Elise Stefanik Suddenly Ends Campaign For New York Governor

Republican New York Rep. Elise Stefanik abruptly suspended her campaign Friday afternoon to unseat Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Stefanik said she came to a decision to drop out of the race after spending time with her family during the holiday season. The New York Republican also said she would not seek another term in the House during next year’s midterm elections.

Stefanik cited a potentially bruising primary against Nassau Executive Bruce Blakeman as part of her rationale for exiting the race.

“I am truly humbled and grateful for the historic and overwhelming support from Republicans, Conservatives, Independents, and Democrats all across the state for our campaign to Save New York,” Stefanik said in a post on X.

“However, as we have seen in past elections, 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 also faced a steep climb to defeat Hochul in a midterm election year that could be unfavorable for Republicans. Democrats also outnumber Republicans by a 2 to 1 margin among registered voters in the Empire State, which has not elected a Republican governor in more than two decades.

Hochul led Stefanik by 19 percentage points in a hypothetical general election matchup, according to a Siena College poll released Tuesday.

Though Stefanik trounced Blakeman by more than 30 points in the same survey, his presence in the race complicated her path to victory. The competitive primary forced Stefanik to take her focus off of Hochul — who is facing her own primary challenge — and field questions why the loyal Trump ally had not received the president’s endorsement.

Stefanik, who has long been viewed as a rising star in the Republican party, positioned herself as one of Trump’s most ardent defenders in Congress during his 2019 impeachment and went viral during her sharp questioning of Ivy League university presidents over antisemitism on their campuses. She was appointed to serve as Trump’s United Nations ambassador, but her nomination was pulled over concerns about House Republicans’ razor-thin majority.

Blakeman, who has long had a close relationship with Trump, also took recent moves to secure the president’s support.

Blakeman’s campaign announced Thursday that they would begin airing campaign ads in the West Palm Beach media market during Christmas, which is the location of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence.

New York Republican leaders began shifting their support to Blakeman’s campaign Friday after initially rallying behind Stefanik’s campaign. Stefanik had obtained the support of more than 75% of state county GOP chairs, making her the presumptive nominee before her campaign’s suspension.

“Working together and with Bruce Blakeman as our candidate, Republicans will defeat Kathy Hochul, end Democrats’ affordability crisis and put an end to New York’s nation-leading outmigration,” New York Republican Party chair Ed Cox said in a statement.

Stefanik announced her gubernatorial run in November after teasing a run for months under the tagline “Save New York.”

She also sought to cast Hochul as in lockstep with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who she denounced as a “communist” and a “jihadist.” However, the Mamdani attack line became more difficult after Trump hosted a friendlymeeting with the incoming mayor in the Oval Office.

Though Blakeman has argued that his moderate brand would make him a more competitive general election candidate than Stefanik, most Republican voters in the state are not familiar with him, according to the Siena survey.

Stefanik’s decision to leave Congress comes after she excoriated House Speaker Mike Johnson earlier in December and suggested most GOP lawmakers would vote for new leadership. She later toned down her criticism in an interview with Punchbowl News.