Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado said his disagreements with Gov. Kathy Hochul haven’t damaged their working relationship, and he pushed off questions about potentially primarying the governor for her job next year.

Delgado spoke with reporters at the state Capitol Friday after an interview with WCNY’s The Capitol Pressroom and said that the publicly visible distance between himself and Hochul isn’t a sign of a weakening relationship.

“We have things that we agree on, and things that obviously have been made public, that we don’t,” he said. “Our relationship is fine. We are able to talk about our differences, and we’re also able to find opportunities to work together.”

Delgado has had a number of visible breaks with the Hochul administration in recent months — he called on former President Joseph R. Biden to drop out of the race for president in the summer of last year while Hochul remained aligned with the president. For a brief moment, he had his own team send out his daily public schedule before being brought back into the executive office’s fold.

Recently, Delgado said he believes New York City Mayor Eric Adams needs to step down and that Hochul should call for Adams to as well.

“The first step is to call for his resignation,” Delgado said Friday when asked if he felt the governor should use her executive power to remove Adams from office.

The New York City mayor has been defending against federal corruption charges and appeared to appeal to the Trump administration to drop the charges. On Wednesday, it was announced that the U.S. attorney general was instructing her staff to drop the charges against Adams, and a number of senior attorneys, including the recently appointed U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, resigned rather than end the prosecution.

It appears that Adams has agreed to have city authorities cooperate with federal immigration authorities in exchange for the shelving of his legal troubles — allegations many lawmakers have leveled at the mayor, which he has denied.

On Friday, Delgado said it’s not a question of whether the mayor is guilty of corruption but if he is in a position to properly lead the city of New York.

“Is he in a position to really serve the best interests of the city?” Delgado asked. “Giving him a chance to really reflect on that, understanding the enormous responsibility that it is, I think is, to me, the most important step right now.”

Delgado’s outspoken positions, counter to the governor’s, have led the executive chamber to distance itself from him. Spokespeople for the governor have said Delgado doesn’t speak for the administration, a departure from previous approaches to the job that had the lieutenant governor serve as a stand-in for the governor.

Delgado said he himself doesn’t see his job as beholden to the whims of the governor — he noted he is separately elected, although on a ticket with the governor.

“I speak for New Yorkers; that is how I run it myself as an independent elected official,” he said. “I serve with the governor; I don’t serve at the pleasure of the governor, and I am my own person. I have my own voice.”

He said previous approaches to the job are irrelevant.

“The role doesn’t make the person; the person makes the role, and in this situation, I think it’s very important to respectfully, nonetheless, be an independent voice and do my best to reflect what I hear from the people as I’m out there,” he said.

Delgado has not made clear what his plans for 2026 are. He and Hochul will be up for reelection, but it’s not clear if the lieutenant governor wants to stick with the ticket as it stands, primary the governor, or just step down. Hochul has not made clear if she would invite Delgado back for another term as the second most senior elected leader in New York.

“I’m not even remotely thinking about the future in that regard,” he said. “I think what I want to continue to do is to get out there and meet with people, as I have been.”

Delgado said he sees his future with Hochul as one where the two “continue to figure out how to work constructively,” and where he will continue to work on issues he’s prioritized in his term thus far. Delgado leads the state Office of Service and Civic Engagement, tasked with inspiring more people to get involved with their local and state governments and their communities.

“There are things I am working on that allow me to engage with the community as lieutenant governor, particularly around hate and bias prevention, around service and civic engagement, that I think are very important,” he said.

He also said he thinks it’s important for New York’s political leaders to stand up and promote honesty, accountability, and stability through what he called a chaotic second Trump administration.

“We’re New Yorkers first. We cannot forget that in the national landscape we have a responsibility as a state to set the standard and be there for our community,” he said.

Delgado did not answer when asked if he thinks Hochul is the right governor to lead New York through a second Trump administration.