Kathy Hochul, Bruce Blakeman clash over immigration, data centers, energy and President Donald Trump in lone debate

Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul and Republican rival Bruce Blakeman squared off in the lone campaign debate of the gubernatorial election on Tuesday night, sparring over crime, immigration, data centers, tariffs, energy prices and President Donald Trump.

They fought over prison guards, a high-profile rape case at Cornell University, natural gas drilling and who was a bigger union supporter during a hard-hitting, fast-paced hour hosted by NY1/Spectrum News.

Some of their sharpest exchanges came over Trump — Hochul repeatedly reminding voters of the Nassau County  executive's close ties with the president and the Republican saying the governor uses Trump as an excuse for her record.

"You don’t have the spine to stand up to Donald Trump," Hochul said at one point.

"Trump. Trump. Trump. That’s all you can say," Blakeman said at another.

"Well, you love him," she replied.

"And you blame him" for everything, the Republican answered, before the news anchors struggled to regain control of the questioning.

Primarily, the focus on Trump came on a range of issues: Whether the war in Iran, an array of international tariffs and the trade war with Canada was to blame for rising utility, gas and grocery bills.

"Don’t forget it’s the war in Iran that’s driving up energy costs," Hochul said.

"It’s because of you," Blakeman countered. He cited the state’s high taxes on power and surcharges to fund green energy projects.

On multiple occasions, the Republican sought to take over the conversation by focusing on immigration and high-profile crimes committed by people in the country illegally.

Blakeman contended incidents such as the shooting of a man in Manhattan last week by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents was the result of Hochul not cooperating with federal officials seeking to detain and deport people.

"If you cooperate with federal law enforcement, that makes your community safer," Blakeman said. Establishing "sanctuary cities" and banning local law enforcement from cooperating is "why things like this happen."

"This is absurd," Hochul replied. She has signed a law banning cooperation with ICE agents on civil matters but allows it on criminal matters. Further, she noted crime levels in New York City and around the state are at the lowest in decades, following a pandemic spike.

Hochul raised the issue of a man, who was detained by ICE, dying at Nassau County Correctional Center after not receiving proper medical care, as well as Blakeman's special deputy program she called a militia.

The candidates took clearly opposite views on the issue of the rapid spread of data centers and artificial intelligence.

Hochul noted she signed a one-year moratorium on the building of data centers. She said the state needs a pause to put in policies about energy and water use and benefits a host community will receive. She frequently pointed out Blakeman’s contrasting view.

"Get this: He supports hyperscale data centers ... He wants data centers using all our rare farmland," she said.

Blakeman has opposed a statewide moratorium because he says communities should make their own decisions. He accused Hochul of waiting too late to engage the issue.

"What have you been doing for the last four years?" the Republican said. "Why didn’t you get all the stakeholders in the same room and figure it out instead of saying no to the fastest growing industry in the world?"

The rivals repeatedly went tit-for-tat over a range of issues. He favors drilling for natural gas in the Southern Tier; she opposes. He wouldn’t take a position on New York City phasing out horse-drawn carriages; she favors.

She denounced his use of fake images of her in a campaign ad. He defended the use of the artificial-intelligence created images as just a tool that people recognized as such.

Hochul strongly defended her firing of 2,000 prison guards in 2025 who went on a wildcat strike and forced the state to bring in National Guard troops.

"There never would have been a strike if I was governor," Blakeman said.

He pivoted to refer to a short Long Island Rail Road strike and another by a nurses group and called Hochul the "most anti-union governor in the history of New York."

"They walked out the door and what do you want me to do?" Hochul said, saying the action at prisons endangered other guards, staff and inmates. "I sure as hell fired them."

One issue that, perhaps surprisingly, didn’t come up until late in the debate: New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Blakeman has spent much of the campaign trying to tie Hochul to the mayor, whom he calls antisemitic. But the Republican brought up the mayor only after he was asked about some recent remarks he made to Jewish leaders saying Mamdani wouldn’t act if riots hit their communities.

Hochul said the claim was an "insult to all those men and women" of the NYPD.

A recent high-profile rape case at Cornell University involving a fraternity also divided the candidates. Hochul recently appointed the state’s attorney general office as a special prosecutor to reopen a case the local district attorney passed on. She pushed back when asked whether she was prejudging the case before the investigation, saying: “I’m not the prosecutor [on] this case but is seems the boys in the fraternity tried to cover up what they had done” and the woman had been denied an opportunity to be heard.

Blakeman sought to blame Hochul — because New York’s governor serves as an ex officio trustee of Cornell, for not calling for an investigation sooner.

Hochul is running for a second full term, having become New York’s first female governor in 2021 when Andrew M. Cuomo resigned and winning election in 2022 over Long Island Republican Lee Zeldin.

Blakeman has been Nassau County executive since being elected in 2021 when he upset incumbent Democrat Laura Curran; he won reelection last year. Before running for governor, he took unsuccessful shots at campaigning for state comptroller and U.S. Senate.

The latest independent public polls showed Hochul with anywhere from a 9- to 12-point lead over Blakeman. Generally, about 5%-8% are undecided.

The Democrat also has a big money advantage: She had $18.5 million in campaign funds to Blakeman’s $178,000, according to reports filed by Oct. 3.

Election Day is Nov. 3. Early voting begins Oct. 24.

Newsday's Keshia Clukey and Steve Hughes contributed to this story.

By Yancey Roy

yancey.roy@newsday.com@yanceyroy