It\u2019s official \u2013 Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik is running for governor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After months of broadcasting her intentions, Stefanik released a two-and-a-half minute campaign launch video<\/a> on Friday, just days after New York City elected democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani as its next mayor. Unsurprisingly, he had a supporting role in the video as Stefanik sought to link him to Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul. \u201cKathy Hochul \u2026 cozied up to a defund the police, tax-hiking, antisemitic communist,\u201d the video\u2019s voiceover said.<\/p>\n Aptly named \u201cFrom the Ashes,\u201d Stefanik\u2019s launch video painted New York as a chaotic hellscape with a fire fanned by Hochul burning the state down. The inaugural ad didn\u2019t even mention Stefanik by name until roughly halfway through, favoring attacks on Hochul over introducing the candidate. \u201cThe Empire State has fallen,\u201d the video begins over a soundtrack of tense music. It quickly shifts to soundbites from broadcast news about \u201ca wave of migrant crime\u201d and \u201cforeign gang members terrorizing innocent New Yorkers,\u201d and blaming Hochul for the state\u2019s affordability crisis.\u00a0<\/p>\n Enter Stefanik, the \u201ccourageous leader ready for the fight\u201d to help New York rise from the \u201cashes of Kathy Hochul\u2019s failed policies.\u201d The video highlighted Stefanik\u2019s support of President Donald Trump\u2019s signature budget bill, which included middle-class tax cuts (among many other cuts that Democrats have denounced) and her ability to \u201cstand up to the woke mob\u201d during the congressional hearings on antisemitism on college campuses. \u201cElise Stefanik will clean up Kathy Hochul\u2019s catastrophe and restore New York’s greatness,\u201d the video concludes.\u00a0<\/p>\n Featuring inspiring stock footage to play underneath a commanding voiceover and leaning heavily on her opponents\u2019 negatives, Stefanik\u2019s launch feels more akin to a mid-campaign attack ad. It sets an aggressive tone for the race she promises to run, aligning with the rhetoric she has already started to employ on social media and news appearances.\u00a0<\/p>\n Stefanik is the first Republican to announce her challenge to Hochul, and early polling among potential GOP competitors shows her leading the pack. Rep. Mike Lawler, who has made no secret of his desire to run for governor at some point, decided to rule out the prospect in favor of running for reelection in his swing district at Trump\u2019s urging. But he still contended that he was \u201cbest positioned\u201d to beat Hochul \u2013 a tacit dig at Stefanik\u2019s ability to win as she emerged as the favorite for an uncontested GOP nomination.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the other person floated as a possible candidate still hasn\u2019t ruled out a run. Fresh off a strong reelection victory, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman told the New York Post<\/a> that he is meeting with Republican leaders and will make a decision in the coming weeks. Unlike Stefanik, who must give up her seat and leadership position in Congress, Blakeman can run without risking his current position. Although New York Republican leaders prefer to avoid a contentious primary fight by consolidating around a single candidate, that has never stopped primaries from happening before.\u00a0<\/p>\n Whether Trump decides to weigh in could be the deciding factor. Both Stefanik and Blakeman are close Trump allies whom he could feasibly endorse. A decision from him to back one over the other would all but assure a cleared field for that person. But should Trump opt to stay out of the race early on, all bets are off.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hochul isn\u2019t taking the long-expected announcement from Stefanik sitting down, though. Her campaign released a video<\/a> of its own attacking Stefanik and launched the microsite SelloutStefanik.com<\/a>. \u201cSellout Stefanik is Donald Trump\u2019s number one cheerleader in Congress and his right-hand woman in his war on New York: gutting health care, jacking up costs with expensive tariffs, and cutting funding for our police, schools, and hospitals,\u201d said Hochul campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika. \u201cApparently, screwing over New Yorkers in Congress wasn\u2019t enough \u2013 now she\u2019s trying to bring Trump\u2019s chaos and skyrocketing costs to our state.\u201d<\/p>\n Buckle up folks, this is going to be a bumpy ride.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s official \u2013 Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik is running for governor.\u00a0 After months of broadcasting her intentions, Stefanik…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[19220,1414,9,24,49,2327,63,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-31806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-2026-new-york-gubernatorial-election","tag-campaigns-elections","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-state","tag-news-politics","tag-nyc","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}