2018 New York gubernatorial election


The 2018 New York gubernatorial election occurred on November 6, 2018. Incumbent Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo won re-election to a third term, defeating Republican Marc Molinaro and several minor party candidates. Cuomo received 59.6% of the vote.
Cuomo defeated actress and activist Cynthia Nixon in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Cuomo's running mate, Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul, outpolled New York City Councillor Jumaane Williams in the Democratic primary. Democratic candidates Cuomo and Hochul also ran on the ballot lines of the Independence Party and the Women's Equality Party; after Nixon and Williams withdrew from the race in October, Cuomo and Hochul received the nomination of the Working Families Party as well.
Dutchess County Executive and former New York State Assemblymember Marc Molinaro was the Republican, Conservative, and Reform Party candidate. Molinaro's running mate was former Rye City Councilmember Julie Killian. Third-party gubernatorial candidates appearing on the general election ballot included Howie Hawkins, repeat candidate for the Green Party; former Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner, running on the newly-created Serve America Movement line; and Larry Sharpe of the Libertarian Party, who was the runner-up in the 2016 Libertarian primary contest for Vice President of the United States.

Background

Incumbent Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo decided to seek re-election in 2014 to a second term in office. Governor Cuomo defeated Zephyr Teachout in a primary election, 63% to 33%, and went on to defeat the Republican nominee, Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, 54% to 40%, in the general election.
New York gubernatorial elections operate on a split primary system: governor and lieutenant governor candidates in each party run in separate primary elections. In the general election, candidates are chosen as unified governor/lieutenant governor tickets. New York allows electoral fusion, in which candidates may appear on multiple ballot lines in the same election. Candidates may count the votes they receive on all party lines toward their overall vote total, but only if the governor and lieutenant governor match on all of the parties.
The results of the gubernatorial election also determine ballot access and ballot order. A party's gubernatorial candidate must receive 50,000 votes or more for that party to obtain automatic ballot status in New York for the following four years.
The last Republican to win a gubernatorial election in New York was George Pataki in 2002.

Democratic primary

On November 15, 2016, incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced his intention to seek a third term in office. On May 23, 2018, incumbent governor Andrew Cuomo secured the nomination of the Democratic Party at the state convention after winning support from more than 95% of the state delegates. No other candidates qualified for the primary ballot at the convention, as they all failed to meet the required 25% delegate threshold. Actress and activist Cynthia Nixon sought to petition her way onto the Democratic primary ballot. By July 12, Nixon had obtained 65,000 petition signatures, which is more than four times the 15,000 required to force a primary election.

Candidates

Nominee

Polling

Results
On September 13, 2018, Cuomo defeated Nixon in the Democratic gubernatorial primary.

Debates and forums

Nominee

Kathy Hochul defeated New York City Councillor Jumaane Williams in the Democratic primary.

Republican primary

On May 23, 2018, the party unanimously nominated Marc Molinaro as its candidate for Governor of New York at its state convention. No challengers attempted to petition onto the primary ballot, so no Republican primary took place. Deputy Senate Majority Leader John A. DeFrancisco ran for the Republican nomination, but withdrew his candidacy on April 25, 2018, after party leaders—who had initially given him their support—threw their support to Molinaro instead.

