Rep. Stefanik Announces Gubernatorial Run

By ERIC SANTOMAURO-STENZEL
SARATOGA

Rep. Elise Stefanik, a Republican and close ally of President Donald Trump representing the North Country in Congress, announced her long-expected candidacy for governor of New York State on November 7.

“Kathy Hochul is the Worst Governor in America,” Stefanik wrote in a post on X, repeating a nickname she has been using for months now while teasing her candidacy. “Under her failed leadership, New York is the most unaffordable state in the nation with the highest taxes, highest energy, utilities, rent, and grocery bills. When New Yorkers were looking for leadership from our Governor, she bent the knee to the raging Defund the Police, Tax Hiking Communist causing catastrophe for New York families.”

According to her campaign site, Stefanik’s policy priorities include cutting taxes, ending bail reform, ending sanctuary city policies, expanding “school choice,” and lowering “energy and utility costs by expanding energy independence.”

She has already been endorsed by local Republican Assemblymembers Brian Maher, Brian Miller, Robert Smullen, and Chris Tague. Former Governor George Pataki and nine Republican county executives from across the state have also endorsed Stefanik

Though New York Republican Party leaders have already backed Stefanik in the primary, Nassau County’s GOP county executive, Bruce Blakeman, has also been considering running. Blakeman handily won re-election last week.

On the Democratic side, Hochul is facing a primary challenge from the left by Lt. Governor and former Otsego County-area Congressperson Antonio Delgado.

Team Hochul already has their own nickname for the new opponent: “Sellout Stefanik.” In a video released shortly after Stefanik announced her campaign, Hochul’s campaign team portrayed Stefanik as “phenomenal at putting Trump ahead of you,” using several video clips of Stefanik and Trump praising each other.

“I am running for Governor to make New York affordable and safe FOR ALL,” Stefanik said in the X post. “Democrats, Republicans, and Independents will unify to save our state. It’s time to: FIRE HOCHUL. SAVE NEW YORK.”

The last time a Republican won a gubernatorial race in New York was in 2002, with Pataki. In 2022, then-Long Island Congressperson now-EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin received ~47 percent of the vote.

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