At event about expanding city childcare, Mamdani says Blakeman trying to ‘exploit’ fear of New Yorkers

(Oct. 19, 2026 / JNS)

Standing alongside New York Gov. Kathy Hochul at an event about expanding city-funded childcare in the city, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani lashed out at Bruce Blakeman, who is running against Hochul.

Mamdani was responding to a reporter who asked whether Blakeman’s decision to campaign on the subway following a fatal shooting at a Midtown Manhattan station over the weekend was a “fair” campaign tactic.

“I don’t think that Bruce Blakeman is interested in what’s fair in the way that he has run this campaign,” the mayor said. “I think what we’ve seen is he is looking to exploit any fear that a New Yorker may have, at any time, for his political benefit.”

Mamdani said that Hochul “has been more committed to the city of New York than so many of her predecessors.”

The governor “has delivered not only funding but policy support as well,” the mayor said.

“When I look at Bruce Blakeman, I also see someone whose own executive experience decades ago was one that left his constituents in such a financial bind that the state had to take on more of an active role,” Mamdani said. “How is that the person that is running to now become the executive of the state?”

The mayor, who Jewish leaders have said is endangering Jews with his anti-Israel statements, was asked what is at stake in the city in the gubernatorial election.

The announcement on Monday that the city would pay for another 10,000 children’s daycare would not have happened “if Bruce Blakeman was the governor,” Mamdani said.

Hochul “measures her success by the success of the families she’s elected to represent,” but Blakeman “is running on a vision where he wants city government and state government to do less—less assistance to working families, less compassion for those who are needy across our city and state,” Mamdani said.

“He wants to cut the Medicaid budget in half,” the mayor said. “He wants to work closer with ICE.”

Mamdani also accused Blakeman of disparaging parents, who would benefit from universal childcare.

“He looks at a program like universal childcare and says that it’s a reward for lazy parents who are gonna sit at home and watch ‘The View,’” he said.

“That’s the idea that parents are lazy,” Mamdani said. “I do not even know how you can come to justify that when you look at all that’s required to raise a child in this city.”

Mamdani added that Blakeman had a “vision for this state” of “cruelty and punishment.”