Stefanik to Launch Campaign to Challenge Gov. Hochul in New York

Representative Elise Stefanik, a conservative upstate New York Republican with close ties to the White House, is preparing to announce as early as Friday that she will run for governor next year, according to three people briefed on her plans.

The move, which is expected to be announced in a video, sets up a ferocious political battle between one of President Trump’s fiercest allies and Gov. Kathy Hochul, a moderate Democrat. The contest is likely to be one of the key races in next year’s crucial midterm elections.

A spokesman for Ms. Stefanik would not comment about her plans. The people familiar with her intentions were not authorized to discuss them and cautioned the timing could still change.

Ms. Stefanik, 41, began her career as a Harvard-educated moderate, working in the White House of former President George W. Bush and for Paul Ryan, the 2012 Republican vice-presidential nominee.

But since Mr. Trump’s first election, she has moved ever closer to the center of his orbit. She was a visible defender during his impeachments and amplified his lies about the 2020 election. Later, her viral showdowns with Ivy League university presidents about antisemitism on campuses helped push several to resign.

Those qualities have brought her enormous fund-raising numbers and a national reputation among Republicans, but have also saddled her with baggage that could encumber her in a state that Democrats have governed for decades.

Ms. Stefanik has made no secret about her eagerness to challenge Ms. Hochul, 67, who has faced middling poll numbers for much of her tenure. Many of the congresswoman’s recent moves could be seen as a preview of her campaign strategy: conflating Ms. Hochul with Zohran Mamdani, now the mayor-elect of New York City, and running as their foil.

Ms. Stefanik, a political pugilist, has aggressively criticized Mr. Mamdani, a democratic socialist, calling him an “antisemite communist” and a “jihadist terrorist sympathizer,” and has sought to tie him to Ms. Hochul, who endorsed him, at every opportunity.

She frequently calls Ms. Hochul the “worst governor in America.”

By formally beginning her campaign just days after the New York City mayoral election, Ms. Stefanik could use Mr. Mamdani’s victory to amplify her appeals to donors.

As the news broke Thursday night, Ms. Hochul was more than 1,600 miles away in San Juan, P.R., where Democrats hosted an annual post-election political conference. She stood onstage beside the ocean and celebrated Democratic victories on Tuesday, including Mr. Mamdani’s.

She did not immediately address Ms. Stefanik’s expected entry into the race, and a spokeswoman for Ms. Hochul’s campaign declined to comment.

Addison Dick, the spokesman for the state Democratic Party that Ms. Hochul controls, called Ms. Stefanik 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.

“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,” he added.

Ms. Hochul has been governor since 2021, when she stepped in following the resignation of former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. She was elected the following year in a close contest with Lee Zeldin, a Republican who now leads the Environmental Protection Agency.

Ms. Stefanik is expected to have considerable support from leading New York Republicans. But her decision to announce now may have something to do with getting ahead of another Republican and Trump ally who has signaled he might run. On Wednesday, Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, told The New York Post that he was weighing jumping in after winning re-election.

A spokesman for Mr. Blakeman declined to comment.

A third Republican, Representative Michael Lawler, had also explored a run for months, but decided against it as Ms. Stefanik began telegraphing her intent. He was said to have analyzed the race and determined it would be difficult for a Republican to win.

“There’s a lot of support in the Conservative Party for Elise Stefanik,” said Gerard Kassar, the chairman of the New York State Conservative Party. “Blakeman, as far as I can tell, is in a very real exploratory process, but he hasn’t made any decisions."

It is not clear how favorable the electoral landscape will be for New York Republicans next year. Tuesday’s elections saw a national swing against Republicans, with Democrats handily winning gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey and the anti-Trump candidate, Mr. Mamdani, winning the mayoral election in New York City.

Ms. Stefanik could also face criticism for her association with several of the members of the New York State Young Republicans, which was disbanded after its racist and antisemitic chat was leaked. Ms. Stefanik condemned the messages, but also criticized the reporting in Politico which brought them to light, calling it a “hit piece.”

When she won her North Country seat in 2014, Ms. Stefanik was the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. In the intervening years her loyalty to Mr. Trump helped her to ascend to the position of No. 3 House Republican, following the ouster of Representative Liz Cheney.

Shortly after his election, Mr. Trump nominated Ms. Stefanik to serve as ambassador to the United Nations, a post she accepted. But months later he rescinded the invitation, fearing the loss of her House seat in a special election.

She has since made it clear to colleagues that she does not want to stay in Congress.

Ms. Stefanik has spent much of 2025 elevating her statewide profile, in part by situating herself as the leader of the MAGA wing of the Republican Party in New York.

Her entry into the governor’s race means it is likely to pit two women from far outside New York City against each other in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans and where the population is concentrated in and around the five boroughs, many of whose voters dislike Mr. Trump.

The president vowed to withhold more federal funds from the city if Mr. Mamdani won — a dynamic that could prove tricky for Ms. Stefanik, who has shown no willingness to criticize Mr. Trump.

“I think Elise Stefanik typifies the exact type of politics that has created so much despair across this city, across this state and across this country,” Mr. Mamdani said on Thursday.

Asked if he would support Ms. Hochul’s campaign, Mr. Mamdani said she had yet to ask for his endorsement but he looked forward to working together.