GOP Candidate Makes New Promise
Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., is drawing a hard line in the sand against what she calls New York’s radical socialist takeover — and she says she’s the only one strong enough to stop it.
In a fiery interview with Newsmax’s “National Report”, Stefanik pledged that if she’s elected governor, she’ll be “the only check on [New York City Mayor-elect] Zohran Mamdani.” Mamdani, an open socialist from Queens, has pushed an extreme left-wing agenda that critics say would devastate the state’s economy and public safety.
Stefanik: “Hochul Bent the Knee to the Radical Left”
Stefanik didn’t hold back when talking about Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul, accusing her of surrendering to the far-left fringe that now dominates New York politics.
“Kathy Hochul has bent the knee to extremists like Mamdani,” Stefanik said. “She’s failed our state on every level — safety, affordability, and freedom.”
The upstate Republican said Hochul’s policies have turned New York into a place people can’t afford to live.
“We’re the highest-taxed state in America — the highest energy costs, rent, groceries, and insurance,” Stefanik said. “That’s the direct result of Albany’s tax-and-spend insanity.”
Working With President Trump to Protect Middle-Class New Yorkers
Stefanik contrasted her record of results with Hochul’s record of failure, reminding voters that she helped deliver historic Trump-era tax cuts for working families.
“I’m the only candidate who has actually delivered tax relief,” she said. “Under President Trump, we expanded the state and local tax deduction — the largest middle-class tax cut in New York history.”
She said Trump’s policies helped small businesses thrive — until Democrats in Albany “taxed them to death.”
Defending Faith, Freedom & Israel Against the Far Left
The congresswoman reserved her toughest words for Hochul’s silence on rising antisemitism and her cozy ties to Zohran Mamdani, whom Stefanik called “a socialist and an antisemite.”
“Mamdani has said Israel doesn’t have a right to exist,” Stefanik warned. “He even campaigned with an unindicted co-conspirator from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Hochul said nothing — she stood by silently while Jewish students were targeted and harassed.”
Stefanik noted her own record of confronting antisemitism on college campuses, leading explosive hearings in Congress that exposed hateful rhetoric at Harvard, MIT, and Columbia.
“Those hearings sent shockwaves through higher education,” she said. “That’s what real leadership looks like — and it’s exactly what New York needs now.”
“I’m Running to Save New York”
Framing the race as a fight for the soul of the state, Stefanik said New Yorkers face a simple choice in 2026: strength or submission.
“I’m running to save New York,” she declared. “I will always put our people first — not the socialist activists, not the corrupt Albany insiders, and certainly not the radical left in New York City.”
She added,
“If I don’t win, Kathy Hochul will keep bending the knee — and Zohran Mamdani will run the state from New York City. I’ll be the only check on his dangerous socialist agenda.”
