Updated at 10:00 a.m. Friday November 7
Rep. Elise Stefanik launched a 2026 campaign for New York governor on Friday, arguing that the high cost of living and concerns about public safety should be pinned on the state’s ruling Democrats.
Her entrance to the race sets the stage for one of President Donald Trump’s top allies in the House of Representatives to challenge Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul’s reelection bid. Stefanik announced her run in a Friday morning video that drew on previously broadcast interviews.
“Kathy Hochul is the worst governor in America,” Stefanik said. “Under her failed leadership, New York is the most unaffordable state in the nation with the highest taxes, highest energy, utilities, rent, and grocery bills.”
Stefanik is a top-ranking House member who has represented much of northern New York since 2014. She has spent months laying the political groundwork, traveling the state to meet with GOP leaders and help them raise funds while strongly suggesting she intended to enter the race.
The conservative Republican will attempt to deny Hochul at the ballot box in next year’s election, should Hochul survive a primary challenge. But Stefanik — as with any Republican — faces an uphill battle in deep-blue New York, a state that has twice as many Democrats as Republicans and hasn’t elected a member of the GOP to the governor’s office since George Pataki, who served from 1995 through the end of 2006.
Hochul’s campaign immediately tied Stefanik to Trump, who is viewed unfavorably by 61% of voters, according to a Siena University poll released in September. The same poll found Hochul leading Stefanik by 25 points, though other surveys have shown a smaller lead.
“Sellout Stefanik is Donald Trump’s 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,” said Hochul campaign spokesperson Sarafina Chitika.
Politico and The New York Times first reported Stefanik’s campaign launch plans. Her path to the Republican nomination received a boost in July, when another potential Republican candidate — Rep. Mike Lawler of the Hudson Valley — declined to enter the race.
In recent days, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican who won reelection Tuesday, has floated his own name for governor, telling the New York Post he’ll meet with party leaders about a possible run in the coming weeks.
Stefanik would be the first woman to serve as the Republican nominee for New York governor should she win her party’s nod. Hochul was the first woman to serve as Democratic nominee in 2022.
For much of the year, Stefanik and Hochul had already been treating each other as political opponents, with Stefanik repeatedly branding Hochul as “the worst governor in America” and Hochul retorting with a Trumpian nickname of her own — “Sellout Stefanik.”
In recent weeks, Stefanik has delighted in criticizing Hochul for endorsing New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who Republicans around the country have been eager to use as a foil in their own races.
Hochul, in turn, has blamed Stefanik and Republicans for the ongoing federal government shutdown and the pending expiration of federal health care subsidies.
Jerry Kassar, chairman of the state’s Conservative Party, said the effectiveness of the attacks will depend on how Trump’s agenda is perceived when voters go to the polls next year. He supports Trump and said Stefanik had greater fund-raising ability than recent GOP candidates.
“They want to create a wall using how they perceive Trump today,” Kassar said. “I am assuming that the Trump policies, which have in my opinion been fantastic for America, take greater hold than New York.”
Hochul took office in 2021 following former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s resignation after previously serving as his lieutenant governor. She won her own full term in 2022, defeating Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin by 6 points — a relatively narrow margin by deep blue New York standards.
The incumbent governor is also facing a Democratic primary from Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, who Hochul herself first appointed to the role in early 2022. The relationship soon soured, with Delgado expressing frustration with his minimal role in Hochul’s administration. He is now challenging Hochul from her left.
The 2026 primary election is set for June 23, with the general election to follow Nov. 3.
