Hochul tours the National Guard's Joint Task Force Empire Shield mobile command center at Grand Central and pledges to keep enhanced security at major transit hubs; her office notes last year's budget added $45M for the mission and raised the deployment to 1,050 service members

Sept. 21 late-afternoon visit with MTA Police and Guard members. Empire Shield dates to post-9/11; the release is a visibility event six weeks before the election rather than a new policy or funding action. Blakeman has run on subway safety and Hochul's 2024 Guard deployment to the subways was itself contested.