Letitia James Ran Ahead of Hochul Outside New York City and Won Her Race by About 20 Points

Letitia James won another term as New York's attorney general on November 3, 2026, beating Republican Saritha Komatireddy by about 20 points in the unofficial count, and she did it by running ahead of Governor Kathy Hochul everywhere outside New York City. NBC News projected James the winner, and Fox 5 New York, drawing on Associated Press results, reported her reelected by the morning of November 4. Kalshi's contract on which party would hold the office settled on the Democratic side at 1:06 a.m. that morning, according to the exchange's own data.

The unofficial results available on November 5, 2026 show how wide the margin is. With 12,179 of 13,187 election districts reporting in the State Board of Elections' unofficial election-night results, as compiled by New York Focus and last updated at 10:22 p.m. on November 4, James had 3,481,797 votes and Komatireddy 2,302,654, about 60.2% to 39.8% of the votes cast for the two candidates. Those figures are unofficial, they exclude absentee, affidavit and military ballots counted after election night, and they become final only when the state certifies the count. James has held the office since January 1, 2019, according to Wikidata.

What the attorney general market had priced

The New York attorney general market was priced as a hold, slightly less firmly than the governor's race. On November 2, 2026, the day before the vote, Kalshi had the Democratic Party at 95% to win the office, the cheapest Yes on that side and level with Polymarket's 95%, and Polymarket had the Republican Party at 4%, against Kalshi's 5%. On the same day Kalshi had the governor's race at 96% for the Democratic side, so the market gave Komatireddy a slightly better chance than Blakeman. What the price was saying is that the office would follow the top of the ticket, with a little more room for a split.

The result did not use that room. James's margin of about 1.18 million votes is almost exactly the size of Hochul's margin of about 1.15 million in the same unofficial count, and the two Democrats finished within a fraction of a point of each other in their shares. A 5% price on a Republican attorney general was the market's estimate of an upset against an incumbent in office since 2019; the count says the upset was never in reach.

The market drew real money for a down-ballot office. By November 5, 2026, about 2.52 million contracts had traded on Kalshi's two attorney general contracts and about $145K on Polymarket's market. As in the governor's race, most of Kalshi's volume was on the long-shot side: about 1.66 million contracts on the Republican contract against about 852,000 on the Democratic one.

Where James ran ahead of the governor

The county figures in the same count show a pattern the statewide totals hide. In New York City, James took 1,476,621 votes to Komatireddy's 474,154, about 75.7% of the two-candidate vote, slightly below Hochul's 76.3% in the city. Outside the five boroughs she did better than the governor: 2,005,176 votes to Komatireddy's 1,828,500, about 52.3%, against Hochul's 51.5% over Blakeman in the same counties. Komatireddy won 38 of the state's 62 counties; Blakeman won 41. That means the city gave the two Democrats nearly identical margins, and the difference between their results was decided in the suburbs and upstate.

The difference is small in percentage terms and large in votes. Outside the city, James drew about 11,000 more votes than Hochul, and Komatireddy drew about 52,000 fewer than Blakeman. On Long Island, where Blakeman is Nassau County Executive, James led Nassau 241,265 to 233,736 and Suffolk 267,372 to 262,082, slightly wider margins than Hochul's in both. In Erie County, James led 190,165 to 148,355, against Hochul's 188,096 to 153,065.

The larger part of the gap sits on the Republican side: Komatireddy ran about 52,000 votes behind Blakeman outside the city, while James ran about 11,000 ahead of Hochul, so most of the difference is voters who chose Blakeman for governor and did not vote Republican for attorney general. The ballot lines point the same way: Komatireddy's 2,302,654 votes came from 2,040,594 on the Republican line and 262,060 on the Conservative line, while James drew 3,085,533 on the Democratic line and 396,264 on the Working Families line, more Working Families votes than Hochul received on that line.

The third statewide race followed the same order with a wider gap. Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli led Republican Joseph Hernandez 3,714,221 to 2,036,294 in the same unofficial count, about 64.6% of the two-candidate vote, the largest margin of the three statewide contests. The comptroller's race had no market on either exchange that this site covers, so it offers no price to compare, but it fixes the scale: the attorney general's race finished between the governor's race and the comptroller's, closer to the governor's.

Why the office matters to readers of this site

The attorney general is the state official most directly involved with prediction markets in New York. James's office filed a verified petition against KalshiEX LLC in New York County Supreme Court, dated July 31, 2026, under Executive Law section 63(12), which opens by stating that "gambling is illegal in New York with certain limited exceptions" and describes Kalshi's platform as offering bets on sports and other events. The office has continued to press the company since; this site reported on November 3, 2026 on the advertising subpoena petition it filed the day before, and on the same day the Second Circuit refused Kalshi's request for an injunction against the state's gaming officials.

The result means the same office keeps those cases into a new term. That is not a ruling on any of them, and nothing in the vote changes the posture of the lawsuits, which remain where the courts left them. It does settle a question the litigation calendar would otherwise have carried into January: the officeholder bringing the state's cases against the exchange will not change. The legal status page and the Kalshi page follow the filings themselves.

Kalshi, the company the attorney general is suing, ran one of the two markets on whether her party would keep the office, and the exchange settled it on her side about four hours after the polls closed.

How the market settled

Kalshi's contract resolves Yes if a representative of the Democratic Party is sworn in as attorney general for the term beginning in 2027, and the exchange's data shows it closed early at 12:36 a.m. on November 4, 2026 and finalized the Democratic contract as Yes and the Republican contract as No at 1:06 a.m. Its scheduled expiration had been January 2, 2027. Prediction Genius showed both venues at 100% for the Democratic side and 0% for the Republican side on November 5, 2026; Polymarket's payout follows its own resolution process.

What happens next

The next dated step is the start of the new term in January 2027, which Kalshi's contract had been scheduled to wait for until January 2, 2027. Before then the county boards finish counting the ballots processed after election night and the State Board of Elections certifies the result, and the margin in the unofficial count is wide enough that neither step is expected to change the winner. The attorney general's cases against Kalshi continue on their own schedules in the state and federal courts.

The New York attorney general market page carries the settled board. The governor's race, which the market priced slightly more firmly, is on the New York governor market page, and every race on the ballot is on elections.