Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik introduced her campaign for New York governor on Friday with a video seizing on the problem of affordability and attacking Democratic incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul for her help of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, declaring that “the Empire State has fallen.”
“Kathy Hochul made New York the most unaffordable state in the nation, crushing families with sky-high taxes, unaffordable rent, soaring energy costs and record high grocery bills” a narrator says in the video, leaning into cost-of-living considerations that dominated Tuesday’s off-year elections.
The campaign launch shortly turned to criticizing Hochul for backing Mamdani in the high-profile, contentious mayoral race. Flashing pictures of Mamdani on the display, the video claims Hochul “cozied up to a defund-the-police, tax-hiking, antisemitic Communist.”
It’s an early check of Republicans’ capacity to leverage Mamdani, a self-identified democratic socialist, as a motivating issue for their aspect – significantly for Stefanik who would want to work with the mayor if elected governor, establishing a possible collision course.
In the weeks main as much as her broadly anticipated campaign, Stefanik had escalated her criticism of Hochul, frequently attacking the incumbent over her choice to endorse Mamdani.
Stefanik has additionally seized on Hochul’s stewardship of public security, criticizing her method to immigration enforcement and crime. In a congressional listening to in June, the pair clashed over President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to California.
But at the same time as an in depth Trump ally serving in House GOP management, Stefanik made no point out of the president in her launch video as she hopes to place the gubernatorial workplace in play in the Democratic stronghold.
President Donald Trump reduce his margin of defeat in New York by about 10 factors between his 2020 and 2024 White House campaigns, however Republicans haven’t received there statewide since 2002. Stefanik shall be additional challenged in a midterm cycle traditionally unfavorable to the president’s get together, with Trump’s approval hitting a second-term low in a latest NCS nationwide ballot.
Still, with greater than a mixed $13 million money readily available, Stefanik has tapped numerous former Trump advisers and longtime aides who labored in finance, communications and operations roles to assist launch her campaign.
And Stefanik enters the GOP major as a heavy favourite, with a high potential rival, Rep. Mike Lawler, having been persuaded by Trump to stay in the narrowly divided House relatively than create an open seat in his battleground district.