{"id":32414,"date":"2025-11-07T21:14:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T21:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/32414\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T21:14:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T21:14:07","slug":"elise-stefanik-close-ally-of-trump-announces-run-for-governor-of-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/32414\/","title":{"rendered":"Elise Stefanik, close ally of\u00a0Trump, announces run for governor of New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, a close Republican ally of\u00a0President Donald Trump<\/a>, announced Friday that she\u2019s running for governor of New York, a place she depicted in a campaign launch video as being \u201cin ashes\u201d because of lawlessness and a high cost of living.<\/p>\n

In her video, a narrator declares \u201cThe Empire State has fallen\u201d as it paints a grim picture of urban, liberal leadership and life in New York City, though the message appeared to be aimed at audiences in other, more conservative parts of the state.<\/p>\n

Her candidacy sets up a potential battle with Gov. Kathy Hochul, a centrist Democrat, though both candidates would have to first clear the field of any intraparty rivals before next November\u2019s election.<\/p>\n

Stefanik, 41, has teased a run for months, often castigating Hochul, 67, as the \u201cworst governor in America.\u201d She\u2019s also assailed Hochul for endorsing the ascendent, democratic socialist\u00a0Zohran Mamdani<\/a>, now the mayor-elect of New York City.<\/p>\n

In a written statement, Stefanik said she is running to make \u201cNew York affordable and safe for families all across our great state.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur campaign will unify Republicans, Democrats, and Independents to Fire Kathy Hochul once and for all to Save New York,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Hochul\u2019s campaign released its own attack ad Friday against the Republican, dubbing her \u201cSellout Stefanik,\u201d and blamed her for enabling\u00a0Trump\u2019s tariffs<\/a>\u00a0and federal funding cuts to education and\u00a0health care.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cApparently, screwing over New Yorkers in Congress wasn\u2019t enough \u2014 now she\u2019s trying to bring Trump\u2019s chaos and skyrocketing costs to our state,\u201d said Hochul campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika.<\/p>\n

Representing a conservative congressional district in northern New York, Stefanik had once been a pragmatic and moderate Republican who would\u00a0avoid uttering Trump\u2019s name<\/a>, simply calling him \u201cmy party\u2019s presidential nominee.\u201d<\/p>\n

But in recent years she has reshaped herself into a brash disciple and ardent defender of Trump\u2019s MAGA movement, rising through the ranks of the Republican Party\u2019s congressional hierarchy\u00a0as it molded to Trump\u2019s political style.<\/a><\/p>\n

Last year, Stefanik was tapped to become the\u00a0president\u2019s ambassador<\/a>\u00a0to the United Nations, though her nomination was later\u00a0pulled<\/a>\u00a0over concerns about her party\u2019s tight margins in the House. She then began to\u00a0angle toward a run<\/a>\u00a0for governor, and very quickly got a public nod of support from Trump.<\/p>\n

Her announcement video, which was titled \u201cFrom the Ashes,\u201d casts New York as a dangerous place plagued by \u201cmigrant crime\u201d and economic crisis, placing the blame on \u201cKathy Hochul\u2019s failed policies,\u201d as urgent, ominous music plays in the background.<\/p>\n

New York City police officials have long touted drops in crime and this week said the city is in its eighth consecutive quarter of major crime decline.<\/p>\n

The Republican primary field remains unclear ahead of the 2026 race.<\/p>\n

On Long Island, Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman has said he\u2019s weighing a run for governor. In a statement Friday, he said he has \u201ctremendous respect\u201d for Stefanik but that the GOP needs to nominate a candidate who has \u201cbroad based appeal with independents and common sense Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe party must nominate the candidate with the best chance to defeat Kathy Hochul and I have been urged by business, community and political leaders across the state to make the run and I am seriously considering it,\u201d said Blakeman, who handily won reelection to another four-year term on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler had been contemplating a run but instead decided to\u00a0seek reelection<\/a>\u00a0in his battleground House district in the Hudson Valley.<\/p>\n

Hochul faces a contested primary, with her own lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado,\u00a0running against her<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Democrats have a major voter registration edge in New York. The state\u2019s last Republican governor was former Gov. George Pataki, who left office about two decades ago.<\/p>\n

Still, Republican Lee Zeldin, a former Long Island congressman and current head of the Environmental Protection Agency, made a serious\u00a0run for the office in 2022<\/a>, coming within striking distance of upsetting Hochul. ___<\/p>\n

AP writer Philip Marcelo contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, a close Republican ally of\u00a0President Donald Trump, announced Friday that she\u2019s running for governor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32415,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4301,9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":["post-32414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-american-politics","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32414","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=32414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}