Kathy Hochul
Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks during a rally for New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa)
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) claimed she thought the crowd was chanting about the Buffalo Bills when she was booed at New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s rally on Sunday.
The rally was held Sunday evening in Queens. Mamdani, the frontrunner in the mayoral race, was joined by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and a host of other prominent Democrats on stage. During one part of the rally, the crowd booed as Hochul spoke and broke out into chants of “tax the rich.” Although Hochul has endorsed Mamdani for mayor, she’s been reluctant to support his plan to increase taxes on the wealthy.
Eventually, Mamdani came to the rescue and the crowd’s mood shifted when he appeared on stage. He took Hochul’s hand and raised it in the air with hers as the boos turned to cheers.
.@KathyHochul almost got booed off stage to chants of “TAX THE RICH”—& forced @ZohranKMamdani on stage early to calm the crowd.
During her speech, largely critical of DC, intermittent heckling culminated.
Then Mamdani came out, grabbed her hand, raised it & walked her out. pic.twitter.com/A8NzxTgO8S
— Bernadette Hogan (@bern_hogan) October 26, 2025
On Monday morning, Hochul was asked about the reception she received from the crowd. She said she couldn’t make out the words from the chant and thought the crowd was saying something about the Bills — a team that plays more than 400 miles away from where the rally was held.
“I thought they were saying, ‘Let’s go Bills,'” Hochul told the media. “I wasn’t sure. I mean, when you’re up there, I heard some noise. I heard a lot of cheers. But later on, it became clear to me that there is a — I know there’s a passion for that. I went in there as the leader of the Democratic Party, whose job it is to unify, and unify behind the Democratic nominee. I loved the energy out there. I told them that. And now, what I wanna do is bottle all that up and use it in a few days.”
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