Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., applauds on the first day of 2024 Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum, July 15, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP photo — Carolyn Kaster)

North Country Rep. Elise Stefanik has officially joined the 2026 race for New York governor.

After hinting at a gubernatorial run for months, she made an announcement Friday morning with a campaign ad framing Gov. Kathy Hochul as “the worst governor in America” and New York as a “fallen” state — with high taxes, high crime and people leaving in droves — and framed herself as a “courageous leader” who will help the state rise from the ashes.

Hochul, who has also been anticipating Stefanik’s announcement, hit back with an ad framing Stefanik as a “sellout” for President Donald Trump, saying she will “put Trump first,” ahead of New York families and criticizing her deciding vote on the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB), which the state Department of Health estimates could make 1.5 million New Yorkers lose their health insurance.

The gubernatorial election will take place next November. Hochul’s own Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado is also mounting a campaign to primary her on the Democratic line.

Stefanik began hinting at a gubernatorial run shortly after her nomination to become Trump’s United Nations ambassador was pulled by the White House in March. She has been critical of Hochul from the start, but ramped up the frequency of her statements on the head of state in the past few months.

Shortly after noon on Friday, Stefanik shared that she had been endorsed by 56 of the 62 Republican county chairs across the state.

She said this represents more than 72% of the weighted vote, making her the “presumptive Republican Nominee.” This statement assumes the Republican county committees represented by those 56 chairs vote to endorse her. There may be a primary election, too.

George Pataki was New York’s last Republican governor, serving three terms between 1995 and 2006. He endorsed Stefanik on Friday.

In the last gubernatorial election in 2022, then-Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-Long Island, put up a tight race with Hochul, coming away with 47.15% of the vote to her 52.85%.

Stefanik has amassed a political war chest of $10.9 million in her 2026 NY-21 reelection campaign as of the end of September, according to the Federal Election Commission — as much as $13 million now, according to her campaign. This money will transfer over to her gubernatorial campaign.

Hochul’s campaign fund sat at $17.5 million in July, according to her campaign.

Polling between the candidates has flip-flopped through the summer and the fall, with one being favored in the polls, and then the other. The election is still one full year away.

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Stefanik’s announcement also came with a flurry of announcements from several candidates planning to seek her congressional seat in NY-21 next year.

Democrat Blake Gendebien, who was selected by Democratic county chairs to run for the seat in the spring when it appeared Stefanik was going to be appointed Trump’s United Nations ambassador, used the announcement for a fundraising push for his 2026 campaign.

Democrat Dylan Hewitt of Glens Falls has also entered the race and used the announcement to draw attention to his campaign.

Republican Anthony Constantino, who was on the list for the GOP chairs’ pick in the cancelled special election, shared internal polling showing favorable numbers for himself earlier this week.

Republican state Sen. Dan Stec’s statement endorsing Stefanik ends with him saying he will run for reelection in the state Senate. He was previously a contender for the special election in the 21st Congressional District.

The ads

To view Stefanik’s announcement ad, go to tinyurl.com/mr3bk679.

“The Empire State has fallen,” the voiceover says, citing a high cost of living, high crime and people leaving the state.

A recent report from the Public Policy Institute of New York found that the state is the fourth slowest growing state in the country — only gaining 1% over the past 20 years. In that time, its age is getting older and New York has lost almost 10% of its working-age population since 2005.

The voiceover talks about “migrant crime” from foreign gang members while showing a video of a woman who was fatally set on fire on a New York City subway last December. Debrina Kawam was homeless and sleeping on the train. Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, has been charged with her murder, which appears to have been unprovoked.

Stefanik said this is all because of Hochul’s “failed policies.”

The Tax Foundation’s State Tax Competitiveness Index places New York as the lowest-ranked state in terms of tax competitiveness — 28th in corporate tax rate, 50th in individual income tax, 42nd in sales tax, 47th in property tax, and 38th in unemployment insurance tax.

Stefanik said she passed the “largest middle class tax cut in New York history,” speaking of the OBBB.

Hochul has described the bill differently — citing estimates that its cuts to Medicaid will cost New York hospitals and health systems $8 billion and lead to 42,500 preventable deaths nationwide annually.

To view Hochul’s ad, go to tinyurl.com/4d4prztk.

The New York City mayoral race has come up a lot in the early days of this race. Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani won the race, beating out former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Stefanik has criticized Hochul’s endorsement of Mamdani, calling him a “raging antisemite and a pro-Hamas Communist.” Mamdani has been critical of the government and military of Israel, but not of Jewish people broadly.

Both Stefanik and Hochul have shared clips of the other being heckled by voters — Stefanik being booed at a building renaming in Plattsburgh in August, and Hochul being interrupted with shouts of “Tax the rich” at a New York Democrat gathering in Puerto Rico on Thursday.

“I hear you,” Hochul told the crowd. “But I’m the type of person (where) the more you push me, the more I’m not going to do what you want.”

On Fox and Friends, Friday morning, Stefanik called Hochul an “accidental governor,” referencing Hochul’s ascension from lieutenant governor in 2021 after Cuomo resigned amid sexual misconduct accusations.

Stefanik’s platform on her website lists some of her goals, including cutting taxes, “expanding energy independence” to lower energy and utility costs and lowering the costs of goods.

She wants to end bail reform, passed by the state in 2019, which eliminated cash bail for many misdemeanor and some felony charges. It’s been controversial, with opponents saying it releases people who commit violence-adjacent crime back into the public, and does not allow judges to keep people who continually commit nonviolent crimes in jail.

Stefanik wants to end “sanctuary city” policies where cities choose to not have their law enforcement share information with federal immigration agents.

She said she’d end “taxpayer funding for illegals.”

According to the state comptroller, the state expects to spend $4.3 billion over four years on asylum seekers who have not been documented yet, mostly through housing assistance.

A report from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that undocumented immigrants in New York pay more than $3 billion in taxes annually.

Stefanik said she’d “support parents’ rights” and “expand school choice.”