New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, a top ally of President Donald Trump on Capitol Hill, officially launched a campaign for governor in 2026 against Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday after months of hinting at the move.
She has been a vocal critic of Hochul and doubled down on attacks against her after the upstate moderate governor endorsed New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani following his Democratic primary victory.
In a statement Friday through her campaign, Stefanik slammed Hochul, her likely opponent in the election if both Stefanik and Hochul win their respective party primaries.
“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,” Stefanik wrote.
“I am running for Governor to bring a new generation of leadership to Albany to make New York affordable and safe for families all across our great state,” Stefanik wrote. “Our campaign will unify Republicans, Democrats, and Independents to Fire Kathy Hochul once and for all to Save New York.”
An announcement video Stefanik posted on Friday focused on a similar message, with the video’s narrator largely pinning affordability issues and other key concerns on Hochul.
The video does not mention President Donald Trump.
But Hochul and the New York State Democratic Party are pointing to her close relationship with Trump as a detriment. And New York went blue in the 2024 presidential election — with Trump receiving 43% of the vote in New York state, trailing Vice President Kamala Harris by around 13 percentage points.
“Elise Stefanik is running to deliver New York for Donald Trump and raise your costs,” Hochul said in a post on X on Friday. “Not on my watch. My message to Trump’s ‘top ally’ — bring it on.”
After Tuesday’s election victories for Democrats, a spokesperson for the New York State Democratic Party said New Yorkers will reject Stefanik, who was briefly nominated for a position as United Nations ambassador by Trump earlier this year.
“Voters in New York and across the country rejected Trump and his enablers earlier this week, and Stefanik will face the same fate when she launches her campaign to put Trump ahead of New Yorkers,” Addison Dick wrote in a statement.
Press releases from Stefanik’s campaign on Friday released after the announcement said that Stefanik has already netted endorsements from more than half of New York’s Republican county chairs and from the chair of the New York Republican Party.
“There will not be a Republican primary and a year from now, Elise will lead our team to victory over Kathy Hochul, end one-party Democrat rule, and make New York affordable again,” New York GOP Chairman Ed Cox wrote in a statement.
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The upstate New York congresswoman, a onetime staffer for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign who helped former House Speaker Paul Ryan prepare for his vice presidential debate, gained prominence in the MAGA movement during the first Trump administration as a vocal defender of the president on the House Intelligence Committee during Democrats’ first impeachment inquiry in 2019.
New York last elected a Republican governor in 2002 when George Pataki won a third term in office.
