Last week, Governor Kathy Hochul gave her annual State of the State speech, in which she touted her accomplishments and laid out her priorities as she seeks reelection to a second full term this November.

The first hurdle to clear is winning the Democratic primary on June 23. She’s facing a challenge from her own lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado, who is mounting an underdog campaign, attacking his boss from her political left.

On Thursday, senior reporter Sam Mellins spoke with Lieutenant Governor Delgado about how Hochul’s agenda this year compares to the platform he’s running on. This transcript of their conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Since Governor Kathy Hochul endorsed New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani in September, the unlikely allies have presented a united front. That dynamic continued during and after Hochul’s annual State of the State speech Tuesday, which laid out an agenda that had significant overlap with Mamdani’s campaign promises — but also key differences.

Mamdani campaigned on making child care universal and free in New York City. On Tuesday, Hochul reiterated her pledges to put billions of dollars toward child care for children as young as 2 in the city, and expand child care vouchers and pre-K funding across the state.

Mamdani, who as an assemblymember often criticized Hochul, hailed her after the speech for “transforming the lives” of New York City’s children and “making our state affordable for thousands of parents.”

New York Focus and Columbia Journalism Investigations are excited to collaborate with and support local newsrooms across the state examining New York’s conviction integrity units. Over the last year, our Innocence Ignored investigative series has demonstrated the ways that conviction integrity units — special units within District Attorney’s offices — uphold the broken system they were meant to fix, and leave people with wrongful conviction cases languishing in prison.

In addition to the published series, reporters have compiled databases using public records to support journalists and researchers in expanding on their reporting.