Unlike Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Governor Kathy Hochul has remained far away from the front lines of the nurses strike. Since day one, she has tweeted far more times about her beloved Buffalo Bills. Her tepid calls for negotiations show far less passion.

Ideologically, Hochul is not troubled by the enormous salary disparities between nurses and hospital CEOs. As Bernie Sanders highlighted at a January 20 rally, the CEOs of the three hospital networks facing strikes make an average of $16 million per year. Despite the 1 percent’s upcoming windfall from Donald Trump’s tax cuts, the governor is nonetheless resisting Mamdani and New York City Democratic Socialists of America (NYC-DSA)’s demand to share the wealth. When crowds chant “Tax the rich!” she hears “Let’s Go Bills.”

Hochul’s position on the strike also may be influenced by practical considerations. The Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA) is a historically large donor to the state Democratic Party. In 2025, GNYHA dropped over $2 million into Dem campaign coffers.

Of that amount, $1.5 million went to the party’s “housekeeping” account, or general fund. which is essentially controlled by Hochul. That donation provided about one-third of the account’s total haul for the year. The Democrats’ state senate and assembly housekeeping entities received $250,000 apiece. The Brooklyn and Bronx county organizations reeled in far more modest sums. Meanwhile, state Republican accounts collected $150,000 from GNYHA in 2025.

The expenditures from the Democrats’ general fund in 2025 went to a party account handling federal races as well as to local county committees. The assembly intake from GNYHA was a small fraction of their account’s total haul of $3.6 million, most of which came from unions and industry groups. That entity’s expenditures went primarily to networking events.

Brooklyn assemblywoman Phara Souffrant Forrest, a former member of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), says that Hochul first revealed her hand in the current conflict when she issued an executive order prior to the strike that made it easier for the hospitals to maintain staffing during the walkout.  In addition, the NYC-DSA-backed legislator observes that Hochul “has not been on the picket line, which is a clear sign that she does not stand with nurses.”

GNYHA was one of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s most powerful allies during his decade in office. The group even took credit for the governor’s controversial liability waiver for nursing homes during the pandemic. When nearly all his key supporters called for Cuomo to resign during the sexual harassment scandal in 2021, GNYHA stood by their man.

By not using her leverage to end the strike, Hochul, like Cuomo, is playing ball with the hospital execs. The governor’s office did not respond to the Indypendent’s request for comment.