Stefanik Quits Governor’s Race, Will Not Run for Reelection |
Congresswoman Elise Stefanik says she is dropping out of the New York governor’s race and will not run for reelection to the House after finishing her term in office.
Stefanik’s announcement comes days after Nassau County executive Bruce Blakeman decided to run against her for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. He jumped in the race despite a phone call from President Donald Trump discouraging him from challenging Stefanik, a member of Republican House leadership and a loyal Trump ally.
“My gut tells me this is not the right political time,” Stefanik says. “This is not the right sort of array of things lining up — which is so difficult in New York, which is just incredibly difficult in a picture-perfect year — let alone with a primary and everything else.”
Though the six-term representative believes she would have crushed Blakeman in a primary, “we viewed it as a waste of resources,” she tells me, pointing to how, in 2022, the Republican nominee for governor, Lee Zeldin, had to spend $7 million in a relatively uncompetitive primary that left him at a disadvantage against Governor Kathy Hochul. Stefanik allies derided Blakeman’s candidacy as quixotic and “a vanity campaign,” saying it was tantamount to a murder-suicide for Republicans that would guarantee Hochul’s reelection in November.
As congressman and former state GOP chair Nick Langworthy put it, “in New York,........