2018 New York gubernatorial election


The 2018 New York gubernatorial election occurred on November 6, 2018. Incumbent Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo won a third term, defeating Republican Marc Molinaro and several minor party candidates. Cuomo received 59.6% of the vote to Molinaro's 36.2%.
Cuomo defeated actress and activist Cynthia Nixon in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Cuomo's running mate, Lt. Governor Kathy Hochul, beat New York City councillor Jumaane Williams in the Democratic primary for the lieutenant governorship. 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 of New York (state)|New York State|Reform] Party candidate. Molinaro's running mate was former Rye City Councilmember Julie Killian.
On Election Day, Cuomo won reelection with 59.6% of the vote, defeating Molinaro by a margin of 23%. Cuomo won New York City by 81.5% to Molinaro's 15.2%. He also prevailed by 10% in Long Island and Rockland County, and won Westchester County by 36%. To date, Cuomo's 3.6 million votes are the highest received by a candidate in a gubernatorial election in New York's history.

Background

Incumbent 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. His victory — and his vote tallies in rural upstate New York counties — declined in his bid for reelection, but Cuomo was still reelected.
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.
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, Gov. Cuomo announced his intention to seek a third term in office. On May 23, 2018, 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 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 signatures, which is more than 4 times the 15,000 to force a primary election.

Candidates

Nominee

Eliminated in primary

Withdrew

Declined

Debates and forums

  • Hofstra University – August 29, 2018 – WCBS-TV

Results

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

Lieutenant governor

Nominee

Eliminated in primary

Results

Kathy Hochul narrowly 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

Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		John
DeFrancisco		Marc
Molinaro		OtherUndecided
Siena CollegeApril 8–12, 2018––18%18%0%53%
Siena CollegeMarch 11–16, 20181704.0%21%17%0%49%

Third-party candidates and independent candidates

Third parties with automatic ballot access

In addition to the Democratic and Republican Parties, six other political parties had automatic ballot access; all six chose to exercise it. In order of ballot appearance, those parties are:

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. At the time, 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, but due to a 2020 law to change the requirements, four parties lost that access in 2020.

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.

Rent Is Too Damn High Party (disqualified)

Jimmy McMillan, the party's founder and figurehead, indicated on the party website 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.

General election

Polling

Aggregate polls

Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Andrew
Cuomo
Marc
Molinaro
Stephanie
Miner
Howie
Hawkins
Larry
Sharpe
OtherUndecided
Research Co.November 1–3, 2018450± 4.6%54%37%–––3%6%
Siena CollegeOctober 28 – November 1, 2018641± 3.9%49%36%2%2%3%0%7%
Quinnipiac UniversityOctober 10–16, 2018852± 4.4%58%35%–––2%5%
Gravis Marketing October 4–8, 2018783± 3.5%48%25%8%6%13%––
Siena CollegeSeptember 20–27, 2018701± 3.9%56%38%–––0%4%
Liberty Opinion Research August 29–30, 20182,783± 1.9%46%43%––––11%
Quinnipiac UniversityJuly 12–16, 2018934± 4.1%57%31%–––0%8%
Zogby AnalyticsJune 27 – July 3, 2018708± 3.7%50%27%10%4%––9%
Zogby AnalyticsJune 27 – July 3, 2018708± 3.7%49%27%11%–––12%
Zogby AnalyticsJune 27 – July 3, 2018708± 3.7%52%32%––––15%
Siena CollegeJune 4–7, 2018745± 3.7%56%37%–––1%5%
Quinnipiac UniversityApril 26 – May 1, 20181,076± 3.7%57%26%–––2%12%
Siena CollegeApril 8–12, 2018692± 4.3%57%31%–––0%9%
Siena CollegeMarch 11–16, 2018772± 4.0%57%29%–––0%11%

with Cynthia Nixon as WFP nominee

Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Andrew
Cuomo
Marc
Molinaro
Cynthia
Nixon
Stephanie
Miner
Howie
Hawkins
Larry
Sharpe
OtherUndecided
Siena CollegeSeptember 20–27, 2018701± 3.9%50%28%10%1%1%2%0%8%
Liberty Opinion Research August 29–30, 20182,783± 1.9%31%30%14%5%5%5%–10%
Quinnipiac UniversityJuly 12–16, 2018934± 4.1%43%23%13%1%2%3%1%14%
Zogby AnalyticsJune 27 – July 3, 2018708± 3.7%44%26%14%6%3%––7%
Gravis Marketing June 4–7, 2018654± 3.8%43%15%15%–4%6%–18%
Quinnipiac UniversityApril 26 – May 1, 20181,076± 3.7%40%23%20%–––0%15%

