Hochul skips upstate NY events where protesters were ready to greet her — but says it was coincidence

Gov. Kathy Hochul backed out of events in the North Country Saturday where protesters upset with her prison policies were waiting to greet her, sources told The Post.

The governor made a last minute change and didn’t attend a ribbon-cutting ceremony touting an old rail-line that’s been converted to a hiking and biking trail at Tupper Lake in the Adirondacks.

That had some attendees wondering it was an intentional dodge — though the governor denied her rescheduled plans had anything to do with the demonstrations.

“We are looking forward to celebrating this exciting occasion with you!,” the invite from Hochul’s North Country representative Allison Webbinaro to local officials said.

That event was moved from 10 a.m. back to 3 p.m. Saturday when word came that Hochul would not show up at all, sources on the ground claimed.

One participant said dozens of people protesting Hochul’s event appeared and stood next to a “Team Trump” MAGA bus, and that there was a “big police presence.”

“Then all of a sudden, they moved chairs and posters inside, locked every door, and had a guy with an iPad checking names with an invite list at the entrance,” the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said.

“So it definitely seemed like she was coming. Then all of sudden the cops started to leave and people started to shuffle out,” the attendee said

Sources also said Hochul was expected to attend another mountain hiking event at nearby Whiteface Mountain.

Some of the protesters waiting for Hochul were state correctional officers upset over her prison policies as officials say the state’s facilities remain short-staffed by around 5,000 workers.

Hochul fired 2,000 officers, many of whom illegally walked off the job during a wild cat strike in March over job conditions — leading National Guard troops to backfill many of the short-staffed facilities.

The guard troops still remain in many of the prisons as a purported recruitment drive has yet to show significant signs of recuperating the headcount.

But Hochul pushed back on any claim she intentionally tried to avoid the protesters. Though the Tupper Lake rail event was under consideration by the governor’s office, it ultimately conflicted with the logistics of her trip to Canada, according to Hochul’s team.

“As noted in the governor’s daily public schedule, Governor Hochul spent the weekend meeting with Canadian business leaders and government officials in an effort to repair the damage done to tourism and trade relations by President Trump and Congressional Republicans,” Hochul spokesperson Jen Goodman said.

Upstate Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, who is eyeing a run against Hochul in 2026, wasn’t buying the explanation.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that Kathy Hochul is the most unpopular elected official in all of New York State,” said Alex DeGrasse, a senior adviser to Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY).

“Whether cancelling multiple events today in Upstate, or getting booed by thousands on Long Island [at the Ryder Cup] last week, she is hated by Republicans, despised by independents, near universally disliked by Democrats, and manipulated and laughed at by the Communists.”

“If she lets a few Upstate patriots, particularly the correctional officers, send her running scared, just wait until her real campaign for re-election begins,” DeGrasse added.

Stefanik has also been met with protesters in her own North Country district.

Over the summer, she was shouted down by activists as she tried to speak at a service naming a building for a longtime county clerk.