ALBANY, N.Y. _ Like father like son.
New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo Tuesday matched his late former governor father, Mario Cuomo, by winning a third term.
Cuomo cruised to victory over Republican Marc Molinaro, the Dutchess County executive.
NY1 called the race, based on exit polling, as soon as the polls closed at 9 p.m.
Cuomo become the first New York governor to win a third term since Republican George Pataki in 2002, which happened to be the last time any Republican won a statewide election.
Even before the polls closed, Cuomo said his victory would be a message against President Donald Trump's "tone of division and anger that he spreads."
"This is to me not really a normal election," Cuomo said. "This is not really about politics as usual. In many ways, I believe, it's not even about politics. It's more about the philosophy of this state and the philosophy of this country.
"I've referred to it as injecting a cancer into this country's body politic," Cuomo said. "A cancer because one cell fights another."
But in New York, he said, "we are all about diversity. Maybe we get it in New York more than any other state, but you can't separate us by race or creed or color or sexual orientation. That is poison for this nation."
Cuomo' decisive victory and his focus on Trump and national politics has Democrats and Republicans alike wondering whether his campaign this year was a launching pad for the step his father _ who served from 1983 through 1994 _ never took _ a run for president.
Cuomo during the one-and-only debate of the general election campaign vowed to serve all four years if he was re-elected. But during the campaign he virtually ignored Molinaro to focus on Trump.
"The Republicans who are running in New York state are just Trump's proxy," he told reporters Tuesday after voting.
The ease with which he won Tuesday does not reflect that this was probably the most difficult year of Cuomo's nearly 12 in office.
Cuomo in 2010 ran on cleaning up Albany's culture of corruption. But this year several of his aides, associates and donors, including longtime confidante Joseph Percoco, were convicted on federal corruption charges. Cuomo was not accused of any wrongdoing.
Like four years ago, Cuomo was not only hit from the right by Republicans and conservatives, but also from the left of his own Democratic Party, who accused him of emboldening a Republican-led Senate.
Also like in 2014, Cuomo faced a vigorous primary from the left, this time by actress Cynthia Nixon. He ultimately scored 65 percent of the primary vote, but spent more than $25 million on the effort.
But Cuomo still had more than enough to take on Molinaro, who was little-known and had trouble raising money.
Cuomo entered the general election with $11.5 million left in his campaign coffers. Between late September and late October, he spent $5.7 million of that.
Leading up to the final 11 days of the campaign, Molinaro raised a paltry sum of less than $2 million and spent $1.8 million. His campaign put some ads up toward the end of the Democratic primary, but never had enough for a statewide television ad campaign the rest of the way.
"I've represented myself, my family, the best I can," Molinaro told reporters after voting. "We've tried to present a forward-thinking agenda."
While Cuomo focused on Trump, Molinaro accused the governor of creating a "pay-to-play" culture at the state Capitol, not doing enough to fix the deteriorating subways, and for not adequately addressing upstate issues.
Molinaro promised to cut property taxes by nearly 30 percent over five years, clean up state government, and end corporate subsidies that Cuomo has pushed.
In addition to bashing Trump, Cuomo ran on a record that includes legalizing gay marriage, enacting tougher gun control laws, imposing a $15 hourly state minimum wage, and creating a state paid family leave program and a free college tuition program for some public college students.
He also touted major infrastructure projects such as the building of a new Tappan Zee Bridge, eight years of mostly on-time budgets, and his push to rein in state spending increases and impose a first-ever 2 percent cap on local property tax hikes.
Cuomo in his first term was more a centrist before recognizing the political winds of his Democratic Party had shifted left. He promoted a much more liberal agenda in his second term.
Rather than present an expensive third-term agenda, the governor during the campaign promised more of the same.
"I'm about getting things done for the people of this state and we have. And we have more to do," he said.
He promised continuation of 2 percent caps on state spending hikes and on property tax increases, additional economic development investments, strengthening the state abortion laws, and more gun safety measures. He also has promised campaign finance, voting, ethics and criminal justice reforms and possibly the legalization of recreational pot.
And he said he'll push for congestion pricing to help fund subway repairs, passage of the Child Victims Act, and a strengthening of tenant protections.
Cuomo ran on a ticket with his lieutenant governor, Kathy Hochul, who will serve a second term with the governor. Molinaro ran with former Rye city councilwoman Julie Killian.
Besides Cuomo and Molinaro, the race included three minor-party candidates: Howie Hawkins of the Green Party, Larry Sharpe of the Libertarian Party, and former Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner of the newly created Serve America Party.
In other races, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand easily won a second, full six-year term by defeating Republican Chele Chiavacci Farley.
State Controller Thomas DiNapoli pounded Republican challenger Jonathan Trichter to win a third full four-year term.
And New York City Public Advocate Letitia James won the state attorney general's race over Republican corporate lawyer Keith Wofford.
