Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik suspends campaign for New York governor
Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, a top ally to President Donald Trump, announced Friday afternoon that she would suspend her campaign for governor of New York, and also not run for reelection to the U.S. House of Representatives, just months after she launched a bid to try to flip the governorship currently held by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.
“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 wrote 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.”
She also cited wanting to spend more time with her son.
Since launching her bid for governor in November, Stefanik had consolidated support from many of New York’s local Republican county parties behind her, but she faced a primary opponent in Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who announced his own bid.
