Gov. Kathy Hochul declared victory late Tuesday night over Republican Lee Zeldin.

At 11:27 p.m., she had a 55% to 45% lead over the congressman with 68% of the vote counted in the state.

If declared the victor, she would make history by becoming the first woman to win election to the job. Zeldin did not concede when he addressed his supporters just before midnight. He said there are many votes that still need to be counted - especially in Suffolk County where results have been delayed.

Sources told News 12 earlier in the night that she was encouraged by the turnout.

Zeldin, an ally of former President Donald Trump who objected to the 2020 election results, had made appeals to scared suburbanites and rattled urbanites amid a string of high-profile violent incidents.

The issue of crime is one that Republicans have been running on across the country and nowhere is its saliency more on display than in the campaign of Zeldin, who harnessed it to carve a potential path to win in the blue state and become the first Republican elected New York governor in two decades.

Hochul, a former congresswoman, was serving as former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s low-profile lieutenant governor before taking over in August 2021 when he resigned amid sexual harassment allegations, which he denies. She has tried to cast herself as a fresh change from Cuomo, promising more collaboration and transparency while trying to steer the state through the pandemic aftereffects.

AP Wire Services were used in this report.