In a flurry of media activity throughout the week, congressman Ritchie Torres of New York’s 15th district took shots at the state’s governor, Kathy Hochul, dropping plenty of hints concerning a possible run for her office in 2026.
At a breakfast hosted by the Citizens Budget Commission at Club 101 in Manhattan on Monday, the 36-year-old Torres said that the results of the past presidential election clearly reflected people’s dissatisfaction with the party at a national level, but also with Hochul. He said that Biden damaged the party’s chances because he was “incompetent” when it came to the migrant crisis, but Hochul’s “misgovernance” also contributed to Trump’s gains in the state. Someone close to Torres at the event told the New York Post that “Ritchie is looking to run for governor.”
Two days later, Torres repeated the “misgovernance” line in an interview on Spectrum News NY1, adding that the country faced “a leadership crisis” and that Trump’s national victory was a “vote of no confidence in the leadership of New York State.” He also criticized Hochul’s handling of congestion pricing, saying that the governor made “the wrong decision” in delaying its implementation even though he agreed with lowering the fee. Torres also said that he had made “no final decision” concerning a run for governor in 2026.
Torres kept up the pressure through the end of the week, telling POLITICO in an interview on Friday that Hochul “could easily lose to Mike Lawler,” the Republican congressman from New York’s 17th district, who is also reportedly weighing a run for her office. “The case could be made that we need a Democrat who can win a general election,” said Torres, “not an unpopular Democratic incumbent who is in grave danger of losing to a Republican for the first time in 30 years.” The last Republican to win the governor’s race against a Democratic incumbent was George Pataki in 1994.
The congressman from the Bronx made similar statements to his audience on X (formerly Twitter) the same day. “Kathy Hochul is the new Joe Biden,” he wrote. “Waiting until it’s too late gave us a Republican President in 2024 and could give us a Republican Governor in 2026.”
In response to Torres’ criticism throughout the week, New York’s governor defended her record. “Governor Hochul is focused on delivering results for New Yorkers: driving down crime and lowering costs for working families,” said Hochul spokesperson Jen Goodman. “Under her leadership, murders, shootings, and violent crime have declined statewide and New York has achieved the most significant progress in addressing the housing crisis in 50 years.”
Torres has been in congress since 2020, having previously served in the New York City Council representing the city’s 15th district in the Bronx, one of the poorest areas in the country. He was the first openly gay candidate elected to office in the Bronx, and was the Council’s youngest member. Torres fought for a number of progressive priorities while in the City Council, and secured millions in funds for low-income housing in his district. Since he was elected to congress in 2020, Torres has secured roughly $3 billion dollars to his congressional district in federal funds. Torres has found himself at odds with the progressive wing of the party more recently, due to increasingly centrist economic policies and a staunchly pro-Israel stance since its invasion of Gaza last year. “I didn’t leave the progressive movement; the progressive movement left me,” Torres told City & State in June. Torres’ 2022 and 2024 campaigns were in large part funded by the financial services industry and the Israel lobby, according to Opensecrets.
