The 2026 New York gubernatorial election will likely be “existential battle” to save lots of New York and all of Western civilization from socialism, Rep. Elise Stefanik (D-NY) advised The Publish’s Wealthy Calder throughout a virtually 20-minute interview this week, excerpted under, discussing her choice to problem Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Q: Below the state Structure, governors may droop and even take away elected officers from workplace. Is that one thing you’d contemplate doing with socialist NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani if elected governor?
A: If elected governor, I’ll observe the New York State Structure, which lays out a course of. It isn’t based mostly upon ideology. The Structure could be very particular about that course of. . . . Once we win, I’ll observe the Structure and make an evaluation.
Q: How do you get round the truth that President Trump isn’t widespread in elements of New York – particularly in New York Metropolis? Hochul is already utilizing your alliance with Trump to lift money from panicked Democrats.
A: Hochul’s marketing campaign helps us end up low-propensity voters, which will likely be a key a part of our electoral technique. The fact is Kathy Hochul received about 3.1 million votes in New York and Donald Trump received practically 3.6 million. This race goes to be received on voter turnout, and it’s going to be received on a referendum on Kathy Hochul. . . . Her identify is on the poll. My identify will likely be on the poll, and she or he is much less widespread than Donald Trump is in New York State.
Q: If you happen to beat Hochul, do you propose to reverse congestion pricing?
A: Oh, completely. That’s going to be a serious a part of my platform. It’s a commuter tax. It’s a tax on working New Yorkers, and it’s devastating the financial system of New York Metropolis.
Q: Why did you determine to enter the governor’s race – and why now?
A: I’m operating to save lots of New York. We now have seen twenty years of Democrats within the governor’s seat, and what has occurred in New York? It’s change into probably the most unaffordable state within the nation and one of the vital unsafe. On the affordability challenge, due to Kathy Hochul’s failed management, we’re the best tax state within the nation. We now have the best vitality costs, the best utility price, highest hire, highest grocery payments. We additionally rank on the backside in the case of friendliness of doing enterprise in New York.. . . And on the problem of security, due to failed bail reform, each single day, there are violent crimes being dedicated in opposition to law-abiding New Yorkers. . . . New Yorkers are outraged, and so I made a decision to run as a result of I wish to save the state that I like. I’m born and raised in upstate New York, and I perceive that historically New York is a Democrat state. However once I first ran for Congress over a decade in the past, nobody thought I may win. It was a Democrat seat. Republicans had struggled for a lot of cycles to win it. . . . I went on to win the costliest major within the nation, and I received the final election by over 20 factors, shattering expectations, and we did that by constructing a coalition of Republicans, independents, and Democrats. And since then, we’ve constructed an equipment the place I put up a number of the largest margins within the Northeast and the best voter turnout of any congressional district within the state.
Q: You’ve stated that a variety of help in your gubernatorial bid has come from Dems – are you able to increase on that?
A: Kathy Hochul is seeing the identical polling that we’re, and that’s: amongst registered Democrats, she can not make 50%. That’s the reason she endorsed Mamdani and bowed to him to attempt to coalesce registered Democrats and attempt to appease the far left. It was a politically poisonous and devastating choice as a result of it places into hyperdrive conventional Democrats, independents and Republicans who’re opposing her. And should you have a look at Mamdani’s win, whereas he received a three-way race and received barely above 50%, what it means to me is that it was an underperformance, historically, for the Democratic nominee. They’re often within the excessive 60s or 70s in New York Metropolis. . . . Hochul’s approval scores have cratered. A few of her largest bundlers and donors are actually my bundlers and donors, which will likely be revealed after we do our end-of-the-year submitting. . . . They need a robust governor who can characterize widespread sense values for all of New York, to save lots of New York Metropolis, and save the remainder of New York State.
Q: Do you assume Mamdani being mayor helps your marketing campaign, and Republicans nationwide, assuming he bombs in workplace?
A: I need New York Metropolis to succeed. It’s crucial and most significant metropolis, not simply within the state, however in your complete world. . . . We’d like a wholesome, protected, vibrant, capitalist New York Metropolis. We additionally want a New York Metropolis the place households are in a position to thrive and never be crushed by excessive taxation, regulatory burdens, in addition to this “defund the police” nonsense that makes New York more and more unsafe. So I’m going to proceed holding Hochul accountable each single day for her refusal to sentence Mamdani’s positions. There’s not a single assertion he has made that Hochul has condemned. She didn’t condemn his … calling for “defunding the police.” She didn’t condemn when he stated Hamas shouldn’t lay down their arms. She didn’t condemn when he campaigned with the unindicted co-conspirator of the World Commerce Heart bombings in 1993. She didn’t condemn when he stated he needs to abolish non-public property. . . . And, mark my phrases, she’s going to break her promise that she stated she’s not going to lift taxes as a result of [the far left will] extract it from her.
Q: However do you assume his success or failures will assist your marketing campaign?
A: Yeah, we’re holding him accountable, and it’s going to show what Kathy Hochul has delivered to New York Metropolis. On the time when it was most vital for the governor to indicate power and customary sense, she anointed [Mamdani] by endorsing him. . . . So, sure, if Mamdani fails, we’re going to make it possible for voters know there’s a higher method to have a robust governor who brings widespread sense and is targeted on making New York reasonably priced and making it protected.
