{"id":374634,"date":"2026-10-16T08:26:41","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T08:26:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/374634\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T08:26:41","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T08:26:41","slug":"hochul-and-blakeman-to-face-off-in-first-and-only-debate-tonight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/374634\/","title":{"rendered":"Hochul and Blakeman to face off in first and only debate tonight"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10<\/a>) \u2014 Governor Kathy Hochul and Republican Challenger Bruce Blakeman will face off at 7 p.m. on Tuesday for the first and only debate before the November 3 election.<\/p>\n

The hour-long debate held by Spectrum News will likely explore a variety of topics flooding campaign ads, including crime, immigration, energy affordability, and the economy. <\/p>\n

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The stakes are high for both candidates\u2014it\u2019s a chance for Gov. Hochul to make her case for why she should serve a second full term as governor, and it\u2019s significant for Nassau County Executive Blakeman, who will have to convince voters why they should elect a Republican governor for the first time in 25 years. <\/p>\n

\u201cI feel very good about tonight,\u201d said New York State Democratic Committee Chair Jay Jacobs. \u201cYou\u2019re going to be able to see Kathy Hochul talking about her record and what she\u2019s done and what she hopes to do for the people of New York.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republicans, including Assemblywoman Mary Beth Walsh and former Congressman John Faso, are urging Blakeman to focus on state issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what he has to do is focus on energy affordability,\u201d Faso said. \u201cThe other issue is going to be taxes. We lead the nation in high taxes, whether it\u2019s income, property, or sales taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Blakeman has aligned himself with President Trump, who endorsed him last December. Some voters at a Blakeman and Trump rally in Syracuse Friday expressed concern that the president\u2019s low approval rating could hurt Blakeman\u2019s chances for governor. <\/p>\n

\u201cHis connections and ties with the president may hurt him with some people who probably would not be supporting him anyway,\u201d Walsh said. <\/p>\n

Democrats, including Governor Hochul, have sought to highlight Trump and Blakeman\u2019s relationship, painting Blakeman as a MAGA ally taking marching orders. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think that he is playing the role of the candidate, which is really auditioning for a job in the Trump Administration,\u201d Jacobs said. \u201cThat\u2019s what he wants. He knows he\u2019s not going to win this election.\u201d<\/p>\n

The debate comes exactly three weeks before Election Day.<\/p>\n

Read the latest from NEWS10:<\/p>\n

NEWS10<\/a> is the Capital Region\u2019s local news leader!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) \u2014 Governor Kathy Hochul and Republican Challenger Bruce Blakeman will face off at 7 p.m.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1586,4241,1626,5200,3365,45250,69112,862,426,774,9,11,10,49,51,50,12,137856,137886],"class_list":["post-374634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-affordability","tag-albany","tag-bruce-blakeman","tag-debate","tag-economy","tag-election-2026","tag-energy-affordability","tag-governor","tag-kathy-hochul","tag-nassau-county","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-november-3","tag-race-for-governor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374634","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=374634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}