Stefanik Launches Bid for New York Governor

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) announced on Nov. 7 that she is running for governor of New York.

“[Gov.] Kathy Hochul is the Worst Governor in America. Under Kathy Hochul’s failed leadership, New York is the most unaffordable state in the nation with the highest taxes, highest energy, utilities, rent, and grocery prices crushing hardworking families,” she said in a statement. “Hochul has created a crime crisis with failed bail reform and her support of Defund the Police candidates.”

Stefanik has released statements over the past year criticizing her.

“The Empire State has fallen,” states the narrator in Stefanik’s campaign launch video.

“The spirit of the Empire State cannot be broken. All we need is a courageous leader ready for the fight,” the ad states.

Stefanik told The New York Post that she has traveled the state and met with people.

“The overwhelming outpouring of support from Republicans, independents, and Democrats is that we need a new governor to save our state,” she said.

Hochul, in an X post responding to Stefanik’s announcement, said the Republican is “running to deliver New York for Donald Trump and raise your costs.”

“My message to Trump’s ‘top ally’—bring it on,” Hochul said.

Hochul endorsed New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. Stefanik in September criticized her for the endorsement, calling Mamdani a communist who will “destroy New York making it less affordable and more dangerous—once again putting criminals and communists first, and New Yorkers LAST.”

Hochul and Mamdani did not respond to requests for comment from The Epoch Times before publication time.

In an Oct. 28 poll, Stefanik leads Hochul 43 percent to 42 percent. Stefanik has a bigger lead over New York Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, a Democrat primary challenger, 43 percent to 37 percent.

She has already received the endorsements of 56 GOP county chairs, or 72 percent of the weighted vote—50 percent is required to be the GOP nominee.

Stefanik also has the endorsement of New York GOP Chairman Ed Cox, who called her “a unifier and a party builder with the brains, the guts and the resources to win statewide next year.”

Stefanik was first elected in 2014 to represent New York’s 21st Congressional District.

She was nominated by President Donald Trump as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, but her nomination was pulled in March due to the GOP having a narrow majority in the House and the need for Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to have virtually every Republican vote on Trump’s legislative agenda.

This will be updated.