Elise Stefanik slams Kathy Hochul's endorsement of Zohran Mamdani for NYC mayor

Tt's official: New York Governor Kathy Hochul has endorsed Zohran Mamdani for New York City mayor. In a New York Times op ed, Hochul, who has been critical of Mamdani's plan to over-tax the wealthy tax-base of the city, said "I am endorsing Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani." House Rep. Elise Stefanik, who is running to replace Hochul, slammed her endorsement as made out of fear of her own sad numbers.

"Kathy Hochul is clearly too scared of her own abysmal polling among Democrat voters that she is desperately shoring up her Far Left Democrat flank, and choosing to destroy New York for hardworking families across our state," Stefanik said.

New York Rep. Elise Stefanik slammed the governor in a statement following the endorsement, saying, "At the exact moment when New Yorkers are looking for strong leadership from their Governor with a majority opposing Zohran Mamdani, Kathy Hochul embraces this raging Communist who will destroy New York making it less affordable and more dangerous - once again putting criminals and communists first, and New Yorkers LAST."

Hochul shared platitudes as to how she came to this decision, one Stefanik said is an entirely political move. Hochul said that in conversations she's had with Mamdani, she "heard a leader who shares [her] commitment to a New York where children can grow up safe in their neighborhoods and where opportunity is within reach for every family."

While Hochul and Mamdani may share those goals, the way they believe those goals should be achieved may be radically different. But one key thing they both share is a Trump hatred that skews their other perspectives.

"And in light of the abhorrent and destructive policies coming out of Washington every day," Hochul wrote in the Times, "I needed to know the next mayor will not be someone who would surrender one inch to President Trump."

Trump has been urging cities to crack down on crime, mostly repeat offenders, stop cashless bail policies, and work with federal law enforcement to remove criminal illegal immigrants from cities. Hochul and Mamdani oppose these measures. Hochul herself has deployed the National Guard to patrol subways.

Hochul couched her endorsement in her own hard-luck story, growing up poor in Buffalo, New York. Mamdani, for his part, grew up the son of a filmmaker and a Columbia professor. He was born in Uganda, went to top city schools, and only became an American citizen when he was an adult, about seven years ago.

After penning her support for Mamdani, without any digging into his plans on how to achieve their shared, utopian goals, Hochul went on to speak ill of the president and to claim that Trump wishes to be king. Her rhetoric mirrors much of what Democrat politicians have been saying for years in an attempt to paint Trump and his supporters as villains.

"Mr. Mamdani and I will both be fearless in confronting the president’s extreme agenda — with urgency, conviction and the defiance that defines New York. And we must never allow Mr. Trump to control our city like the king he wants to be," she said before issuing a purity test that was essentially a dig at current Democrat Mayor Eric Adams. "Anyone who accepts his tainted influence or benefits from it is compromised from the start."

Adams has said he would work with the Trump administration on curbing illegal immigration, which has been a social and financial burden to the city. After his critique of the Biden administration, he was brought up on allegations by the Department of Justice that he had engaged in a variety of low-level financial indiscretions, most notably regarding Turkish campaign contributions. He compared it to the lawfare Trump had faced under the same administration.

"Kathy Hochul OWNS every radical position like defunding the police, releasing violent criminals on our streets, closing local small businesses in favor of government grocery stories, massive tax hikes, abolishing border law enforcement, and every heinous pro Hamas antisemitic position," Stefanik said.