Gov. Kathy Hochul was ranked the worst state leader in the US for protecting constituents’ freedoms, a scathing new study found.
Hochul ranked No. 50 in the Cato Institute’s 2026 “Freedom in the 50 States” list, scoring an “F” and falling behind the governors from Hawaii, California, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.
The annual study weighed the freedom of various state economic and personal policies — such as fiscal, housing, occupational, education, firearms, speech and medical — and graded each state a percentage out of 100 for how its local laws promoted freedoms for each.
This year’s study was the first to grade individual governors, and graded how their actions in office furthered or hampered their state’s freedoms.
Hochul scored a dismal 18.02% for how her policies promoted New Yorkers’ freedoms.
New York state, meanwhile, ranked 49th in the nation for overall freedoms with a 31.9% score — coming in just ahead of Hawaii at 29.24%.
Although the top and bottom of the gubernatorial freedom rankings largely skewed by party line, the results weren’t so red and blue.
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