Nicki Minaj called New York Gov. Kathy Hochul an evil woman on X on Wednesday, Oct. 28. She told Black and Christian New Yorkers to vote for Republican Bruce Blakeman in the Nov. 3 governor’s race. Her trigger was a resurfaced 2024 clip in which Hochul said some Black kids in the Bronx did not know the word computer.
Hochul answered the same day during a campaign stop in Albany. She told reporters the rapper should get outside, spend less time online and stop going to Trump rallies, which she said were warping Minaj’s thinking.
Why did Nicki Minaj single out Black voters?
Minaj did not post a general endorsement. She aimed. Her second post, typed mostly in caps, asked how Black people and Christians could support Hochul and tagged Blakeman’s account directly.
That targeting is the real story. Black voters in New York City anchor the Democratic coalition that has kept Republicans out of the governor’s office since 2002. If anyone could chip at that wall, the theory goes, it would be a Black woman raised in Queens with one of the biggest followings in music.
The Bronx line gave her the opening. Hochul made the comment at the Milken Institute Global Conference in May 2024 while arguing for wider access to technology. She apologized soon after and said she misspoke. Many Black New Yorkers never let it go, and Blakeman threw it back at her during their only debate this month.
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 Minaj (@NICKIMINAJ) October 28, 2026
How did Hochul and Blakeman respond?
Hochul chose dismissal over debate. Sitting on a double digit lead, she had little reason to feed the feud, so she framed Minaj as someone swept up by rally culture rather than a critic worth answering. The irony stings a little. Telling one of the most online artists in music to log off is a line built for people who already agree with you.
Blakeman went the opposite direction. He quoted Minaj’s post on X and told her he had a U-Haul ready to fire the worst governor in America. The jab leaned on a favorite Republican talking point that New Yorkers are packing up and leaving the state.
Can Nicki Minaj vote in New York?
This is the part almost nobody is discussing. Minaj was born in Trinidad and said publicly in 2024 that she was not an American citizen. In January, she posted a photo of a Trump Gold Card and wrote that she was finalizing her citizenship paperwork. She has not publicly confirmed the process is finished. The loudest celebrity voice in this race may be urging New Yorkers toward a ballot she cannot yet cast herself.
How did Nicki Minaj end up in Trump’s corner?
The road here was long. In 2016, her Black Barbies remix took a shot at Trump’s immigration stance. In 2018, she wrote about arriving in the U.S. undocumented at age 5 and pleaded with officials to stop separating migrant families. In 2020, she posted that she would not jump on the Trump bandwagon.
Now she flies on Air Force One. On Oct. 25, she traveled with President Donald Trump to a rally in Port Huron, Michigan, for U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers. White House communications director Steven Cheung joked online that she could be the next press secretary.
Will Nicki Minaj move the polls?
The numbers say probably not. A Siena Research Institute poll of likely voters taken Oct. 19 to 22 had Hochul ahead 54% to 40%. A Quinnipiac University survey from Oct. 15 to 19 found her up 55% to 41%. The Cook Political Report rates the race solid Democrat. Blakeman has waved off the polls as voter suppression tactics, according to CBS New York.
The real verdict lands Tuesday. Minaj staked her name on the idea that Black New Yorkers are ready to break with Democrats at the top of the ticket. The ballots will show whether her timeline matches the electorate.
