In 2018, as a relative unknown, Antonio Delgado unseated an incumbent Republican in an upstate, mostly white, mostly rural district to win election to Congress. 

During COVID-19, he successfully advocated for New York localities by ensuring counties, towns and villages directly received $400 million in federal funding under the American Rescue Plan. He held over 60 town halls during the COVID-19 pandemic and helped secure money for rural broadband. In 2022, he was then plucked by Gov. Kathy Hochul to serve as her lieutenant governor, a spot he won outright in an election later that year. 

Since then, Delgado’s story hasn’t been quite so rosy.

After a public split from Hochul on President Joe Biden’s fitness to serve, Delgado split from her politically and announced he would be running against the incumbent for the Democratic nomination for governor in 2026.  

“I was able to get 18 bills signed into law during those two terms,” Delgado told Capital Tonight when asked about his record. “I have a record of not just delivering in terms of legislative accomplishments, I think I also have a record of engagement with the people on the ground in a meaningful way.”

During his abbreviated tenure as an active lieutenant governor, Delgado helped create the Office of Civic Engagement, as well as regional hate and bias prevention units across the state. He has since been stripped of his office and staff. 

Delgado has said that he isn’t impressed with his boss’ record, which he has described as “tinkering around the edges." Instead, addressing child poverty statistics in the state, he said that he wants to “boldly invest in people directly," which may mean raising taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers to fund “place-based community intervention” in cities like Rochester and Syracuse.

Earlier Wednesday, Gov. Hochul told Pix 11, “I don’t want to lose more people to Palm Beach" when asked about New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s plan to raise taxes. Delgado referenced the governor’s comment when explaining his own position on taxes.

“All options should be on the table, and the notion that we wouldn’t contemplate raising taxes on the super wealthy, or that we wouldn’t contemplate making sure that larger corporations pay more into the system, to me, is the exact type of ‘maintain the status quo, do what you need to do just to maintain power’ as opposed to actually thinking about what is required,” he stated.

Hochul has raised corporate taxes, but has held the line on raising new income taxes.

“We have to be willing to be bolder. Whether it’s our tax regime or our regulatory regime,” he said. “I was talking to a small business owner earlier today who was basically saying, and I totally agree, where is the effort to actually make small business growth and generation less burdensome for folks?”

Capital Tonight reached out to the Hochul campaign, but it did not offer an on-the-record comment.