with Cynthia Nixon as Democratic nominee

Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Cynthia
Nixon 		Marc
Molinaro 		OtherUndecided
Siena CollegeJune 4–7, 2018745± 3.7%46%35%2%15%

with John DeFrancisco

Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Andrew
Cuomo 		John
OtherUndecided
Siena CollegeApril 8–12, 2018692± 4.3%56%32%1%9%
Siena CollegeMarch 11–16, 2018772± 4.0%57%28%1%11%

with Carl Paladino

Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Andrew
Cuomo 		Carl
Paladino 		Undecided
Marist CollegeJune 6–10, 2017703± 3.7%57%26%17%

with Rob Astorino

Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Andrew
Cuomo 		Rob
Astorino 		Undecided
Marist CollegeJune 6–10, 2017703± 3.7%58%26%16%

with Chris Gibson

Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Andrew
Cuomo 		Chris
Gibson 		Undecided
Public Policy PollingApril 7–10, 20161,403± 2.6%49%26%26%

with Donald Trump Jr.

Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Andrew
Cuomo 		Donald
Trump Jr. 		Undecided
Marist CollegeJune 6–10, 2017703± 3.7%62%27%11%

with Harry Wilson

Poll sourceDate
administered		Sample
size		Margin
of error		Andrew
Cuomo 		Harry
Wilson 		Undecided
Marist CollegeJune 6–10, 2017703± 3.7%58%22%20%

Results

By county

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican
Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

By congressional district

Cuomo won 20 of 27 congressional districts, including two held by Republicans. Molinaro won seven, including three that elected Democrats.
DistrictCuomoMolinaroRepresentative
49.0%48.6%Lee Zeldin
51%47%Peter T. King
57%41%Thomas Suozzi
58%40%Kathleen Rice
88%10%Gregory Meeks
69%28%Grace Meng
86%8%Nydia Velázquez
87%10%Hakeem Jeffries
85%11%Yvette Clarke
80%16%Jerry Nadler
52%46%Max Rose
82%13%Carolyn Maloney
92%5%Adriano Espaillat
80%16%Alexandria Ocasio Cortez
95%4%Jose E. Serrano
77%21%Eliot Engel
60%37%Nita Lowey
48%49%Sean Patrick Maloney
42%53%Antonio Delgado
47%46%Paul Tonko
35%59%Elise Stefanik
36%56%Anthony Brindisi
37%54%Tom Reed
44%47%John Katko
52%42%Joe Morelle
58%37%Brian Higgins
34%61%Chris Collins

Analysis and aftermath

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 in history.
Cuomo was sworn in for a third term as governor on January 1, 2019. He would resign from the governorship on August 10, 2021, following sexual harassment allegations and a nursing home scandal that plagued his third term. Cuomo also faced poor polling numbers; he barely polled ahead of Republican Lee Zeldin and Rob Astorino in 2021.
Molinaro's crushing election defeat and the Republican loss of the State Senate caused many members in the New York GOP to turn openly against then-Chairman Edward Cox, who they blamed for failing to financially or structurally support the party's election campaigns. On May 27, 2019, Cox announced that he would not run for another term as chair that year, instead choosing to join Donald Trump's reelection campaign. On July 2, the state party committee elected Nick Langworthy as the new party chairman. Upstate New York, however, voted for Molinaro, as he received 50.7 percent of the vote there to Cuomo's 43 percent.
Howie Hawkins lost ballot access for the Green Party under new requirements as of December 2021.
Stephanie Miner also lost her ballot access for the Serve America Movement as of New York State election law of December 2021. The Libertarian Party of New York lost their ballot access with Larry Sharpe's 95,033 votes under new New York State election law requirements as of December 2021. The Women's Equality Party and Reform Party of New York both lost automatic ballot access by failing to meet the requirements of the New York State election law of December 2021.
, this, along with the concurrent attorney general election, Senate election and Comptroller election, is the last time Richmond or Suffolk counties have voted Democratic in a statewide race. This is also the last time Nassau and Rockland counties voted Democratic in a gubernatorial election, and conversely the last time Schenectady and Columbia counties voted Republican.