Gov. Andrew Cuomo defeated Republican challenger Rob Astorino in the race for New York governor Tuesday, earning more than 50 percent of the vote.

“We said that we would not be pushed or pulled by the extreme forces on the left or the right, that we would always remember the guiding star is service to the people,” Cuomo said in his victory speech.

Cuomo, the incumbent, beat Astorino, a Westchester County executive and media personality, despite Astorino focusing his campaign around how New York state has fared under Cuomo. Astorino posed the question to voters, “Is New York state winning or is New York state losing today?” but his efforts came up short.

The other losing candidates in the race were Syracuse resident and Green Party nominee Howie Hawkins, Libertarian Michael McDermott and Sapient Party nominee Steven Cohn.

With 97 percent of the polls reporting, Cuomo officially defended his office with about 54 percent of the vote, or 1,801,539 votes. Astorino garnered 40 percent of the vote, or 1,350,034 votes. Hawkins, who received around 1 percent of the vote in 2010, received 5 percent of the vote, or 167,117 number of votes.

“Today was a day for politics. Tomorrow is a day for governing and better governing is what New York needs,” Astorino said in his concession speech.

Cuomo’s running mate, Kathy Hochul, was elected as lieutenant governor. Hochul graduated from Syracuse University in 1980 before studying law at the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University. Hochul defeated Chris Moss, who was the running mate of Astorino. She replaces Lt. Gov. Bob Duffy, who is retiring.

In 2010, Cuomo beat Republican Carl Paladino with 63 percent of the vote to Paladino’s 33 percent. Members of the 128th Assembly District, which Syracuse University lies in, voted just over 50 percent for Cuomo in 2010, according to the New York state board of elections website.

In his victory speech, Cuomo discussed the unity of New York and how he hopes to make New York an even more diverse state.

“At the end of the day we are one, we are united and that’s what makes us special. We are, at the end of the day, upstate and downstate, but we are one state,” he said.

Cuomo thanked voters for four more years as governor and foreshadowed what he hopes to do with his second term.

Said Cuomo: “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. We’re not going back to where we were, we’re going higher than we ever were before and we’re going to do it together.”

Published on November 5, 2014 at 12:43 am

Contact Justin: jmatting@syr.edu | @jmattingly306