Both Vie for GOP Nod to Face Hochul
By Hank Russell
Election Day came and went, but now two elected officials are looking forward to 2026 as U.S. Representative Elise Stefanik and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman announced their bid for governor on the Republican ticket, in hopes of facing off against the sitting Democratic governor, Kathy Hochul.
Stefanik — whose name has been mentioned as a possible candidate in the past few months — made it official on November 7. She posted a press release on her Facebook page announcing her run for governor. According to Stefanik, she received 72% of the weighted vote (50% is required to be the New York Republican Party’s nominee.)
Stefanik (R-Plattsburgh) was elected to Congress in 2014, making her the youngest woman to be elected to Congress, according to her biography. She is currently the Chairwoman of House Republican Leadership and serves as the highest-ranking woman in Congress as House Republican Conference Chair, where she was the youngest woman in history to serve in top elected House leadership.
In addition, Stefanik serves as a senior Member of the House Armed Services Committee, the Committee on Education and the Workforce, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and was a founding Member of the China Task Force. She also serves on the Elected Leadership Committee and the powerful Steering Committee.
In the press release, she listed the 56 GOP county chairs who endorsed her candidacy. Suffolk County GOP Chairman Jesse Garcia and Nassau County GOP Chairman Joe Cairo were not on that list.
“I am incredibly grateful for the overwhelming outpouring of support all across New York,” Stefanik said. “After serving New York families for over a decade in Congress and helping to support Republican candidates up and down the ballot, we have the infrastructure and support to mount the most unified campaign for a Republican candidate to defeat Kathy Hochul to save our state.”
Meanwhile, Blakeman — who just won re-election, defeating Democrat Seth Koslow — said he is seriously considering a run for governor. Blakeman, like Stefanik, is an ardent supporter of President Donald Trump.
According to his biography, Blakeman was elected in 2021. He previously served as Hempstead Town councilman, presiding officer of the county Legislature and was appointed commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey in the aftermath of 9/11. He also serves as the executive director of the New York Police Chiefs Benevolent Association, a member of the Crime Stoppers Board, New York COPS Foundation, and deputy counsel to the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Foundation.
Although Stefanik got the nomination from the state GOP, Blakeman said he has “been urged by business, community and political leaders across the state” to run for governor, adding he was “seriously considering it.”
While he has “tremendous respect for” Stefanik, “our party must nominate a candidate that has broad based appeal with independents and common sense Democrats,” Blakeman said in a statement. “The party must nominate the candidate with the best chance to defeat Kathy Hochul.”
Koslow (D-Merrick), the Nassau County legislator, accused Blakeman of self-promotion.
“Bruce Blakeman never misses an opportunity to put himself before the people he’s supposed to serve,” Koslow said. “Nassau County deserves a leader invested in our future, not someone using the job as a stepping for their next campaign. This isn’t leadership. It’s self-promotion.”
“The people of New York State can’t afford the same brand of corruption, fiscal mismanagement, and narcissism that’s plagued Nassau under Blakeman’s watch,” Koslow continued. “Sending him to Albany would be like hiring an arsonist to run the fire department.”
Long Island Life & Politics reached out to the New York State Democratic Committee.
“Elise Stefanik has been a rubber stamp for the most cruel parts of Donald Trump’s deeply unpopular agenda,” Chair Jay Jacobs said in a statement. “She pushed through massive tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans by raising the cost of health care for those who need it the most. She would sooner see SNAP benefits cut for struggling families during the holiday period than come to the table to negotiate with Democrats to fund our government.”
Jacobs said Stefanik and Blakeman are “dead wrong to think that this state is tolerant of mini-Trumps. Just as New Jersey and Virginia squarely rejected Trump enablers seeking to run their states, New Yorkers will get that chance and overwhelmingly support the re-election of Governor Kathy Hochul.”