Governor

Candidates

Nominee

Polling


Hypothetical polling		-------

Third-party candidates and independent candidates

Third parties with automatic ballot access

In addition to the Democratic and Republican Parties, six other political parties will have automatic ballot access; all six have chosen to exercise it. In order of ballot appearance, those parties are:
  • Conservative Party of New York State: On April 13, 2018, in what Party chairman Michael R. Long termed a "not very easy" decision, the Conservative Party Executive Committee selected Marc Molinaro over Deputy Senate Majority Leader John A. DeFrancisco as its gubernatorial endorsee.
  • *Nominee: Marc Molinaro
  • Green Party of New York: On April 12, 2018, Howie Hawkins, after initially implying after the 2014 election that he would not seek the office again, launched his third consecutive campaign for the position, his 21st campaign for public office.
  • *Nominee: Howie Hawkins, party co-founder and perennial candidate
  • **Running mate: Jia Lee, United Federation of Teachers chapter leader and public school teacher
  • Working Families Party: On April 14, 2018, by a 91–8 margin, the Working Families Party endorsed Cynthia Nixon as its gubernatorial candidate, with Jumaane Williams as her running mate. The endorsement came after the labor unions that formed part of Cuomo's political machine, who were able to force the party to nominate Cuomo instead of Zephyr Teachout in 2014, withdrew from the party, and Cuomo declined to seek the party's line. On September 13, 2018, after being defeated by Cuomo in the Democratic primary, Nixon declined to say whether she would continue to run for governor on the Working Families Party line. On October 3, the Working Families Party offered Cuomo and Hochul their party's ballot line. Cuomo and Hochul accepted that offer on October 5.
  • *Nominee: Andrew Cuomo
  • **Running mate: Kathy Hochul
  • Independence Party of New York: On December 23, 2017, the Party endorsed incumbent governor Andrew Cuomo for the third consecutive election cycle.
  • *Nominee: Andrew Cuomo
  • Women's Equality Party: The party endorsed Cuomo for re-election, as the party remains allied with the Cuomo campaign.
  • *Nominee: Andrew Cuomo
  • Reform Party of New York State: On May 19, after the party's executive committee deadlocked between Marc Molinaro and Joel Giambra in April, delegates at the Reform Party state convention nominated Republican frontrunner Molinaro for governor.
  • * Nominee: Marc Molinaro

    Independent candidates and third parties without automatic ballot access

Any candidate not among the eight qualified New York political parties was required to submit petitions to gain ballot access. Such candidates did not face primary elections. Third parties whose respective gubernatorial candidates received at least 50,000 votes in the general election secured automatic ballot access in all state and federal elections through the 2022 elections.

Libertarian Party

On July 12, 2017, Larry Sharpe, business consultant and runner-up in the 2016 Libertarian Party vice presidential primary, officially announced that he would run for Governor of New York in 2018. Sharpe was the first person to announce his candidacy to run against incumbent governor Andrew Cuomo. On August 19, 2018, the Libertarian Party announced it had collected over 30,000 signatures to place its ticket onto the November ballot. Sharpe's petitions survived a petition challenge.
  • Nominee: Larry Sharpe, business consultant and runner-up in the 2016 Libertarian Party vice presidential primary
  • * Running mate: Andrew Hollister, candidate for Rochester City Council in 2017

    Serve America Movement

On June 18, 2018, former Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner, after expressing informal interest in the Working Families and Reform nominations, entered the gubernatorial race as a third-party candidate. Miner "plans to run under the banner of an upstart new group, the Serve America Movement, which calls itself SAM, formed by people disaffected by the existing party structure after the 2016 elections. She will be the group's first candidate." Miner circulated designating petitions to create a SAM Party in New York, and on August 21, her campaign announced that it had submitted over 40,000 petition signatures. Miner's submitted petitions far exceeded the 15,000 required to qualify for the November ballot. Persons tied to the Cuomo campaign, after reviewing the petitions, failed to find enough specific objections to challenge their validity.
  • Nominee: Stephanie Miner, former state Democratic Party chairwoman and former mayor of Syracuse
  • *Running mate: Michael Volpe, mayor of Pelham

    Rent Is Too Damn High Party (disqualified)

, the party's founder and figurehead indicated on the party Web site that he would make another attempt at the office. He submitted petitions on August 21, 2018, with himself as the gubernatorial nominee and Christialle Felix as his running mate. When the ballot order was released, McMillan and the Rent Is Too Damn High Party had been disqualified and removed from the ballot.

Primary election

Fundraising

General election

Debates

Endorsements

Predictions

;Notes

Polling


Hypothetical polling		-----------

;with Cynthia Nixon as WFP nominee

Results

On November 6, 2018, the Cuomo-Hochul ticket defeated the Molinaro-Killian ticket by a margin of 59.6%–36.2%. Cuomo received 3,635,430 votes making him the top vote earner in any New York gubernatorial election.

Aftermath

Cuomo was sworn in for a third term as governor on January 1, 2019.
Howie Hawkins retained ballot access for the Green Party for four more years.
Stephanie Miner narrowly surpassed the 50,000-vote threshold to allow the Serve America Movement ballot access, on Line H.
The Libertarian Party of New York achieved ballot access with Larry Sharpe's 95,033 votes, the first time in the over 40-year history of the party that it has achieved the feat despite several previous efforts; Sharpe performed most strongly in the rural counties upstate, finishing with nearly 10% of the vote in Schuyler County and at or near 5% in most others.
The Women's Equality Party and Reform Party of New York both lost automatic ballot access by failing to receive 50,000 votes for the candidates on their lines, respectively Cuomo and Molinaro.
OWIKI.org. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.