Earlier this year, New York Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado removed himself from Gov. Kathy Hochul’s 2026 ticket and filed with the state Board of Elections himself, saying about his future in politics that, “All options are on the table, and I will be exploring them,” a statement some have taken to mean he’s eyeing the governor’s office himself.
Now, Delgado is urging the Democratic Party to adopt a new vision for the future of New York and the United States, focusing on material concerns like economic security while criticizing his own party as prioritizing the demands of corporations — and the profit motive — at the expense of working people.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
I’d like to start by asking you for your read on the state Democratic Party and what you think is behind the Republicans’ gains in New York. I’m also interested in what you think the Democrats can do to reverse this trend and win people back over in the state who might have drifted towards Republicans or who may have just stopped voting, period.
I made a point to outline this not long after the election in an op-ed. My belief is the status quo is broken. The Democratic Party has shifted away from centering its focus on economic security and economic freedom. And, as economic inequality has grown in our system — and it has consistently over the years — and as more and more money has been concentrated in the hands of a few, there’s been an ability to have that economic power be converted into political power.
And the decision making, whether it’s on health care, whether it’s on housing, whether it’s on wages, you name it, the decision making is biased in a direction that does not reflect everyday folks. It doesn’t reflect them. The party, in many respects, has catered too much to one side of the equation, so people, everyday folks who wake up trying to figure out how to cook food on their table; how they are going to make sure that they can have healthcare they can really afford; earn a good living; chase the American dream — more and more people feel like that possibility is less and less likely.
And we’re the ones who are championing that narrative. We’re the ones saying that we are for working families. We’re the ones saying that we’re about that and yet the conditions on the ground aren’t improving. So if the conditions on the ground aren’t improving then, of course, it’s going to create a void for somebody to exploit, for someone like Trump to step into that void and say, “I know you’re anxious, I know you’re frustrated, I know you’re disappointed in the way this is all going. Let me be the one to fix it for you.” He can leverage that in a way that I think has turned out to be very destructive.
I want to return to New York in just a minute, but you’ve written, and you’ve mentioned here, that you think the neoliberal era of the Democratic Party needs to end. However, that’s in tension with the party at the national level. I think about this recent Third Way retreat. Many Democrats are talking about becoming more moderate, more conservative, even, and I’m wondering how you square your vision with this trend among Democrats in Washington, DC. I believe it was Jesse Jackson who said the Democratic Party needs two wings to fly. I’m wondering how you think you can navigate this party in which you know there are there is certainly a faction within it that wants to continue the neoliberal order that you’ve described.
What I would say is I base my views on the trend lines that I’m experiencing and that I perceive based on the direct interactions that I have with the people, with working people. I don’t base them on discussions that I have with individuals within the party or elected officials. I base them on the actual people that I’m serving.
In those conversations, when I’m communicating with the people, what I most often hear is nothing is changing as far as my economic conditions are concerned. Things are becoming more and more expensive for me, and there seems to be a scarcity of things, and it then creates an opportunity for folks on the other side of the political spectrum, like a Trump, to demagogue and scapegoat based on that perceived sense of scarcity. You make it a zero-sum game, and then everybody’s basically trying their hardest to figure out how to get whatever they can get for themselves. Ultimately, we don’t have a unified front where everybody’s on the same page about saying, “Hey, wait a second. We’re all trying to make a living here. We’re all trying to get by, irrespective of race, irrespective of gender and sexual orientation. We’re all trying to make a living. Why is it so hard for all of us to make a living?”
We have to be able to address it, because if we don’t address it, then we will continue to be in the stock that we’re in, because people will not invest in the system. They will stay home; 500,000 Democrats stayed home in New York. So people are staying home. They don’t find the system working for them, even when given an alternative that can be as reckless, in my opinion, as what we’re seeing now, they’re not confident enough that the status quo as it is is all that much better. So it’s incumbent upon us to try our hardest as a party to meet those direct frustrations and economic needs.
Thinking about these material concerns and these material demands that people have. What do you see as a policy that could lead the charge in this respect? I think about how in 2016 and 2020 there was a lot of energy around “Medicare for all” that seems to have fallen out of the discourse in some ways, but I think the way that it was able to unify people could be instructive for a future Democratic Party. And I’m wondering what policy or policies you think the Democrats need to prioritize in future elections, regardless of who’s delivering that message for the party?
That’s a great question. I do believe healthcare is a very, very important issue for us to focus on. The last time we really made transformational change around healthcare was the ACA back in 2009. Back in 2018, I was a big proponent, and I remain a big proponent of a public option. I think there’s a broad-based coalition that we can build under the umbrella of a public option where we, for once and for all, decide we are not comfortable with the vast majority of folks being dependent on the insurance marketplace.
That is something that we as a society can make a decision on and having a public option allows us, allows people, to make a transformational change to our healthcare system and treats healthcare like the public good that it actually is. And it enables us to not have it exclusively tied to the profit motive, which it currently is; if you don’t qualify Medicaid or Medicare, it is exclusively tied to the profit motive. And so I 100% believe that health care is a defining issue moving forward for us as a party, and I think it’s something that can truly galvanize a lot of folks across this country, for sure.
