Mr. Suozzi alluded to some of the party’s challenges during a Thursday breakfast.
“We are not speaking to the issues that the people are concerned about,” he said, laying out a centrist vision that includes fighting crime, grappling with high property taxes, focusing on the environment and improving schools. “We’re not resonating.”
He also proactively acknowledged the institutional resistance he faces, noting the prominent Democrats who have questioned why he would give up his seat in Congress to run.
“I spoke with our keynote speaker today, Hillary Clinton, a few months ago, she tried to persuade me not to run,” he volunteered. But in his speech and in additional interviews, he said he saw a path forward and intended to release a new commercial this week. He has also named Diana Reyna, a former city councilwoman from Brooklyn, as his running mate.
“My intention is to get people to know who I am,” he said.
Mr. Williams, for his part, noted that he received around 47 percent of the vote when he ran against Ms. Hochul for the lieutenant governorship in 2018. As endorsements come together and more voters tune into the race, there is still time for him to catch fire, he said — though whether he can get his message out effectively when he trails Ms. Hochul in fund-raising by around $21 million is an open question.
“New Yorkers are just now starting to wake up,” he said.
Another point of tension evident at the convention was concern around Latino representation; a preliminary schedule listed no Latino speakers, though some were added later.
Representative Adriano Espaillat, a New York Democrat, pointed out that it was Ms. James, not state party leaders, who invited him to introduce her as the party’s choice for attorney general. “It’s critical that the Democratic Party be sensitive of Latino voters,” he said. “I think that’s a great challenge for the party.”
Jay Jacobs, the chairman of the New York State Democratic Committee, suggested the party had not needed to invite speakers whom candidates had already reached out to and argued that some of the outcry was around a preliminary list that didn’t represent the full diversity of the speaker slate.
“We have to be sensitive,” he said. “We have to be careful, and I certainly don’t want to offend anybody, and we’ve been working very hard not to do that. But I’m sure that if you look hard enough, we’re going to make a mistake here and again.”
Grace Ashford contributed reporting.
