ALBANY – The state Democratic committee appears to be strong-arming local party leaders into endorsing Gov. Kathy Hochul, sources told The Post Friday.
State Committee Chair Jay Jacobs asked the 62 county committee chairs to sign onto a letter expressing their early support of Hochul, who officially received a primary challenge this week from her No. 2, Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado.
The letter conspicuously came as the state Democratic party is asking the county committees to submit their funding requests for next year.
“He is holding state committee funding over the heads of chairs and trying to coerce them to sign,” one insider with knowledge of the situation said about Jacobs.
“Some still aren’t signing. Some that are signing don’t want to sign and don’t support Hochul,” the source added.
“Others are signing and making clear their committees absolutely don’t support the governor in the primary. The governor elicits zero genuine respect from even the party faithful,” the insider said.
Sources said Jacobs and the state party began calling around to the chairs Monday night, just hours after The Post broke the news that Delgado was planning to formally announce his bid for the Democratic nomination in the 2026 election.
Jacobs, reached by The Post Friday, confirmed that 49 of the currently 61 county leaders, including all of New York City chairs, would be supporting Hochul on the letter.
He denied that the move had any bearing on whether the county leaders would receive funds from the party.
“The truth is simple: this did not happen. The county chairs I spoke to are not just all-in but enthusiastic for Governor Hochul because she has invested historic resources in our party and led our ticket in beating Republicans up and down the ballot,” Jacobs wrote in a statement given to The Post after this story was published.
Dem chairs who spoke with The Post said they were uncomfortable with being asked to endorse Hochul seeing it as a clear move to try and consolidate the party behind the unpopular governor.
“The 2025 election is Orange County’s big one. While I have great respect for the Governor and Lt. Governor, these local campaigns have my undivided attention, not next year’s statewide primary elections,” Orange County’s Dem Chair Zak Constantine told The Post in a statement.
“We welcome the help of any statewide elected Democrat or candidate who wants to roll up their sleeves and help us win by proving to voters that our party offers something they can be excited about. Those are the candidates I look forward to supporting next year,” Constantine said, though disagreeing that he felt state funding for his party would be in jeopardy over his decision not to sign onto the letter.
Caitlin Ogden, Chair of the Otsego County Democratic Committee, said her concerns stem from the Democrats’ efforts to consolidate early support from President Biden in 2024.
“With the way that 2024 went down and the opportunity to learn some lessons from that loss about falling in line behind candidates and moving too quickly before there’s an opportunity to have a democratic process that allows people to make their arguments as candidates and to make their will known as voters, I think New York has a really unique opportunity to demonstrate that we have listened and learned,” Ogden said.
“Kathy Hochul cost Democrats five seats in Congress the last time she was on the top of the ticket. We can pretend that something magical has changed – just like so many pretended President Biden was a strong candidate – but when a majority of New Yorkers say they want someone else to run for Governor, it would be smart to listen to them,” Delgado spokesperson Steven Ileka wrote in a statement.
Hochul’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
