The Brian Benjamin appointment and indictment (2021–2022)

Two days after Hochul became governor, on August 26, 2021, she appointed state Senator Brian Benjamin as her lieutenant governor [1]. Benjamin was sworn in on September 9, 2021. He had been questioned by the New York Board of Elections about a 2018 campaign payment to an event venue before his appointment [1].

On April 12, 2022, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York indicted Benjamin on bribery, conspiracy, wire fraud, and falsification of records charges, alleging he had directed a $50,000 state grant to a nonprofit controlled by a Harlem real estate developer in exchange for fraudulent campaign contributions to his unsuccessful 2021 New York City comptroller bid [2, 3]. The indictment also alleged Benjamin had provided false information on vetting forms while seeking the lieutenant governor's job [2].

Benjamin resigned the same day he was indicted. Hochul accepted his resignation immediately, but the episode raised questions about her administration's vetting process, particularly given press reports about Benjamin's prior campaign-finance issues that had circulated before his appointment [4]. The indictment was dismissed in December 2022, reinstated by the Second Circuit in March 2024, and ultimately dropped in January 2025 following the death of the key cooperating witness, Gerald Migdol [1].

The Buffalo Bills stadium deal (April 2022)

In the New York state budget passed in April 2022, Hochul earmarked more than a billion dollars in public funding to build a new $1.4 billion stadium for the Buffalo Bills, the football team in her home city. The deal, struck with the billionaire Pegula family that owns the team, was the largest direct public subsidy for an NFL stadium at the time, with New York's government putting up $850 million, or about 60 percent of construction costs [5, 6].

The deal drew criticism from multiple directions. During the Democratic primary debates, Rep. Tom Suozzi and NYC Public Advocate Jumaane Williams slammed Hochul over the price tag and the speed of the legislative process. "You can't ram through a billion-dollar taxpayer subsidy in four days," Suozzi told reporters [6].

A second line of criticism focused on the funding mechanism. More than $418 million of the state's $600 million share came from a delayed casino-related payment from the Seneca Nation, which had stopped revenue-sharing payments in 2017 over a dispute about whether its obligation had expired. The Hochul administration's pressure on the Seneca Nation drew its own criticism from tribal-sovereignty advocates [7].

A third line of criticism focused on a potential conflict of interest: Hochul's husband, William J. Hochul Jr., is general counsel and senior vice president at Delaware North, the Buffalo-based hospitality company that has operated concessions at the Bills stadium for 30 years, putting it on the inside track for the concessions contract at the new stadium [7]. Hochul's office said she had recused herself from matters involving her husband's employer.

The May 2024 Milken Institute "Black kids in the Bronx" remark

During a May 2024 speech at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles, Hochul said there were "young Black kids in the Bronx" who "don't even know what the word 'computer' is" [8]. The comment drew immediate backlash from Bronx state legislators, including Assembly Members Karines Reyes and John Zaccaro Jr., who called the underlying perception of Black and brown children in the Bronx "deeply disturbing" and "deeply concerning" [8].

Hochul apologized the following day, telling the New York Post that, of course, Black children in the Bronx knew what computers were, and that the substantive problem was access to technology and AI-era opportunity [8]. Critics argued the apology did not fully address the framing of the original comment.

The congestion pricing flip-flop (June 2024 to early 2025)

The most sustained and damaging policy controversy of Hochul's tenure was her June 5, 2024 announcement of an "indefinite pause" of New York City's congestion pricing program, weeks before the $15 base toll was set to begin on June 30 [9, 10].

The decision drew immediate criticism from transit advocates, environmental groups, disability rights advocates, the MTA itself, and many of Hochul's fellow Democrats at the local, state, and federal levels. Critics argued she had caved to suburban interests in a congressional election year [11]. The MTA was left with a $15 billion shortfall in its 2020–2024 capital program, which the state legislature did not replace before the end of the legislative session [10].

Two lawsuits were filed against Hochul in July 2024 over the pause, one by the City Club of New York arguing that only the MTA and its Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority had the power to implement or pause congestion pricing under the 2019 law, and a second by the Riders Alliance, the Sierra Club, and the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance arguing the pause violated New York's 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act and the 2021 Green Amendment [11]. The City Club's lawyers described Hochul's about-face as "quite literally, lawless" [11].

In a court filing in fall 2024, Hochul's attorneys argued that congestion pricing was a political matter for the legislature and ultimately voters to decide, not a legal one for the courts. Critics, including Riders Alliance spokesperson Danny Pearlstein, argued that the legislature had already approved the tolls more than five years earlier and that Hochul had paused them "for political reasons" [12].

On November 14, 2024, just days after the election, Hochul announced she was reviving the program at a reduced $9 base toll, set to begin January 5, 2025 [13]. She denied that election politics had played a role in either the pause or the timing of the revival [13]. The lower toll did not convert most of the pause's prior critics; the United Federation of Teachers, for example, said it was still moving forward with its lawsuit to permanently end congestion pricing [13].

Endorsing Mamdani amid Jewish community concerns (September 2025)

Hochul's September 14, 2025, New York Times op-ed endorsing Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City drew sharp criticism from pro-Israel Democrats and from her likely 2026 Republican challenger, U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik [14].

Stefanik said in a statement that Hochul now owned "every radical position" Mamdani held [14]. Some longtime Jewish Democratic voters, including former WJC senior official Menachem Rosensaft, wrote in October 2025 that they would not vote for Hochul again over the endorsement and were open to voting for a Republican alternative in 2026 [15].

The endorsement also opened the question of whether Mamdani's positions on Israel, including his pledge to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his support for the BDS movement, were now associated with the governor. Hochul publicly distanced herself from those positions in December 2025, declining to endorse Mamdani's arrest pledge and reaffirming her own pro-Israel stance [16]. Critics on both sides argued that the late distancing did not undo the political cost of the earlier endorsement.

In the 2026 re-election race

Hochul is up for re-election in November 2026, with Stefanik widely expected to be a leading Republican challenger. As of April 2026, primary polling and the broader political environment suggested a competitive race [14]. Whether the cumulative weight of the controversies above shapes the outcome, and how she handles the ongoing federal congestion pricing legal fight in particular, remains an open question.