By Joseph Ax
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Republican U.S. Representative Elise Stefanik, a staunch ally of President Donald Trump, will run for governor of New York in 2026, taking on incumbent Democrat Kathy Hochul.
Stefanik, in a social media post accompanying a campaign launch video, labeled Hochul “the worst governor in America” and New York “the most unaffordable state in the nation,” and said she was running to make New York “affordable and safe FOR ALL.”
She also sought to tie Hochul to New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who won the city’s election on Tuesday, part of a broader Republican push to portray Mamdani as the new face of the Democratic Party.
Stefanik, 41, who represents a conservative district in upstate New York, had teased a gubernatorial run for months.
Hochul’s campaign released a video attacking Stefanik one minute after her launch video was posted, showing Stefanik boasting that she is Trump’s “top ally” in Congress and asserting that Stefanik would put Trump ahead of the interests of New Yorkers.
“My message to Trump’s ‘top ally’ – bring it on,” Hochul said on X.
Stefanik, the youngest woman ever elected to the House in 2014, moved sharply to the right after Trump’s first presidential victory in 2016. The president nominated her as ambassador to the United Nations in January but withdrew her name amid concerns that it could imperil Republicans’ narrow majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.
While Democrat Kamala Harris won New York by a comfortable 12-point margin over Trump in 2024, the state shifted more toward Trump than any other in the nation from 2020 to 2024. But Democrats dominated several high-profile elections on Tuesday, including in New York and nearby New Jersey.
Hochul, 67, was the state’s lieutenant governor in 2021 when then-Governor Andrew Cuomo resigned amid sexual harassment allegations, elevating her to the governorship. She won a full four-year term in 2022.
(Reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
