The republican counterattack took place just three days after the municipal elections. Republican star Rep. Elise Stefanik has announced her candidacy for next year’s gubernatorial election in the state, which coincides with midterm elections to renew the US Congress. Stefanik will face the Democratic incumbent of New York, Kathy Hocul, in a political duel without precedent in the history of the state.
“America’s worst governor” vs. “sold out”
The two women have already crossed swords, directly engaging President Donald Trump and newly elected Mayor Mamdani in the fray. The 41-year-old Stefanik called the 67-year-old Hokul the “worst governor in America” and she called her a “sellout” (Sellout Stefanik). But the most interesting element of the confrontation is that the Republican congresswoman, on the one hand, denounces Mamdani as a “Hamas supporter, anti-Semite, jihadist and communist”, while on the other hand she adopts his rhetoric and partly his agenda in order to blame the democratic governor for the problems of New Yorkers.
“Under Kathy Hokul’s failed leadership, New York is the most expensive state in the country, has the highest taxes, the most expensive energy and the highest rents, while the food shortage is crushing hard-working families,” Stefanik declared in her statewide exit message.
Hokul accuses Stefanik of being a loyal follower of Trump and his extreme policies, while pointing out that the American president intended the congresswoman to be the US ambassador to the UN, but backed out at the last minute, so as not to risk his party’s marginal majority in the House of Representatives.
Stefanik has been elected to parliament continuously since 2014 in the 21st district, in the northwest of the state, having defeated five different Democratic opponents in six election contests, with percentages ranging from 55 to 62%. When she was first elected, Stefanik was 30 years old, the youngest congresswoman in the history of Congress. She became more widely known in 2023 when, during a congressional hearing, she sharply criticized the chancellors of three prestigious American universities for anti-Semitism.
“Counterweight to Communism”
Democrats have traditionally dominated New York, population 8.5 million. Almost the entire remaining map of the state of the same name, which has a total population of 20 million, was painted Republican red in the 2022 elections, but Hokul, thanks to the votes of the metropolis, was elected governor with 53% (3,140,000 votes), while her Republican opponent Lee Zeldin got 46.7% (2,762,000 votes). In the last half century, Republicans have only elected George Pataki (from 1995 to 2007) as governor.
Stefanik believes that she can not only close the gap, but also achieve a historic victory, presenting her opponent as a subordinate of the “extreme” Mamdani. Tellingly, Democratic Governor Hokul waited until September to declare her support for Mamdani, noting that she looked forward to a good partnership despite their political differences.
“The people are looking for strong leadership with common sense to act as a counterweight to this radical paranoia that we see developing in New York with Zohran Mamdani, the anti-Semitic socialist who wants to raise taxes and weaken the police,” said Stefanik, who is a staunch defender of Israel and has excellent relations with the Jewish lobby (AIPAC). In the same logic, it is expected that Trump and the Republican Party will move, until the mid-term elections, in November 2026, attempting to present the Democrats as a party led and carried by “communists”.
Who will be the next governor of New York state will be determined more by the work of the rookie Mamdani in the first 10 months of his term than by the programs of the two female politicians. Madani’s victory marked the beginning of a new, larger political battle, one that goes far beyond the borders of New York and whose results will be seen in a year.
