When congestion pricing made its long-awaited debut in New York City earlier this month, Gov. Kathy Hochul at first steered clear of praising one of the most significant policy acts of her tenure.

Then more than a day after the tolling program began, she told reporters it was great, but she didn’t mention its projected environmental or traffic-reducing benefits or its importance to improving the subway.

“What I want to do for the suburbs — the Hudson Valley — is to shave time off the commute,” she said shortly after riding Metro-North from Hastings-on-Hudson into New York City.

The decision to focus her first public comments after the program’s launch on the expected benefits for suburbanites reflects the way one of New York’s first suburban governors thinks about transit. It also suggests that her political fortunes are likely to be tied to congestion pricing and whether voters believe the program improves their lives.

Observers noted that Ms. Hochul, a Democrat, is predictably focusing on swing areas of the region, which dominate state politics. Because so many proponents of congestion pricing have zeroed in on benefits to urban residents, Ms. Hochul appears to be trying to broaden the program’s popularity by talking about how it will work for suburbanites, too. In a response to a request for comment, Ms. Hochul’s office referred back to her earlier statements listing the programs benefits, her focus on commuters’ concerns about its cost and the urgent need for more investment in the system.

The program’s supporters often focus on benefits to subway riders and New Yorkers who spend time inside the tolling zone. It charges most drivers $9 to enter Manhattan’s most gridlocked streets and aims to reduce traffic and pollution while raising billions of dollars for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees the region’s mass transit system.