New York Governor Kathy Hochul has a message for Nicki Minaj after the rapper called her an “evil woman” and said she “will not escape God’s wrath”: get outside.
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Hochul was asked about Nicki’s post on Wednesday while speaking with reporters. Her answer was quick. Nicki should “get outside,” Hochul said, adding, “And stop going to Trump rallies, it’s kinda poisoning your mind.”
The post that started it all landed on X earlier that day. “Kathy Hochul is an evil woman. The Democratic Party should forfeit her seat because even if she wins, she will be of great consequence to them. Downward spiral for her. She will not escape God’s wrath. She did not denounce evil when she had the chance,” Nicki wrote.
When Nicki says Democrats should “forfeit her seat,” she means the party should essentially give up on Hochul’s reelection bid, arguing that even a win would hurt Democrats in the long run.
Nicki did not stop at one post. She also reacted to a video clip of Kathy Hochul saying she wanted the world opened up to “Black kids growing up in the Bronx who don’t even know what the word ‘computer’ is.” Nicki took that clip straight to her followers in all caps. “HOW MUCH MORE DO YOU NEED TO SEE & HEAR FROM THEM?!! HOW DARE YOU AS BLACK PEOPLE VOTE FOR THIS VILE WICKED CURSE OF A WOMAN?” she wrote.
From there, the Queens rapper encouraged her followers to vote for Bruce Blakeman, the Republican running against Hochul. Blakeman is the Nassau County Executive, which means he runs the government of Nassau County on Long Island. In the same stretch of posts, Nicki also claimed Trump has won three elections. Trump has won two presidential elections, in 2016 and 2024. He lost in 2020.
The timing puts Nicki’s comments right at the finish line of the race. New Yorkers vote for governor on Tuesday, November 3. Kathy Hochul became governor in August 2021 after Andrew Cuomo resigned, then won a full term in 2022. She is now running for a second full term.
Heading into the final stretch, Hochul held a solid lead. A Marist poll taken in early October had Hochul at 53% and Blakeman at 42% among registered voters. Hochul was well ahead in New York City with 69%, while Blakeman led upstate. Independent voters leaned toward Blakeman, and the same poll found a 29 point gender gap, with women favoring Hochul and men favoring Blakeman.
Hochul’s “Trump rallies” line is a direct shot at Nicki’s recent political turn. The rapper has spent the past year publicly lining up behind Trump, a shift that has surprised plenty of longtime fans.
Nicki was not always in this position on Kathy Hochul. Back in 2018, during the Democratic primary, Nicki publicly endorsed Andrew Cuomo for governor, Hochul for lieutenant governor and Letitia James for attorney general. “New Yorkers & all NYCHA residents its time to get JUSTICE,” she wrote at the time, telling followers that the group knew “how to work for the people to make NY even GREATER.”
Eight years later, she is calling the same woman evil and telling her followers to vote her out.
