Elise Stefanik, a Republican New York representative and staunch supporter of Donald Trump, has officially launched her long-anticipated campaign for governor.
Reports indicate that Stefanik has been working behind the scenes to secure endorsements from key Republican figures and local officials. But the announcement comes three days after New York City voters elected the democrat socialist Zohran Mamdani, a political and ideological opposite, to run by far the state’s largest metropolis.
The lawmaker, who has represented her district in the House for a decade, has recently amped up her attacks on the Democratic governor, Kathy Hochul, on social media, accusing her of having “bent the knee to Commie Mamdani”.
She repeated those claims in a social media post announcing her bid.
“Kathy Hochul is the Worst Governor in America. 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,” she said.
In an interview on Fox News after announcing her bid, Stefanik again sought to tie Hochul – who is facing a challenge for the Democratic nomination from the state’s progressive lieutenant governor, Antony Delgado – to mayor-elect Mamdani, whom Hochul endorsed but has not received the compliment in return.
“She’s an accidental governor,” Stefanik said. “She’s only in this position because she was … lieutenant governor” to former governor Andrew Cuomo, who resigned in 2021 amid a sexual harassment scandal and was beaten by eight points in New York City’s mayoral race on Tuesday by Mamdani.
Stefanik ventured that Hochul’s endorsement of Mamdani came “because she is hemorrhaging support even in her own party among Democrats”.
Hochul’s election campaign quickly released a video of its own attacking Stefanik and launched the microsite SelloutStefanik.com.
Hochul’s campaign spokesperson, Sarafina Chitika, told City & State that Stefanik was the president’s “number one cheerleader in Congress and his right-hand woman in his war on New York: gutting healthcare, jacking up costs with expensive tariffs, and cutting funding for our police, schools, and hospitals”.
“Apparently, screwing over New Yorkers in Congress wasn’t enough – now she’s trying to bring Trump’s chaos and skyrocketing costs to our state,” Chitika said.
Stefanik, who has billed herself as “ultra-Maga” and “proud of it”, was not always a Trump evangelist. She first won her congressional seat in 2014, then the youngest woman ever elected to the job, aged 30. Her early voting record was relatively moderate.
She appeared to change her strategy in about November 2019, during the House intelligence committee’s Trump impeachment hearings. Stefanik was among the Republican lawmakers who backed litigation that attempted to force the US supreme court to overturn Joe Biden’s election win. Although she did condemn the January 6 Capitol attack, she also voted to reject Biden’s win in Pennsylvania.
Trump had tapped Stefanik to be the US ambassador to the United Nations shortly after winning re-election in November. Earlier this year, however, he announced that he was pulling Stefanik’s nomination amid concerns about Republicans’ tight margins in the House.
In response to initial reports that Stefanik was going to announce her run, the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) said: “Stefanik has spent her career selling out New Yorkers to Donald Trump – and that is exactly why she is going to lose to Kathy Hochul next November.
“From gutting healthcare to backing cost-raising tariffs, Stefanik’s record as Trump’s cheerleader in chief could not be more toxic with New York voters. It’s no wonder even Republicans have admitted that ‘ultra-Maga’ Stefanik is a uniquely flawed general election candidate. Bring it on, Elise.”
