Elise Stefanik Drops Out of N.Y. Governor’s Race and Will Leave Congress

Ms. Stefanik, a Republican congresswoman and staunch ally of President Trump, abruptly ended her bid to unseat Gov. Kathy Hochul and said she would not seek another House term.

Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, a top Republican with close ties to President Trump, abruptly suspended her campaign for governor on Friday and announced that she would give up her seat in Congress next year.

The decision was a stunning turnabout for one of the Republican Party’s most ambitious stars, and it upended what was set to be a high-wattage governor’s race.

In a statement posted on social media, Ms. Stefanik framed her motivation as a mix of political pragmatism and family priorities. But allies privately acknowledged that years of intraparty fighting and a series of embarrassing disappointments at the hands of Mr. Trump had taken a toll.

“While spending precious time with my family this Christmas season, I have made the decision to suspend my campaign for governor and will not seek re-election to Congress,” Ms. Stefanik wrote on Friday. “I did not come to this decision lightly for our family.”

Ms. Stefanik, 41, was a Harvard-educated phenom when she took office a decade ago, becoming the youngest woman to serve in the history of the House up to that point. But over the years, she went to extraordinary and sometimes brazen lengths to transform herself from a moderate Republican in the mold of George W. Bush into a full MAGA warrior.

Embracing Mr. Trump helped propel her into a national figure, beloved by many conservatives and loathed by Democrats. She shot up through congressional leadership ranks, briefly becoming the highest-ranking woman in the House, and nearly became ambassador to the United Nations.

But she also suffered a series of painful setbacks and humiliations that demonstrated the limits of her approach. The president pulled back her U.N. nomination this spring, fearful of losing her House seat in a special election. And after she entered the race for governor expecting to have his support, it was surprisingly withheld.

Now, Ms. Stefanik will join a growing list of Republican lawmakers headed to the exits of the Capitol as they openly bristle under the leadership of Speaker Mike Johnson. She is the second high-profile Republican who had been close to Mr. Trump to call it quits in about a month, following Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who is leaving office in January.

Ms. Stefanik, who said she would serve the remainder of her term in Congress, called Mr. Trump to discuss her decision on Friday, according to two people familiar with the call.

“Elise is a tremendous talent, regardless of what she does,” Mr. Trump wrote afterward on social media. “She will have GREAT success, and I am with her all the way!”

The congresswoman was widely viewed as the front-runner for the Republican nomination for governor when she entered the race in November. A Fox News regular with an aggressive style and a national fund-raising machine, she lined up state party leaders behind her as she relentlessly attacked Democrats.

But her hopes of running unopposed in a primary were dashed in recent weeks when Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, joined the contest and began to compete for Mr. Trump’s blessing.

Allies said Ms. Stefanik, who represents a safely Republican district in New York’s North Country, had always believed she would have a steep uphill fight to defeat Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans and have held the governor’s mansion for two decades.

Surveys showed her far behind Ms. Hochul in a head-to-head contest, with a recent poll by Siena University showing her trailing by 19 points.

Mr. Blakeman’s entrance into the race, though, raised the prospect of a potentially costly and damaging intraparty fight.

In a statement addressed to her supporters, Ms. Stefanik said Friday that it would not be “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 said she would feel “profound regret” as a mother if she did not spend more time focused on her four-year-old son.

An ally familiar with Ms. Stefanik’s thinking was more blunt, saying that she was not interested in running a “suicide mission” against Ms. Hochul.

The person, who was not authorized to speak publicly, blamed Mr. Blakeman and his supporters in Nassau County Republican circles for squandering the party’s shot at beating Ms. Hochul.

The person also said that Ms. Stefanik was eager to be free of political infighting and restart her career on her own terms, potentially working in business.

New York Republicans who had backed Ms. Stefanik, including the state party chairman, Edward F. Cox, quickly moved to coalesce around Mr. Blakeman as their de facto nominee.

While he has embraced Mr. Trump and conservative causes like fighting transgender rights, Mr. Blakeman generally has a more moderate record than Ms. Stefanik. He has twice won election in a suburban swing county on Long Island, giving Republicans some hope that he could be competitive with Ms. Hochul.

“I am ready to work hand-in-hand with the congresswoman and all New Yorkers to restore accountability, affordability, and safety to state government,” he said.

Democrats celebrated Ms. Stefanik’s exit as an unspoken admission that New York was unlikely to be in Republicans’ reach during the 2026 election cycle. Ryan Radulovacki, a Hochul campaign spokesman, said she was prepared to face off against Mr. Blakeman.

For Ms. Stefanik, the decision to retire from public office — for now, at least — ends one of the most closely analyzed runs in national politics.

In many ways, it charted the transformation of the Republican Party. Ms. Stefanik began as a promising White House aide to Mr. Bush, and after flipping a sprawling New York swing district, became an acolyte of Paul D. Ryan, the moderate House speaker.

After Mr. Trump was elected to his first term, though, she was adrift, and told friends she was contemplating retirement. Instead, she embarked on a head-spinning evolution, becoming a sharp-tongued bulldog defending Mr. Trump during two impeachment inquiries and amplifying his lies about the 2020 election.

She won national attention — and a spot on Time’s 100 most influential people list — after her viral showdowns with Ivy League university presidents over antisemitism on campuses helped push several to resign.

All of it appeared to pay off after Mr. Trump won back the White House. He nominated Ms. Stefanik to be ambassador to the United Nations, a cabinet-level post, and she began preparing for life in New York City.

But the president rescinded the invitation in March, amid concerns from Mr. Johnson and others that her departure could endanger the House majority. Back in the House, she openly clashed with Mr. Johnson, questioning his stewardship of the chamber and making plain to colleagues her frustration with being there.

Mr. Trump, who holds huge sway over Republican primary voters, had initially encouraged Ms. Stefanik to run for governor and indicated he would endorse her, according to two people familiar with the discussions.

Yet with Mr. Blakeman, an old friend, in the race, Mr. Trump pointedly declined to take sides on multiple recent occasions.

“Elise is fantastic and Bruce is,” the president told reporters at the White House. “They’re two fantastic people, and I always hate it when two very good friends of mine are running, and I hope there’s not a lot of damage done.”

Mr. Trump also undermined Ms. Stefanik’s messaging strategy when he met last month with Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City.

The congresswoman had spent weeks trying to tie Ms. Hochul to the young democratic socialist, who she falsely claimed supported Islamic Jihad, to try to paint the governor as extreme.

But as he sat next to Mr. Mamdani in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump instead lavished him with compliments and declared he would be a reasonable governing partner.

Tyler Pager, Maggie Haberman and Dana Rubinstein contributed reporting.

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