Rep. Elise Stefanik: I’m ‘Only Check’ on Mayor Mamdani

Congresswoman Elise Stefanik issued a sharp warning Monday, declaring that if she wins New York’s gubernatorial race, she will serve as “the only check on [New York City Mayor-elect] Zohran Mamdani.” Speaking to Newsmax, the Republican candidate accused Governor Kathy Hochul of surrendering to the left wing of her party, claiming the Democrat has “bent the knee” to Mamdani’s radical agenda.

During her appearance on National Report, Stefanik charged that Hochul’s leadership had emboldened “a socialist” and “an antisemite,” referring to Mamdani, and argued that the governor’s policies have made the Empire State more dangerous, less affordable, and increasingly intolerant.

“I am running to save New York,” Stefanik said passionately. “We’re the most unaffordable state in the nation, and we are one of the most unsafe — and that’s because of Kathy Hochul’s failed rule.”

She pointed to rising costs, higher taxes, and surging crime as evidence of mismanagement under Democratic control. “We are the highest tax state in the nation, the highest energy prices, utility prices, groceries, rent, insurance — and it’s because of the failed tax-and-spend policies coming out of Albany and, frankly, New York City,” she asserted.

Drawing a contrast between herself and Hochul, Stefanik highlighted her economic record and her alliance with President Donald Trump in cutting taxes. “I’m the only candidate who has a record of delivering tax cuts,” she said. “That was the largest middle-class tax cut for New Yorkers.”

But her most forceful remarks were directed at Hochul’s response to antisemitism and her association with Mamdani. The Queens assemblyman, an outspoken democratic socialist, won the New York City mayoral election last week, defeating independent candidate Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa.

Mamdani, Stefanik charged, “believes Israel does not have a right to exist” and “has campaigned with the unindicted coconspirator of the World Trade Center 1993 bombing.”

“This is someone whose ideology is antisemitic,” she continued. “And Kathy Hochul did nothing. She did nothing to protect Jewish students. I’m going to stand up for all Jewish New Yorkers.”

Stefanik pointed to her work in Congress leading high-profile hearings that exposed antisemitism on college campuses such as Harvard, MIT, and Columbia. “It set off an earthquake in higher education,” she said. “That’s leadership — and that’s what’s missing in Albany.”

Framing the race as a referendum on strength versus submission, Stefanik said New Yorkers are eager for a governor who will “put New Yorkers first.” “I would be the only check on Zohran Mamdani,” she declared, “because, ultimately, Kathy Hochul will bend the knee — just like she endorsed him.”

{Matzav.com}