New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, a staunch ally of President Donald Trump and self-described “ultra-MAGA” congresswoman, has spent the past decade rising through the GOP ranks in Congress. Now, she’s turning her sights to the governor’s mansion in Albany.
Stefanik announced her campaign on Friday with a video attacking Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul for the state’s high cost of living and support for New York City’s mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a democratic-socialist.
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“Kathy Hochul made New York the most unaffordable state in the nation, crushing families with sky-high taxes, unaffordable rent, soaring energy costs and record-high grocery bills, and cozied up to an anti-police, tax-hiking, anti-semitic communist,” a narrator says in the video.
“Elise Stefanik will clean up Kathy Hochul’s catastrophe and restore New York’s greatness,” the narrator adds, referencing Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.
Stefanik will face an uphill battle in her bid to lead the Empire State. Registered Democrats far outnumber Republicans in New York, which last had a Republican governor in 2007. But the most recent gubernatorial race, which saw Hochul beat Rep. Lee Zeldin with 53% of the vote, was the closest the state has seen in years and raised Republicans’ hopes that the party could reclaim New York’s top office.
“I am running for Governor to make New York affordable and safe FOR ALL,” Stefanik posted on X. “Democrats, Republicans, and Independents will unify to save our state.”
Here’s what to know about her as she makes her run.
Stefanik was the youngest woman ever elected to Congress
Stefanik was first elected to the House to represent New York’s 21st District, home to one of the largest populations of seniors and veterans in the state, in 2014. She was the first Republican to ever win the district, which had long been held by Democratic Rep. Bill Owens, and—at the age of 30—became the youngest woman in U.S. history to be elected to Congress.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, also of New York, broke that record with her election in 2018, when she was just 29.
Stefanik, meanwhile, is now the most senior Republican in New York a decade after she was first sworn in—though she retains the title of the youngest woman to ever serve in top elected House leadership, which she garnered when her GOP colleagues voted her House Republican Conference Chair in 2021
Stefanik is a Trump loyalist
While Stefanik began her time in Congress as a more moderate Republican, she has shifted to the right since Trump was elected.
In 2019, she established herself as one of the President’s fiercest defenders while serving on the Intelligence Committee in the hearings leading up to his first impeachment and during his ensuing Senate trial. Her work earned her praise from Trump, who called her a “Republican star” and endorsed her reelection campaign. Stefanik then served as a chair on Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign in New York.
Following his loss to Joe Biden, Stefanik questioned the validity of the election and was one of 126 Republicans who signed onto an amicus brief to support a lawsuit challenging its results in the Supreme Court. (The legal challenge—which asked the Justices to reject the election results in the swing states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin—was unsuccessful.) On Jan. 6 2021, the day of the attack on the Capitol, Stefanik voted to reject some of Biden’s Electoral College votes.
Amid Trump’s reelection campaign in 2024, she made the TIME100 list of the most influential figures in the world, where she was highlighted as one of “Trump’s most powerful allies in Congress.” And this year, shortly after returning to the White House, he nominated Stefanik to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, calling her “a strong and very smart America First fighter.” He later withdrew her nomination, however, due to concerns that Republicans could lose her House seat, which would narrow their slim majority in the chamber.
Stefanik has had many different roles in the GOP
Stefanik started her career in public service during the Bush Administration, in which she worked at the Domestic Policy Council and Chief of Staff’s Office from 2006 to 2009.
In 2012, she helped create the Republican National Committee’s platform and directed debate preparation for Rep. Paul Ryan’s vice presidential campaign.
By the time Stefanik launched her own first run for office the following year, she had the support of the then-House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. She has since garnered approval during her time in Congress both from her fellow GOP lawmakers, who elected her to serve as Chair of the House Republican Conference from 2021 until this January, and her constituents, who reelected her with 62% of the vote in in 2024. Though her district had long been represented by Democrats before her tenure, it is now staunchly red, containing more registered Republicans than Democrats.