Elise Stefanik to Announce Run for NY Governor

New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik will launch her gubernatorial campaign against Gov. Kathy Hochul Friday, The Post has learned.

“We have crisscrossed the state. The overwhelming outpouring of support from Republicans, independents, and Democrats is that we need a new governor to save our state,” Stefanik told The Post.

“She owns the catastrophe from top to bottom,” the North Country pol said in a swipe at Hochul and new Big Apple Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who were in Puerto Rico for the annual SOMOS political retreat.

“Kathy Hochul was fired after one term in Congress. We have overwhelmingly been elected. She’s an accidental governor, everyone knows it,” Stefanik told The Post in an interview Thursday.

The prominent upstate congresswoman — a fierce ally of President Trump — is expected to make the highly-anticipated announcement in a video.

Stefanik said that her gubernatorial bid — which could make her the first Republican leader of the Empire State in 20 years – -will be “focused on making New York affordable” and “safe again.”

“New York State is single-party, Democrat rule,” she said. “Under Kathy Hochul’s failed leadership, New York is the most unaffordable state in the nation, with the highest taxes, highest utility and energy prices, highest rent, and it’s why people are leaving in mass exodus.”

Stefanik continued her recent attacks tying Hochul and Mamdani, saying that her soon-to-be opponent: “owns this disaster mayor who barely broke 50%.”

“He is a socialist, he is a defund-the-police, communist, anti-semite, pro-Hamas, and Kathy Hochul hasn’t condemned a single statement he has made,” Stefanik railed.

“She owns this lock, stock and barrel. She also owns his position where he said he wants to raise taxes.”

Stefanik drew attention to a recent incident in which Hochul, who endorsed Mamdani weeks before his victory over former Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the New York City mayor’s race, was “heckled off the stage” by chants of “tax the rich” from his supporters.

“She has a record of raising taxes, and she’s obviously considering doing that again, which is devastating to families who are suffering from an affordability crisis,” noted the New York Republican — after some state Democrats floated a plan to that effect in the wake of Mamdani’s election Tuesday.

“Kathy Hochul has bent the knee to the defund-the-police communist in New York City,” Stefanik said. “She owns failed bail reform, where violent criminals are being released on our streets, wreaking havoc across communities.”

She added: “What is most interesting is after Kathy Hochul endorsed Zohran Mamdani, we have been flooded with traditional Democrats who have said enough is enough, we are not supporting Kathy Hochul. We want you to run.”

Hochul does have to contend with Democrats unhappy with her. Just moments after the news of Stefanik’s announcement broke, Hochul was once again greeted with cheers of “tax the rich” as she took the stage at an event with Mamdani and State Attorney General Letitia James.

Hochul’s campaign referred The Post to a statement from state Democratic Committee spokesperson Addison Dick.

“Elise Stefanik is a rubber stamp in Washington for Trump’s deeply unpopular agenda that is raising costs, gutting health care, and defunding New York schools, hospitals, and police,” Dick said.

“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.”

Stefanik has been eagerly prepping a Hochul challenge, assembling an “all-star” team of New York-native strategists and staff in key regions — as polls have started showing her neck and neck against the Democratic incumbent in a hypothetical showdown.

One of those top campaign members, Tony Fabrizio, served as President Trump’s top pollster for his 2024 campaign and is from Long Island — where Republican Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman told The Post Wednesday he was eyeing his own possible gubernatorial run.

Several sources told The Post Stefanik’s announcement, first reported by Politico, was moved up from later this month after Blakeman said he was exploring running for governor.

Others on the Stefanik team hail from counties in Western New York or on Long Island that will be critical for the Republicans support if she hopes to outperform 2022 GOP gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin.

“Kathy Hochul is seeing the same polling that we’re seeing, which is she is underwater in every region of the state, whether it’s on Long Island, in the city, in the Hudson Valley, in the north country, the southern tier in western New York,” Stefanik said of the incumbent — who will be facing a primary challenge from her sidelined Lieutenant Gov. Antonio Delgado.

“There is not a single region where Kathy Hochul is above water,” Stefanik boasted. “She is universally disliked, particularly among Democrats.

“We’re in the position where we will unify immediately Republicans and conservatives and independents and those disaffected Democrats who felt the party’s left them.”