{"id":362776,"date":"2026-10-02T12:00:23","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T12:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/362776\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T12:00:23","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T12:00:23","slug":"jacobs-secures-reelection-as-state-dems-chair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/362776\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacobs secures reelection as state Dems chair"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jay Jacobs was reelected as chair of the state Democratic Committee in a landslide win over Otsego County Democratic Party Chair Caitlin Ogden, his first-ever challenger for the role.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And he did so with a slew of party heavyweights in attendance for the party\u2019s reorganizational meeting, including\u00a0Gov. Kathy Hochul, her running mate Adrienne Adams, state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though he won with nearly 82% of the weighted vote, at a time with growing resentment toward the Democratic establishment and party progressives<\/a>\u2019 dissatisfaction<\/a> with his leadership, Jacobs seemed determined to show he\u2019d taken the challenge seriously and had earned a deep level of support \u2013 one that went beyond the \u201cI\u2019m with Jay\u201d stickers committee members sported in the audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a coordinated campaign \u2026 that is Jay, who is implementing the governor\u2019s vision, helping to raise that money, helping to coordinate, helping to make sure that from\u00a0 the top to the bottom, we get bigger majorities in Albany, reelect the statewides and win the House back,\u201dChristine Quinn, state Democratic Committee executive chair, said as she nominated Jacobs. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t happen by accident, it happens when you have a good leader, and a leader of the party who is supported by our great Democratic mom, Gov. Kathy Hochul.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ogden entered the race last month<\/a> because of dissatisfaction with Jacobs\u2019 tenure, and was motivated by an “appetite for change.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI waited for somebody to step up and give our committee members a choice, and I got tired of waiting,\u201d she told City & State in an interview last month. She was especially frustrated by the choice not to give Hochul’s short-lived primary opponent, Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, a place on the ballot alongside the incumbent.<\/p>\n

Still, Jacobs appreciated the challenge. \u201cI have a business, and my business never does so well as when somebody is nipping at my heels in competition,\u201d he said. \u201cThen all of a sudden you sharpen, and you look to get even better than you think you were before. And I think that\u2019s what the outcome of Caitlin\u2019s efforts are.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rep. Pat Ryan, a rising star within the party, agreed. \u201cI think that\u2019s the kind of party we are, where we all push each other to be better,\u201d he told City & State after the vote.<\/p>\n

Jacobs sought to build momentum as the Democrats look to win back the House majority come Election Day, drumming up support for candidates in competitive races, including Cait Conley, who is running to unseat Rep. Mike Lawler in the state\u2019s 17th congressional district. Conley was in attendance and gave remarks Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cGive people a reason to vote on this Democratic line other than to oppose the other line,\u201d Jacobs said. He added, \u201cThe reason why we see so much disharmony, even within our own party, is because leadership, on the national level, needs to be addressing big ideas \u2026 and pointing out to people what America will look like when we elect the Democratic majority.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jay Jacobs was reelected as chair of the state Democratic Committee in a landslide win over Otsego County…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1414,24539,9,11,10,49,55578,51,50,87],"class_list":["post-362776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-campaigns-elections","tag-jay-jacobs","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-democratic-party","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362776","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=362776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}