Gov. Kathy Hochul declared winner within minutes, AP projects

New York polls have just closed tonight and we have some breaking news for you. I'm your host, Sharon Crowley, and I'm going to check right now with our decision desk. Is that correct, Alexander? All right. The Associated Press has declared that New York Governor Kathy Hochul will remain in power. They have just called the race for Kathy Hochul. She defeated her Republican challenger, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman. We're going to get right out to our Morgan McKay. She is live in Midtown Manhattan tonight, and she is at the Hochul headquarters now. Morgan, we just called the race here. The Associated Press did. What are you hearing from the campaign? Hey Sharon, I don't think that message has come down to viewers yet, maybe this is the announcement that's going to be happening right now, but as you can see a lot of people, oh there we go. They just announced it now, announcing that Governor Kathy Hochul has won. So you hear people just all of a sudden, I think it was faster than a lot of people were expecting. As you said, polls just closed at 9 p.m. People just started trickling in at about 8 p.m. here inside Hochul's watch party tonight. Mayor Zuccarino just finished speaking on stage. He talked about the historic partnership he has with Hochul, especially looking at past mayors and past governors. I mean, most recently, former Governor Andrew Andrew Cuomo had a very, uh, frictional, uh, relationship, frictional, I'm not sure it's a word, but the relationship was, uh, full of friction, uh, between Cuomo and former mayor Bill de Blasio, but a lot of energy here tonight. Again, though, people still seeming a little surprised that this got called so early, but a lot happening here, uh, and they have a few more speakers as well before Governor Governor Hochul comes to take the stage, but as you see behind me, the assembly speaker. Speaker Carl Heastie, he's speaking, and next to him is the Senate Majority Leader, Andrea Stewart-Cousins. They've got pretty good snacks. Thanks, Sharon. I actually snagged. I thought there was going to be more to talk about, more time to talk about things. They've got some pretzels, some hot dogs, and so it's a lot going on. But back to you. And a lot of joy. Morgan, just before I let you go, Governor Kathy Hochul worked pretty hard for this victory, even though she was ahead for the entire race. We even saw her in Flushing, Queens this morning, not leaving anything to chance Bruce Blakeman, trying to give her a run for his money. But it is a deep, deep blue state, so she had the advantage, the wind back, if you will. So when you get Kathy Hochul on the podium there, we'll dip right back in and take her speech live. Perfect. And as you said, Sharon, there's a lot of pressure on Hochul this year to do well, because if you look back to 2022, she only won the election by about six points. And so. A lot of Democrats blamed her for some down-ballot losses, some congressional losses, and so now they're hoping to see Governor Hochul at least win by double digits to help some of these down-ballot races, some of these swing districts, and so I think we're going to have to see how far this gap is of Hochul winning, but if it's called this early, it's probably a pretty big gap. Yeah, it certainly sounds like that. We will look for that. And very surprising that we learned so, so quickly. Thank you, Morgan Mackay. We appreciate it. And we'll dip back in when we see the governor.