GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik is launching a run for governor in New York, blaming Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul for the state’s high cost of living and tying the governor to New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.
Stefanik’s two-and-a-half minute launch video focuses largely on affordability. And while Stefanik is a staunch ally of President Donald Trump, her campaign video does not make any references to the president.
“There’s no question: New York is facing an affordability crisis,” a narrator says in Stefanik’s launch video, which also features commentators calling Hochul the “worst governor in America.”
The video also ties Hochul to Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist who just had a decisive win earlier this week to become the next mayor of New York City. Hochul endorsed Mamdani in the race and appeared with him on the campaign trail.
“Kathy Hochul made New York the most unaffordable state in the nation, crushing families with sky-high taxes, unaffordable rent, soaring energy costs and record-high grocery bills, and cozied up to an anti-police, tax-hiking, anti-semitic communist,” a narrator says in the video. The launch video also features clips of Mamdani supporters chanting “tax the rich” as Hochul addressed a recent rally.
“With everything on the line, we need someone who will deliver results and make New York affordable and safe for families and small businesses,” a narrator says in the video. “Elise Stefanik will clean up Kathy Hochul’s catastrophe and restore New York’s greatness.”
Stefanik is the first high-profile Republican to launch a campaign and she’s been weighing a run for governor for months. She said back in April that she would announce her decision after the 2025 elections, following GOP Rep. Mike Lawler’s announcement that he would not run for governor. Trump helped convince Lawler, who represents a competitive district, to stay put in the House, effectively clearing the primary field for Stefanik.
Stefanik had been nominated to be Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, but Trump withdrew her nomination amid concerns that a competitive special election to replace her in Congress could further shrink the narrow GOP majority.
First elected to Congress in 2014, then the youngest woman elected to the House, Stefanik has risen through the ranks of GOP leadership, serving as conference chairwoman in the last Congress. She built a national profile as a vocal defender of Trump during his first impeachment in 2019, and has become a prolific fundraiser.
Still, Stefanik will face an uphill battle in the traditionally Democratic state. Trump made significant gains in New York in 2024, improving on his 2020 election margin by 11 points, the largest swing toward Trump of any state in the country. But he still lost New York by 13 points last year.
Hochul is running for her second full term after succeeding former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2021 following Cuomo’s resignation amid sexual harassment allegations, which he has denied. Hochul won her first full term by about 6 points in 2022, defeating two primary challengers in the process. Hochul is facing a primary challenger again, this time from her lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado.