Elise Stefanik gets a new Republican challenger in NY governor race and Trump has already weighed in

A Republican county official in New York’s City’s suburbs has announced he’s running for governor, setting up a primary clash with fellow Trump ally U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik.

Bruce Blakeman, who has cast himself as a bulwark against the liberal policies of urban Democrats, criticized Gov. Kathy Hochul as a “failure” in an appearance on Fox News.

“I’m running for office to make people more prosperous, to make them safer and to make New Yorkers happy again,” said Blakeman, a Nassau County executive.

Blakeman’s candidacy kicks off what is expected to be a heated Republican contest against Stefanik, a conservative from northern New York who President Donald Trump picked to be his U.N. ambassador, only to withdraw the nomination over concerns that the slim GOP majority couldn’t afford to lose any more House seats.

Trump has — so far — avoided taking sides, telling reporters this week “He’s great, and she’s great. They’re both great people.”

Stefanik’s campaign assailed Blakeman as a weak candidate who has a record of “supporting corrupt Far Left Democrats.”

Its statement called him “an early Christmas present to Kathy Hochul as he works to blow Republicans’ best chance to win.”

Democrats enjoy a strong voter registration advantage in New York, but next year’s race for governor is expected to be one of the nation’s most watched contests. Hochul, a moderate Democrat, is facing a primary challenge from her own lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado.

Registered Democrats also outnumber Republicans in Nassau County, where 1.4 million people live just east of New York City. But county voters narrowly favored Trump over Democrat Kamala Harris in the last presidential election.

As the county executive, Blakeman has pushed through a policy that bans transgender athletes from using county sports facilities, created a volunteer law enforcement unit that his critics have labeled a militia and directed county detectives to work alongside federal authorities in Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Nassau’s first Jewish county executive, he also signed a local ban on wearing face masks in public except for health or religious reasons, a measure that critics complain is aimed at cracking down on pro-Palestine demonstrations.

Blakeman cruised to victory in his election to a second term in November. Previously, he served in the Hempstead Town Council and held an appointed post as the commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

But bigger elective offices have eluded him. Hochul’s campaign issued a statement saying Blakeman “has lost just about every race he’s touched — county legislator, comptroller, Congress, even U.S. Senate. There’s a reason: just like Donald Trump, he takes money out of New Yorkers’ pockets and squeezes working families at every turn.”

Both Blakeman and Stefanik now frame themselves as candidates who could appeal to moderate Democrats as well as Republicans, even though both have adopted the brash political rhetoric of Trump, who remains unpopular in New York.

They’ve also drawn contrasts between themselves and Zohran Mamdani, while simultaneously adopting some of the New York City mayor-elect’s messaging around affordability as a campaign issue.

Former Gov. George Pataki was the state’s last Republican governor, leaving office about two decades ago.