Q: Do you see your self operating not solely in opposition to Hochul – but additionally Mamdani? And is the race a battle to stop the soul of New York turning socialist?
A: That is an existential battle for New York and for Western civilization. That is crucial election that New York State may have had in my lifetime, very similar to 2024 was a traditionally vital [presidential] election. That is going to be a referendum on Kathy Hochul, and Kathy Hochul is tied lock, inventory and barrel to Mamdani — each place, each catastrophic mistake he makes. You’re going to see a rise of crime in New York Metropolis. You’re already seeing a mass exodus and a fleeing of companies, of households who, No. 1, are terrified of Mamdani — rightfully so — and No. 2, see his proposal of elevating taxes, making New York much more unaffordable than it already is.
Q: You referred to as Hochul “the worst governor within the USA.” Do you’re feeling Mamdani would be the worst mayor within the USA?
A: Oh, sure, completely. And Kathy Hochul has earned that label. It caught for a purpose, and it’s as a result of she’s an unintentional governor. Let’s look again at Kathy Hochul’s profession. She was a city board member of Hamburg. Hamburg, by the best way, simply flipped Republican. She was a one-term member of Congress who was fired by her constituents. She was lieutenant governor as a result of [ex-Gov. Andrew] Cuomo wished a weak lieutenant governor [from] the western a part of New York State. After which she’s an unintentional governor who occurred to be on the poll as a result of Cuomo stepped down in [2021]. She was an unknown generic Democrat in 2022, and [Republican] Lee Zeldin got here inside six factors [of beating her]. Now she’s identified and she or he’s despised. She’s underwater in each single media market: New York Metropolis, Lengthy Island, Hudson Valley, Capital District, Upstate City, Upstate Rural, and Western New York. They’re seeing those self same numbers that we’re whereas conducting our polling and analysis throughout the state.
Q: Are you involved concerning the impact Trump’s lack of recognition in New Jersey had on its governor’s race, which Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill received handily?
A: In that case, Mikie Sherrill was not an incumbent governor the best way that Kathy Hochul is, and I’ve served with Mikie Sherrill. Kathy Hochul is abysmal and the underside of the barrel. And Mikie Sherrill is only a completely different kind of candidate than Kathy Hochul, who’s an embattled governor, who’s being primaried by her personal handpicked lieutenant governor, who owns the catastrophic financial and security insurance policies in New York State.
Q: Will you convey fracking to New York?
A: Completely. Day 1, I will likely be lifting the moratorium on fracking. We have to unleash American vitality independence and New York vitality independence, and that’s a serious purpose why now we have the affordability disaster — due to the insane vitality insurance policies of Kathy Hochul. . . . She has chosen to dam fracking. She has chosen to place within the gas-stove ban. We’re going to deal with New York pure assets which are reasonably priced and likewise ample and can result in an enormous financial enhance for each New Yorker, each household, to pay decrease payments, but it surely additionally will present hundreds of jobs in upstate, particularly the Southern Tier.
Q: How will you clear up the cost-of-living challenge and is that the most important challenge for voters and the GOP?
A: So No. 1, you must lower taxes. Right here Hochul has a document of elevating taxes. . . . I’m the one candidate that may really lower taxes, and I delivered that already, and voters will see that subsequent 12 months after they file their taxes. I negotiated the biggest middle-class tax lower for New Yorkers in historical past with each the president and the Secretary of Treasury, and my colleagues within the New York Republican delegation, by the lifting of the SALT deduction. We’re going to make New York probably the most reasonably priced state with probably the most aggressive tax points by reducing taxes, moderately than being taxed probably the most. The second piece is vitality. Vitality is the gas of the financial system, and New Yorkers are paying extra for vitality payments than anyplace else within the nation. That’s why these points you talked about are so vital. Lifting the moratorium on fracking to “frack child, frack.” That’s going to decrease the prices tremendously. Inexperienced lighting the pipeline [project] that Kathy Hochul blocked for therefore a few years. Eliminating the insane gas-stove ban. I additionally wish to take a sledgehammer to the crimson tape and paperwork that makes it so costly to do enterprise.
Q: What do you convey to the desk that Hochul lacks?
A: A document of outcomes. I’ve been re-elected overwhelmingly. I’m in my sixth time period in Congress. I convey vitality. I’m a hardworking mother, a hardworking member of Congress with the flexibility to win and unify Republicans, independents, and Democrats. I’m laser-focused on tackling the affordability disaster to decrease the price of groceries, to decrease prices of vitality payments, in addition to to decrease taxes. I additionally perceive how vital it’s with a younger household to have protected communities. . . . I’ve a document of doing that. And whereas I’ve served in Congress — whereas Kathy Hochul has solely served with Democratic majorities within the Meeting, Senate . . . within the governor’s seat — I’ve served with Democrats, Republicans, and I’ve been in a position to successfully ship for New Yorkers, it doesn’t matter what that iteration is. . . . I’ve been rated as one of many topmost bipartisan members and likewise one of the vital efficient, significantly in the case of small companies.
