New York\u2019s Democratic Party has a leadership fight on its hands as election season heats up, with longtime state party Chair Jay Jacobs facing a challenge from Otsego County Democratic Party Chair Caitlin Ogden.<\/p>\n
Both Ogden and Jacobs spoke with Capital Tonight on Monday.<\/p>\n
Ogden stressed that the party under Jacobs lacks a unified vision for what it should look like in the Trump era, and how it should address the concerns voters have about Democrats.<\/p>\n
While the wind may appear to be at the party\u2019s back heading into a midterm in which conventional wisdom suggests the environment is tilting in their favor, Democrats have struggled in recent years with identity issues and a national reckoning over messaging and outreach in the aftermath of the 2024 election.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have been waiting to see someone step up to lead our committee that actually has a vision for delivering for what voters are asking for,\u201d Ogden said.<\/p>\n
In a challenge she said largely centers on fine-tuning statewide fundraising and campaigning efforts, Ogden points to Democratic struggles in New York in 2022 and argues that, despite improvements in 2024 under a heavy push by Gov. Kathy Hochul, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the party still needs a stronger year-round statewide operation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIncrease the boots-on-the-ground efforts to get Democrats to run for office, get them to win when they run for office. Get them to win when they run for office and rebuild the brand of the party in huge swaths of upstate New York as well as downstate and Staten Island,\u201d Ogden said.<\/p>\n
Jacobs has served two stints as party chair, from 2009 to 2012 and since 2019, and has survived efforts to oust him including after the 2022 election. Jacobs said Monday he is taking the challenge \u201cseriously,\u201d but expressed confidence he will be reelected Oct. 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m as excited as I\u2019ve been, and especially in this political environment I\u2019m excited to engage in this election,\u201d Jacobs said.<\/p>\n
Over the weekend, Hochul gave Jacobs her backing in her capacity as state party chair leader, but he has faced criticism from Ogden and others for his efforts to avoid primary challenges to incumbents and, in some cases, for not supporting Democratic candidates after they win.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to hold up every corner of the big tent if we want to be successful,\u201d Ogden said.<\/p>\n
That criticism has especially centered on Jacobs\u2019 decision not to endorse Zohran Mamdani after Mamdani won the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor in 2025. Jacobs cited disagreements with Mamdani\u2019s views on Israel and his affiliation with the Democratic Socialists of America.<\/p>\n
\u201cI stand on principle, and I\u2019m going to stand on what I did before,\u201d Jacobs said when asked about that decision.<\/p>\n
Jacobs, meanwhile, countered that Ogden and others who oppose his leadership lack an understanding of the complexities of the state and what it takes to win in difficult and sometimes Republican-leaning areas. Associated with the state Democrats’ more moderate wing and critical of DSA influence, he has accused some within the party of pushing progressive policies that are not in line with large swaths of New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have other people in the party who want to have everybody stick to a much more far-left position and that won\u2019t work everywhere. My job is to elect Democrats in the districts that they\u2019re in,\u201d Jacobs said.<\/p>\n
The showdown comes amid the gubernatorial campaign between Hochul and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman. At a campaign rally this weekend, Hochul pointed to the party\u2019s performance in New York\u2019s 2024 congressional battlegrounds as evidence of the statewide operation\u2019s success.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe opened up 42 field offices; we hired 100 people, all with the money I raised in the state party because I said I want to unleash this, and we won five out of seven battleground races; it was extraordinary,\u201d Hochul said. \u201cThis year we run up the score. We keep the ones we won, we have more pickups all the way from Blake in the North Country to Cait Conley.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Ogden argued that under that approach and Jacobs\u2019 leadership, Democrats are missing key opportunities to make promises to voters and then deliver on them.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to speak to those voters with real achievable ideas and then when we get elected on them\u2014 we have to deliver,\u201d Ogden said.<\/p>\n
Members of the state Democratic committee will vote on the party chair on Oct. 1. The winner will serve a two-year term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York\u2019s Democratic Party has a leadership fight on its hands as election season heats up, with longtime…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[116,38490,295,9,11,10,49,51,50,12,112,87,200],"class_list":["post-354391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-app-ny-state-of-politics","tag-decision-2026","tag-jack-arpey","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-news","tag-ny-state-of-politics","tag-politics","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}