U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik said Friday that she is suspending her campaign for governor and won’t seek re-election to Congress, a move that spoils the plans of New York Republicans who saw her as their best candidate to defeat Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Stefanik, 41, said she reached the decision after spending time with her family before Christmas. In a social media post, she said she was motivated in part by a desire to spend more time with her son and to avoid a primary against Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman.
“While we would have overwhelmingly won this primary, it is not 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,” Stefanik wrote on X.
This is a developing story and may be updated.
