Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, in her first interview after declaring her candidacy for governor on Friday, linked Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul to Mamdani<\/a>, the 34-year-old socialist state lawmaker who won election on Tuesday as New York City mayor.<\/p>\n “Kathy Hochul endorsed him and bent the knee,” Stefanik charged in an appearance on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends,” as she pointed to Mamdani, who she claimed is “a raging anti-Semite, pro-Hamas communist who wants to raise taxes.”<\/p>\n Firing back, Hochul’s campaign branded Stefanik “Sellout Stefanik” in a new social media account and in a new video, as it aimed to anchor the GOP challenger to Trump.<\/p>\n FIERCE TRUMP HOUSE ALLY JUMPS INTO EMPIRE STATE GUBERNATORIAL SHOWDOWN<\/a><\/p>\n Rep. Elise Stefanik with then-former President Donald Trump during the 2024 Republican presidential nomination race. (Getty Images)<\/p>\n “Sellout Stefanik is Donald Trump\u2019s number one cheerleader in Congress and his right-hand woman in his war on New York: gutting healthcare, jacking up costs with expensive tariffs, and cutting funding for our police, schools, and hospitals,” Hochul Campaign Communications Director Sarafina Chitika argued in a statement.<\/p>\n And Chitika claimed Stefanik “is trying to bring Trump\u2019s chaos and skyrocketing costs to our state. While Stefanik puts Trump first and New York last.”<\/p>\n Politics is larger and louder in New York<\/a>, the nation’s fourth-most-populous state, and that’s definitely the case in what’s expected to be a competitive and combustible battle for Empire State governor.<\/p>\n SOCIALIST SHOCKWAVE: ZOHRAN MAMDANI STUNS NYC AS VOTERS HAND POWER TO DEMOCRATS\u2019 FAR-LEFT FLANK<\/a><\/p>\n “There’s a lot of dynamics at work here. You have Donald Trump. You have the Mamdani factor,” Lee Miringoff, director of the New York-based Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, told Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, left, and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani attend the SOMOS Puerto Rico conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025 (Alejandro Granadillo\/AP Photo)<\/p>\n Republicans have been working to make Mamdani \u2014 whose June Democratic mayoral primary victory over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo<\/a> and nine other candidates sent shockwaves across the nation \u2014 as the new face of the Democratic Party, as they aim to paint Democrats as far-left radicals.<\/p>\n That effort has only increased since Mamdani’s general election victory earlier this week.<\/p>\n “You have an aggressive campaign by Stefanik<\/a> that is trying to paint Hochul into a corner,” Miringoff said<\/p>\n REPUBLICANS AIM TO LINK VULERNABLE DEMOCRATS TO MAMDANI<\/a><\/p>\n Trump, a native New Yorker who now calls Florida home, lost blue-leaning New York by 23 points in his 2020 presidential re-election defeat.<\/p>\n Four years later, Trump made major gains in New York in 2024, as he won back the White House, trimming his deficit in the state by 10 points.<\/p>\n But following Tuesday’s elections in left-tilting New Jersey<\/a> and Virginia, where Democrats won both state’s gubernatorial races by convincing double-digit margins, Miringoff said:T “Trump’s so-called realignment of 2024 is very short-lived, based on this past week.”<\/p>\n It has been more than two decades since a Republican last won a New York gubernatorial race. The last was former Gov. George Pataki\u2019s re-election in 2002.<\/p>\n Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York is running for re-election in 2026. (Julia Nikhinson\/AP Photo)<\/p>\n![\"Elise](\"https:\/\/a57.foxnews.com\/static.foxnews.com\/foxnews.com\/content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/1200\/675\/e794cb2b-gettyimages-1946486048-scaled.jpg?ve=1&tl=1\")
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