Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman has been officially designated by New York state Republicans as the party’s nominee for governor this fall to challenge Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Blakeman accepted the nomination Wednesday morning at the state GOP convention on Long Island. He and his running mate, Madison County Sheriff Todd Hood, will take on the task of unseating the Democratic incumbent and breaking the GOP’s 20-year losing streak for the executive mansion.
“Kathy Hochul has put our state in crisis. Taxes are souring. Electric bills and insurance premiums keep climbing out of control. Crime is rising. Businesses are leaving the state in record numbers. Families and seniors are being priced out of their homes,” Blakeman said Wednesday at the convention.
Blakeman’s acceptance speech focused heavily on affordability and immigration.
“While the hardworking men and women of this state and struggling to make ends meet, Kathy Hochul is taking your money and spending it on illegal migrants who have been here for 15 minutes and haven’t earned anything. That is wrong,” Blakeman said.
Blakeman now on stage
It’s heavy on an indictment of Hochul’s tike as governor – higher taxes/energy/insurance, spending billions on unauthorized migrants who’ve been here for “15 minutes”
He says he’ll campaign on record of success contrasted to Hochul’s record of failures pic.twitter.com/aJDgpEMe93
— Dan Rivoli (@danrivoli) February 11, 2026
Blakeman also criticized the governor over last year’s correction officer strike, her climate and energy policies and her relationship with New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Blakeman also touted his own record in county government.
“I serve as county executive Nassau County, which is larger than eight states in population. I stopped a $150 million tax hike by my predecessor and I haven’t raised taxes by a single penny in four years,” he said. “And because of fiscally conservative practices, we have received seven bond upgrades, vastly improving our financial standing with Wall Street. I’ve also worked with police to make Nassau County the safest county in America.”
The convention got a video message from President Donald Trump, who offered Blakeman his endorsement and praised him for his work leading Nassau County, saying he’ll “be working with Bruce very hard.”
“Bruce Blakeman will make New York safe and strong and honest and prosperous again,” Trump said in the video.
President Trump cuts a video for the New York GOP convention in support of Bruce Blakeman
Trump praises Blakeman on hiring more police, plans to cut energy costs and winning in Nassau County by a “landslide” pic.twitter.com/2G6Ut6T0Bz
— Dan Rivoli (@danrivoli) February 11, 2026
Blakeman’s nomination is a quick turnaround in the GOP race. He launched his campaign in early December even as most of the state Republican leaders had rallied around U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik. Stefanik ended her campaign two weeks later and Blakeman quickly became the party’s preferred candidate.
The Libertarian candidate in the race, Larry Sharpe, who has run for governor before, announced late last week he would also seek the Republican nomination. He would now have to petition to get on the primary ballot in June.
Alongside Blakeman and Hood, former prosecutor Saritha Komatireddy and biotech entrepreneur Joseph Hernandez were nominated by the party to be the Republican nominees for state attorney general and comptroller, respectively.