Returning to New York, I’m wondering what you think the issues are that can help Democrats in New York. Specifically, you’ve talked about how Democrats and states need to serve as an example of how Democrats can govern and how they can be effective governors and return to their role as the party of a bigger paycheck. What do you think Democrats can do and need to do in New York to win back the trust of voters in the state and show that they can improve people’s lives?
I think it is focusing on concrete issues like health care, like housing, like wages, but in doing so, making sure that the solutions are centered around the public good and not entirely informed by the profit motive. I think public-private partnerships are good things to have, but the private aspect of that partnership cannot swallow up the public good.
My sense is is that the balance of power between everyday people and industry and corporations is out of whack, and we need leadership to recenter that balance, to make sure that the solutions we come up with actually are going to deliver in the communities we are trying to help. On the other end of that process, I believe that we have to, as those who believe in government, appreciate the fact that sometimes government can get in the way of itself, that government can be overly bureaucratic, can have too much red tape. So if we’re going to recommit to delivering meaningful outcomes to our communities in need, we need to be very clear on streamlining the process in the most effective and efficient way. Review those regulations that ultimately might be more of an impediment than they are protecting the community in a meaningful way.
Not all regulations are smart and good regulations, and I think it’s important for us as a party to understand and appreciate that if we’re going to invest in our communities, if we want to invest in our communities and invest in public goods, that we make sure that investment actually materializes. That does mean looking at government from a process standpoint that can be more impactful. And the last point that I would make, going back to the imbalance piece, is we have to shy away from this tendency to just give money away to industry and to corporations without having accountability for how that money flows back into our communities.
Do you think there’s an appetite for the sort of policy changes that you’re describing in New York leadership? I’m thinking about Mayor Adams, and also this upcoming mayoral race, with Andrew Cuomo appearing to be leading in the polls. I’m wondering, if you think that the people leading in the state and in the city have the appetite for the sort of change you think is needed, or if you think that there needs to be new leaders as well.
I know that I have the appetite that that I know I’m not going to speak for other people. I know that I have the appetite to engage on these issues in this way, and I know that for too long, we have been papering over these dynamics and not taking bold enough steps in a way that genuinely reflects what the people want. It is incumbent that those of us in my generation do everything we can to uplift these voices and empower these voices. Because I do think that my proximity to what’s going on, by virtue of being in my generation and a younger generation of leaders, puts me in a position to be more empathetic to what is happening on the ground.
I’m raising a family. I have young kids. I’m dealing with childcare issues, you know, so there’s a dimension to my real-life experiences that make me even more connected to what’s going on on the ground, and I think that is important when it comes to understanding how to chart a new path forward.
Lastly, I’m wondering what’s next for you. You’ve recently removed yourself from the gubernatorial ticket in the state, and you said that all options are open. There’s been speculation that you might run for governor yourself. There is dissatisfaction among a significant number of Democrats with the leadership of Senator Schumer, and I’m wondering what you’re thinking about in terms of your next steps, politically.
I’m considering all the options that might be available, but I want to be clear, the biggest thing for me right now is meeting this moment and making sure that I am articulating a vision that meets the needs of the folks I interact with every day.
Being lieutenant governor puts me in a position to continue to engage with folks all across the state, to give them voice, based on my engagement with them. Over the course of time I’m able to communicate with folks and build people, start to really name the different directions that we could be going in from a policy standpoint, and push the envelope in a way that I hope is constructive, that I hope creates an appetite for a real, thoughtful innovative approach.
We need to really be uncomfortable with the situation that we’re in right now. We should not be comfortable with the dynamics, and that means making sure that there are enough voices in the mix that aren’t just saying the same things, that are creating a conversation, that are creating options for folks out there who are trying to figure out what is the best way forward. How do we get through this period of great turmoil? How do we chart a path forward? And I am certainly of the mindset that we are not in a position to keep just doing the same things over and over again. We need people to step up to offer a different direction, a different vision, a different energy. I do think that is important. And for me, so much of what I’m doing right now is fundamentally grounded in doing exactly that.
Do you think there’s anyone in the party at the moment who is following the course you’ve just laid out and who is providing a robust opposition to the administration without sort of falling into comfortable patterns?
What I’m excited about in terms of the future and in terms of future leadership for the party, both in New York, but also outside of New York across the country, is those of us who ran in 2018, who were compelled to run in 2018, many of whom may have been outside of politics, myself included, before 2018 who I think, have stepped into politics with a different orientation to politics.
You know, a lot of us didn’t make our way up the ladder or up the food chain, if you will, in the typical political fashion, we were compelled to jump into politics because we were motivated by the times we were in. And so it’s more mission-oriented. And I think it’s not as wedded to typical party politics.
I believe that a leadership that is not as wedded to typical party leadership and all the different dimensions of that, is exactly the kind of leadership that we need right now in this moment, because I don’t believe a lot of people have a lot of faith in either political party, and I think it’s important for the next wave of leaders to be able to present themselves in a way that isn’t defined just by the fact that they happen to be a Democrat. Who are they on their own terms?
And I think it’s particularly helpful when you have individuals like myself who were able to find success in congressional districts where the district was won by Trump in 2016 and you were still able to win over and persuade individuals of all different political outlooks to rally around your vision, to rally around your value set, because you were able to make a genuine connection with those people, irrespective of political differentiation. So that’s, to me, what’s potentially exciting about this, to see what happens with that crop of leadership that I think is out there across the country.
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