Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik to Run for Governor of New York
“It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.”
Back in May, it was reported that if Rep. Elise Stefanik jumped into a hypothetical race for governor of New York, she would be in a ‘dead heat’ with incumbent NY Governor Kathy Hochul.
Well, now it’s almost official. Stefanik is reportedly planning to enter the race.
The Hill reports:
Stefanik set to run for NY governor
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) is preparing to officially launch her campaign for New York governor, according to two sources familiar with her thinking.
“It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when,” said one of the sources, adding that Stefanik will announce “at the time and place” of her choosing.
Speculation has been swirling for months over whether Stefanik, a close ally of President Trump, would seek the top executive office in the Empire State.
Polling shows her leading a hypothetical Republican primary. A poll conducted by GrayHouse found that Stefanik has a commanding lead over fellow Rep. Mike Lawler (D-N.Y.), who is considering a run, 44 percent to 7 percent among GOP primary voters. Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman secured 5 percent support. The margin of error is 5 percentage points.
Last month, President Trump endorsed Lawler and Blakeman for reelection in their respective posts, raising speculation that he was seeking to clear the field for Stefanik.
Stefanik definitely has a shot in this contest. She has statewide and national name recognition due to her strong performance in the higher education hearings in Congress last year. Also, New Yorkers might finally be ready for a change. Remember that Republican Lee Zeldin lost by a very small margin in his recent run for governor.
Plenty of people on the right are already rooting for her.
Dear @EliseStefanik,
Please SAVE our beloved Empire State! 🇺🇸 https://t.co/qsHMMEK5vW
— Monica Crowley (@MonicaCrowley) June 27, 2025
I strongly support Elise Stefanik for governor of New York. She's exactly the right woman at the right time to turn around the empire State. https://t.co/xGrrCRnDU3
— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) June 27, 2025
RUN @EliseStefanik RUN!! https://t.co/EJu4v6jz2n
— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) June 26, 2025
The last Republican to serve as governor of New York was George Pataki, who left office in 2006. Look at what nearly twenty years of Democrat rule has done to the Empire State.
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Comments
god bless her!!!
NOW WINNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!
Go, Elise!!
Hochul is an idiot. She is only where she is because of Cuomo’s foibles.
Yes!!! Now clean up the voting records.
She’s going to make a great governor.
I don’t like it. Waste of a good member of Congress. Remember, NY hasn’t had an honest election since Alexander Hamilton was alive. They’ll steal it.
Agreed I am worried that the margin of steal is a too large.
However the real value is for Republicans to win states like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and implement voting integrity and economic growth measures.
Those are purple swing states often with republican legislatures so real permanent reform that can make the states redder and support presidential elections is important.
Better investment long-term yield a lot more than a republican governor in NY can yield.
But if she does run, I am all in! Upstate NY and Long Island deserve a lot better.
This gives Republicans to find another good candidate in the Plattsburgh area for that seat. It should stay a Republican seat. Unlike if Stefanik had left early in this 2 year term, I think Hochul would have appointed the immediate replacement. And once a Dem got that seat even on a temporary basis, they could do various mischief to try to perpetuate themselves there.
Huh? How could she possibly have done that?
I’m FUDded on this one.
When Trump wanted to make Stefanik UN Ambassador, MAGAs were overwhelmingly of the opinion that she as way more valuable as part of a House majority than in that throwaway job. And as events progressed, she was.
Now she wants to be governor of a state that is wagged to vertigo by its biggest blue city, just like Illinois or Nevada are. Electing Stefanik to solve the NYC problem is as complicated as electing Trump to solve the California problem. The question is still, where would she be most useful?
sure
but if she wins and her polices stay effective with ny then that state could at least have a chance to go pro america
That’s the problem. It’s several levels of IF.
I’m befuddled by your befuddlement. Making her ambassador would mean leaving her seat vacant until Hochul called a special election, which threatened to be a long time in which the GOP majority would be even narrower than it already is. Plus the chance of losing the special election.
Running for governor means that she stays in Congress for the rest of her term. Sure, a new candidate might lose the seat where she might have kept it, but that’s not all that likely. If she would have won reelection, chances are good that whomever the GOP chooses to succeed her will win too.
The NY governor has quite a bit of power, even in NYC.
1. The leftwing NY legislature will present her lots of poisonous bills that she can veto. To her credit and my relief, even Hochul has vetoed some of the crazy stuff coming out of the legislature.
2. The governor has about half the power of running NYC. That’s how it works in NYC. The governor can apparently even replace the mayor, surely there are some conditions attached to that, but it’s possible.
She has already raised millions in the expectation she will enter the race. What if she doesn’t? Does she have to give all the money back?
Considering the make up of Albany and what NYC is about to do to itself I wouldn’t get too over my skis on how great this is.
Donors’ “expectations” are irrelevant. No donations were conditioned on her running for governor.
Can she do better than Lee Zeldin? I think she can, and that race was close. Hochul only won because of the college student vote, and she conveniently drove many conservative college students from out of state away before that election by being hardline on Covid vaccination, while liberal college students were far more willing to take the jab. I think that made the difference.
Lee Zeldin made it close, with no particular advantages other than being an impressive individual. Stefanik is also impressive, is a woman which may help, and she’ll have the advantage of Hochul facing Mamdani’s headwind (the opposite of coat-tails).