President Donald Trump will campaign with Republican Bruce Blakeman in Syracuse on Oct. 9, taking the governor's race to the region where Gov. Kathy Hochul looks most vulnerable.
The visit was first reported by a source familiar with the planning and would be Trump's first trip to Syracuse since taking office. He is also weighing more upstate stops later this month. The venue has not been announced, and neither the White House nor the Blakeman campaign has confirmed the plans.
Blakeman has reason to want the help. Hochul leads statewide in a recent poll of likely voters, but Blakeman pulled ahead among upstate voters in the same survey.
Statewide: Hochul 50%, Blakeman 41%
Upstate: Blakeman 47%, Hochul 44%
Hochul's cushion is thinner than the 17-point advantage she held over Lee Zeldin at a comparable point in 2022. A separate poll released the same day put her lead at 19 points, though both surveys show Blakeman holding roughly 40% of the vote in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans about two to one.
Blakeman is also holding his own party better, leading Republicans 88% to 8% while Hochul leads Democrats 81% to 11%. His favorability sits at 35% to 34%, essentially even.
Trump stumped for Blakeman on Long Island in August, where he called Hochul a nightmare on crime. Blakeman has built his campaign on public safety, taxes and opposition to a Hochul-backed plan to fold Brooklyn's Maimonides Medical Center into the city hospital system. Sources said his campaign has been seeking Trump's presence in parts of New York where the governor is weakest.
The two candidates meet for their only televised debate Oct. 13 in Manhattan, three weeks before Election Day on Nov. 3.
