Elise Stefanik at the annual CPAC DC conference at the Gaylord National Resort in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on February 22, 2025. Dominic Gwinn/AFP/Getty Images

Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik announced her campaign for New York governor on Friday with a video seizing on the issue of affordability and attacking Democratic incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul for her support of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani , declaring that “the Empire State has fallen.”

“Kathy Hochul made New York the most unaffordable state in the nation, crushing families with sky-high taxes, unaffordable rent, soaring energy costs and record high grocery bills” a narrator says in the video , leaning into cost-of-living concerns that dominated Tuesday’s off-year elections.

The campaign launch quickly turned to c

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