Rep. Elise Stefanik told the New York Post on Saturday she’s “in the strongest position to defeat” Gov. Kathy Hochul, as she moves closer to a 2026 run that could make her New York’s first Republican governor in nearly two decades.
Stefanik, 41, represents New York’s 21st Congressional District and rose to national prominence during a 2023 House Education and Workforce Committee hearing on antisemitism. There, she pressed the presidents of Harvard, MIT, and the University of Pennsylvania on whether “calling for the genocide of Jewish people” violated their schools’ codes of conduct. She told them slogans such as “From the River to the Sea” and calls for an intifada as genocidal.
The university leaders’ failure to clearly condemn such rhetoric drew widespread criticism, including from members of Congress who signed an open letter urging all three to resign. University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill, already under internal pressure, stepped down a week later. Stefanik responded to the resignation on Twitter, writing: “One down. Two to go.” During the hearing, when the MIT president claimed not to have heard any calls for genocide, Stefanik asserted that chants of “intifada” are widely interpreted as calls for the genocide of Jews.
Stefanik’s rising national profile earned her an appointment by President Donald Trump to serve as U.S. envoy to the United Nations. But in late March, Trump abruptly withdrew the nomination, citing the importance of keeping her in the House to safeguard the GOP’s narrow majority. “I don’t want to take a chance on anyone else running for Elise’s seat,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The people love Elise and, with her, we have nothing to worry about come Election Day. There are others that can do a good job at the United Nations.”
But come November 2026, the Republicans may need to look for a replacement for the vivacious congresswoman, because she is going to Albany to evict Kathy Hochul from the governor’s mansion.
This early in the game, Hochul leads Stefanik by a mere six percentage points in the polls, 46% to 40%. The congresswoman boats a $10 million war chest, and she dominates the Republican field for the party’s gubernatorial nomination (the next Republican up has the support of 7% of party members, compared with Stefanik’s 44%).
When asked about her platform, the upstate congresswoman criticized several of Gov. Hochul’s policies, including her recent refusal to fully ban masks worn by anti-Israel protesters accused of harassing Jewish New Yorkers.
On her way to the polls, Stefanik clashed with House Speaker Mike Johnson after he told Punchbowl News that he was speaking with both House Republicans eyeing a run for New York governor—and preferred they stay in Congress. Stefanik appeared to accuse Johnson of lying, suggesting no such conversation about the governor’s race had taken place between them.
