RESULTS: New York holds primary elections

State of New York in the background with a red to blue gradient. — Insider

New York is holding primaries for governor, lieutenant governor, and state assembly on Tuesday. Polls close at 9 p.m. ET.

Congressional and New York State Senate primaries will be conducted in August because of a delay in finalized redistricting maps.

The races and the stakes:

Gov. Kathy Hochul, the first woman to lead the Empire State, will face voters for the first time since taking over for former Gov. Andrew Cuomo after several overlapping scandals led to his resignation in August 2021.

It will be an early test of the Buffalo native's support in New York City outside of a lieutenant governor race, where she nearly lost to Jumaane Williams in 2018. Williams, now the New York City public advocate, is once again challenging Hochul from the left, with Rep. Tom Suozzi of Long Island attacking her from the right.

Steven Greenberg of Siena College, one of the top New York pollsters, recently told Insider that Hochul is still a long way off from Cuomo in terms of name recognition.

She's still the favorite to win, "assuming she gets through June and November, which at the moment I will make that assumption until I see something to change that," Greenberg said.

On the Republican side, party-endorsed Rep. Lee Zeldin of Long Island will try to prevail over 2014 gubernatorial nominee Rob Astorino. Andrew Giuliani — son of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani — and Harry Wilson are also running.

"And there is the Giuliani factor, because nobody in this state knows Andrew Giuliani, yet he has the best favorability among Republicans — by far — among the four candidates," Greenberg told Insider. "And our callers, I can assure you, say Andrew Giuliani, but I can assure you the respondents are not hearing the word Andrew."

Greenberg pointed to GOP turnout in 2010's primary at 18% as a reasonable benchmark for what to expect on election night.

The four-way Republican field could mean the winner comes away with as little as 30-something percentage points of the vote, making this race far from a lock for Zeldin, who has remained the favorite.

On the lieutenant governor side, Democratic candidates include Ana María Archila, Diana Reyna, and Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, who Hochul brought on after her first lieutenant governor, Brian Benjamin, was indicted and then arrested on federal bribery charges earlier this year.

Archila is aligned with Williams, while Reyna is running as Suozzi's informal running mate.

For the Republicans, the lieutenant governor primary was canceled and Zeldin's pick, New York Police Department Deputy Inspector Commanding Officer Alison Esposito, has already clinched the nomination.