Lieutenant Governor and gubernatorial candidate Antonio Delgado is reacting to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s State of the State address as he travels across New York on his “State of the People Tour.”
Delgado visited Buffalo's East Side Wednesday, holding an afternoon roundtable with grassroots community leaders, followed by an evening town hall and listening session.
Delgado told BTPM NPR he felt the governor’s State of the State did not include enough bold ideas.
“I mean, from where I sat, there was a lot of half-measures and not enough bold ideas that speak to the moment that we’re in," Delgado said.
Delgado said the address failed to fully tackle issues including the housing crisis, health care challenges tied to the federal One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and taxing the rich.
He added he was disappointed Hochul did not publicly support the New York for All Act, which would prevent state and local law enforcement from assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
He claims New Yorkers he's spoken to on his tour also feel unseen by the governor's speech.
"I said, 'what you think of the State of the State?'" Delgado said, describing speaking with an advocate for low-income Black and Brown communities earlier in the day Wednesday. "She said, 'you know, we actually watched it, a group of us came together and watched it, and we felt unseen. We felt invisible. We felt unaccounted for throughout the entire course of the speech.'"
"And I think that speaks volumes, that the folks who were hurting the most, the people that are impacted the most right now by an economy that's not working for them, didn't feel accounted for," Delgado said of his thoughts on the advocate's comments.
Delgado’s tour comes as dozens of elected Democrats across the state, including several high-profile leaders in Buffalo, have endorsed Hochul’s bid for re-election. Western New York officials endorsing Hochul include Buffalo’s mayor, the Erie County executive, multiple Buffalo Common Council members, multiple Erie County legislators, and other local town, village and city officials.
