Rep. Elise Stefanik, the onetime moderate Republican turned staunch MAGA ally of President Donald Trump, announced on Friday that she is running for governor of New York.
Stefanik’s entry into the race sets up what is likely to be one of the most closely watched elections of the 2026 campaign season.
In the lead-up to the launch of her campaign, Stefanik had been relentlessly attacking incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), calling her “the Worst Governor in America,” seizing on her endorsement of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.
“Now more than ever, New Yorkers need a strong check and balance in the Governor’s Office to counterbalance jihadist terrorist sympathizer Commie Mamdani,” Stefanik wrote on X, joining the chorus of Islamophobic attacks Mamdani has faced from right-wing pundits.
Her campaign video announcement on Friday reinforced that theme.
“I am running for Governor to make New York affordable and safe FOR ALL. Democrats, Republicans, and Independents will unify to save our state. It’s time to: FIRE HOCHUL. SAVE NEW YORK,” she wrote in the caption.
Her two-and-a-half-minute video did not reference Trump at all.
But Hochul made sure to highlight her strong ties to Trump in a supercut posted on social media.
“Elise Stefanik is running to deliver New York for Donald Trump and raise your costs,” Hochul wrote. ”Not on my watch. My message to Trump’s ‘top ally’ — bring it on.”
Meanwhile, New York GOP chair Ed Cox made clear the party is united behind Stefanik, noting there “will not be a Republican primary in a year from now.”
“She is the warrior we need to lead the fight against Democrats’ corrupt Albany machine,” Cox said in a statement.
New York hasn’t had a GOP governor in nearly 20 years, with George Pataki being the last Republican to hold the post from 1995 to 2007.
Stefanik, an alum of the George W. Bush administration who also helped former House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) in his preparation for the vice presidential debate against Joe Biden in 2012, won her first House race in 2014, making history as the youngest woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress at the time.
While she entered politics as a moderate Republican, she went on to fully embrace Trump, endorsing him in 2016 after he became the party’s nominee.
She has stood by him ever since, voting against his impeachment and was also one of the 147 Republican lawmakers who voted against certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 race on Jan. 6, 2021, pushing his debunked election falsehoods.
In 2022, she became the first Republican, and the highest-level one, to endorse Trump’s 2024 presidential bid, while most Republicans blamed him for the party’s lackluster performance in that year’s midterm elections.
She was also reportedly on Trump’s vice-presidential shortlist last year before he settled on JD Vance.
But while Stefanik seemed poised to be rewarded for her loyalty to Trump, being picked to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, he withdrew her nomination over concerns that Republicans could lose her seat in a special election, further limiting their already-small majority in the House of Representatives.