Stefanik’s bid for NY governor surges ahead after wave of GOP endorsements

If Stefanik maintains her current support at the convention, she is expected to secure the nomination outright.

By Aaron Sull, Jewish Breaking News

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) has surged into frontrunner status in the 2026 governor’s race after winning a wave of endorsements from New York Republican leaders this past week.

Stefanik secured support from 58 GOP county chairs along with endorsements from 14 Republican state senators, including Senate GOP Leader Rob Ortt.

She also picked up backing from 10 county executives and 40 of the state’s 45 Conservative Party organizations, giving her more than 75% of the state party’s weighted vote.

“Elise is honored to have earned endorsements from 58 GOP county party chairs representing over 75% of the New York Republican Party’s weighted vote at the convention,” her campaign said in a statement.

“New York Republicans are wholly united behind the common goal of firing Kathy Hochul to save New York, and they have entrusted their full confidence in Elise to do so.”

If Stefanik maintains her current support at the convention, she is expected to secure the nomination outright, as any remaining challenger would need to gather at least 15,000 signatures from registered Republicans to make the ballot.

Stefanik catapulted into the national spotlight during a December 2023 House hearing, where she grilled the presidents of Harvard, Penn, and MIT for refusing to state plainly whether calls for the “genocide of Jews” violate campus harassment rules.

Their evasive answers went viral and ultimately contributed to the resignations of Harvard President Claudine Gay and Penn President Liz Magill.

Stefanik later called the hearing “a watershed moment that exposed the moral rot inside America’s elite institutions.”

But despite Stefanik’s growing national profile, her challenger, Gov. Kathy Hochul, has branded the congresswoman as a “sellout.”

In a campaign video, Hochul calls Stefanik Trump’s “top ally” in Congress and claims she has “always put Trump first.”

The ad features a clip of Trump praising Stefanik as “phenomenal” and “a friend of mine” before accusing her of casting the deciding vote for the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law in July, a vote Stefanik herself has highlighted.

In a state where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans almost 2-to-1, early polling by Siena has Governor Hochul leading Stefanik with 52% to 32%. Despite the lead, nearly half of voters polled still preferred “someone else” to be governor.