of Elections.
Party petitioning for the November 3rd election commences February 24 and runs for five weeks. Independent candidates circulate petitions later, beginning April 14.
Antonio Delgado had a rough ride of it in recent weeks. Just about everything that could have gone wrong for him did just that.
Early last June, Delgado broke with Hochul and declared his candidacy for the 2026 Democratic gubernatorial nomination. “People are hurting and New York deserves better leadership,” Delgado told the New York Times in an interview, published the day of his announcement. “There’s an absence of bold, decisive, transformational leadership,” he told the paper.
Even though he chose to run against his boss, Delgado stayed on as the Governor’s second-in-command. And Hochul declined to fire him. Yet Delgado’s role devolved into a largely ceremonial one. Hochul stripped him of his staff, writers for The Albany Tines-Union report. “That’s left him with little to do at the state Capitol, where he’s an infrequent presence,” reporters Dan Clark and Timothy Fanning wrote.
Delgado did generate initial support within Ithaca’s progressive community. He spoke before a packed house at the Southside Community Center last July. Reports say Ithaca Mayor Robert Cantelmo introduced him. Assemblymember Kelles hugged him. Yet neither provided endorsements, nor did leaders of the Tompkins County Democratic Party.
But it was within the past couple of weeks that things turned really bad. First, Downstate’s seemingly low-hanging progressive fruit, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Hochul, not Delgado. New York’s Democratic Congressional delegation united to support the Governor. All Delgado was left with was support from a pair of democratic socialists in the State Legislature.
When state party leaders convened in Syracuse February 6, they nominated Hochul, awarding her 85.3 percent of the weighted vote, Delgado a mere 14.7 percent. Having failed to meet the 25 percent vote threshold, Delgado would have needed to collect petition signatures, thousands of them, to gain a place on the June 23 primary ballot. That said, the Lieutenant Governor promised at the time he’d do just that.
The New York Working Families Party (WFP) could have provided the Lieutenant Governor a glide path to a separate ballot line. But no such luck.
When WFP delegates convened separately February 7, they chose to nominate “placeholder” candidates for Governor and State Comptroller, nominations that will eventually default to the Democratic Party nominees. City and State reports that Delgado polled 41 percent of the weighted delegate vote; Hochul a mere three percent. But the fictitious “placeholder” candidate got the 56 percent majority.
This isn’t the first time that the WFP has backed away from being bold; from bucking the Democratic Party bosses with its own independent choices. (Remember Cynthia Nixon? Zephyr Teachout?) Such timidity leaves one so tempted to rename the WFP the “Worthless Families Party.”
Tuesday, February 10, Antonio Delgado threw in the towel.
“I’ve decided to end my campaign for Governor of New York,” Delgado wrote in a six-paragraph departure statement. “After much consideration, I’ve concluded that there simply is no viable path forward,” he said.
The Lieutenant Governor who tried, but yet could not overcome “the system,” the venomous political machine that sinks its fangs so deeply into New York body politic, had more to say. His swan-song included this:
“And though my campaign has come to an end, I fully intend to do all I can in our effort to build a more humane, affordable, and equitable state that serves all New Yorkers. I will also support Democrats in our effort to hold the line against Trump and take back our democracy.”
Nowhere in Delgado’s statement was there an explicit endorsement of Kathy Hochul.
Whether those of you who read what’s written here love President Trump of hate him, your preferences should not color your perception of this essay’s core theme. Had Antonio Delgado been a maverick Republican instead of a progressive Democrat, the problem identified here would remain the same: Party machines should not pick our candidates. We, the People, should.
Last year, Enfield had an election for town offices. This Councilperson wasn’t up for reelection that year. But we had a Town Supervisor, two Councilpersons, a Highway Superintendent, and a Town Clerk whose terms were up. So were the positions of the two Tompkins County legislators who represent our town. (Each legislator was later elected unopposed.)
When party petitioning had ended last April, I surveyed the political landscape and didn’t like what I saw. I saw incumbents each running without competition, poised to leapfrog into new terms without being tested and tempered in that oftentimes-unforgiving crucible of ideas, ideology, and controversy.
I went before the Enfield Town Board as it began its meeting April 9:
“Nobody else stepped up. Nobody else said, ‘I think I can do it better.’ And that’s disappointing to me,” I told that night’s meeting. “It disappoints me because we won’t know; we won’t really have a good gauge of where Enfield is heading,” I continued. “It’s disappointing because an uncontested election really doesn’t tell you a whole lot because it doesn’t say these are the best people who are running.”
A few weeks after my remarks last April, two aspiring candidates emerged for Enfield Town Councilperson, Independents Rosie Carpenter and Robert Tuskey. They petitioned for the ballot. For democracy’s sake, I assisted in their petitioning. They joined forces at times. They posted signs at Miller’s Corners. And each campaigned largely eschewing outside help. On Election Day, each came close to winning. In the final tally, Ms. Carpenter fell just 19 votes short of joining our Town Board. Democracy had won, even if Carpenter and Tuskey had not.
The same principle I advanced in Enfield last year applies this season to New York Governor, to State Senate and to the Assembly. And it will apply next year when, if expected, I run for a third term on the Enfield Town Board.
I do not fear potential opposition next year. No, quite the contrary; I invite and welcome it. Truth be told, I’ll be disappointed should an opponent not emerge. Competition makes every candidate stronger. It focuses attention, drives interest. And my expectation of that future competition will motivate me today to listen more attentively, to respond more effectively, and when the time comes, to campaign a whole lot harder.
Antonio Delgado’s withdrawal from the Governor’s race saved Kathy Hochul a ton of money. Hochul’s amassed roughly $20 Million already, money she can redirect from the primary to the November General Election, The New York Times reports.
Yes, money drives so much, and principle propels so little these days.
Antonio Delgado closed his message to supporters as he departed his campaign for New York Governor this week with these words: “Ultimately, this decision for me comes down to my belief that to walk with purpose, is to walk with love” he said. “That belief has animated this campaign.”
Yes, those words—and that passion—is why I, as a centrist-leaning, registered Democrat, regardless of my personal opinions on such potent hot-button issues as taxing the rich, good-cause eviction, or the Green New Deal, would, if given the opportunity, have put my name on Antonio Delgado’s designating petition. Democracy deserved it be there.
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