(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Elise Stefanik’s gubernatorial dream may be over before it even heats up [1]
['Daily Kos Staff']
Date: 2025-09-16
GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York announced this summer that she’s running for governor in 2026. But a new poll released Tuesday shows that maybe she should give up now and fight to keep her House seat instead.
The Siena College poll found that incumbent New York Gov. Kathy Hochul leads Stefanik in a hypothetical matchup by a massive 25 points—a big jump from just a month ago, when it found Hochul leading Stefanik by just 14 points.
The survey found Hochul at 52% and Stefanik at a dismal 27%—with Hochul’s standing bolstered by independent voters who now support her reelection.
GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York
“Independent voters, who had been leaning toward Stefanik last month, are now with Hochul 43-25%,” Siena pollster Steven Greenberg said in a news release.
Hochul’s rise in the polls comes as she continues to fight back against President Donald Trump, who is deeply unpopular in the state. The Siena poll found that just 37% of New York voters approve of Trump, while 62% disapprove.
Hochul said that she will help fight back against Trump's plan to rig the 2026 midterms by redrawing GOP-led states’ congressional maps to favor Republicans. And on Monday, she backed New York Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, saying that he is the candidate she trusts most to stand up to Trump.
"In light of the abhorrent and destructive policies coming out of Washington every day, I needed to know the next mayor will not be someone who would surrender one inch to President Trump," Hochul wrote in a New York Times op-ed endorsing Mamdani.
“Anyone who accepts [Trump's] tainted influence or benefits from it is compromised from the start,” she added, taking a swipe at former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo—who’ running as an independent—and New York City Mayor Eric Adams—who got Trump to drop federal corruption charges against him in February.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul
Stefanik, meanwhile, has bowed down toTrump, so much so that she was his nominee to serve as ambassador to the United Nations. But Trump pulled her nomination before she even got a hearing out of fear that the GOP could lose her House seat in a special election.
New York voters are clearly not pleased with her Trump fealty, as Stefanik got mercilessly booed off stage during an event in her district in August.
But for Hochul, the Siena poll has even more good news.
A plurality of voters now believes that New York is headed in the right direction, a change from a month ago when it believed that the state was on the wrong track.
And Hochul is polling at 52%—with 17% undecided—which is the same margin that she garnered in the right-leaning 2022 election. Given that 2026 is likely to be more favorable to Democrats, Hochul could grow that level of support.
Stefanik’s campaign is denying the results of the poll as “fantasy.” But the real fantasy just might be the idea that Stefanik could ever become governor of New York.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/9/16/2343860/-Elise-Stefanik-s-gubernatorial-dream-may-be-over-before-it-even-heats-up?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_11&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
