Elise Stefanik ends her short-lived bid for New York governor and won’t seek reelection to House
Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik announced Friday she was ending her short-lived bid for governor of New York and would not run for another term in Congress.
”While spending precious time with my family this Christmas season, I have made the decision to suspend my campaign for Governor and will not seek re-election to Congress,” Stefanik wrote in a post on social media. “I did not come to this decision lightly for our family.”
The decision came less than two months after the Trump-aligned lawmaker launched a campaign seeking to challenge Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2026. Stefanik recently drew a primary competitor in the former of Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, whom she invoked in her statement.
“While we would have overwhelmingly won this primary, it is not an effective use of our time or your generous resources to spend the first half of next year in an unnecessary and protracted Republican primary, especially in a challenging state like New York,” Stefanik wrote.
The chair of the New York Republican Party, Ed Cox, released a statement saying Stefanik would “remain a leader in our party and a powerful voice for our principles” while also endorsing Blakeman and urging other party leaders in the state to follow suit.
“Bruce is a fighter who has proven he knows how to win in difficult political terrain,” Cox said.
