Another pilgrim on the Chris Christie path to political oblivion
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The Respected Mainstream Republican to Unctuous Trump Lickspittle Leaving Their Dignity Entirely Behind road to nowhere claims another victim:
Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik said Friday that she is ending her campaign for New York governor and will not run for re-election to her House seat next year.
In a lengthy post to X, Stefanik, a staunch ally of President Donald Trump, wrote that she had “not come to this decision lightly for our family.”
“As we have seen in past elections, 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. And while many know me as Congresswoman, my most important title is Mom,” Stefanik said.
Stefanik’s surprise decision comes just days after she drew her first major challenger in the Republican primary in Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County county executive and another Trump ally. The party’s eventual nominee will face an uphill climb in the solidly blue state, though Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul’s approval rating has been under water.
After Trump pulled Stefanik’s nomination to be U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations in March, she had teased a run for governor for months before officially launching her campaign in November.
Stefanik’s decision to leave Congress at the end of her term will also open up her upstate New York district, a largely rural area that stretches from the Albany area all the way to the Canadian border. Trump carried the 21st District by more than 20 points in 2024, but some Republicans feared it could have been in play in a special election if Stefanik was confirmed for the UN ambassadorship.
In Stefanik’s case, she also hilariously seems to have mistaken the highly contingent and transient uptick in Trump’s vote share in 2024 as a sign that Republicans were about to become viable in statewide elections in New York again, which LOL. Hey, whatever happened to Rick Lazio?
The Donald J. Trump Elise Stefanik retires from political life claiming she wants to spend more time with her regrets.— Scott Shapiro (@scottjshapiro.bsky.social) Dec 19, 2025 at 2:22 PM