STATEWIDE — REPUBLICAN REP. ELISE STEFANIK on Friday launched her not-unexpected run for New York governor with fiery statements branding New York’s Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul as “the worst governor in America,” endorsements from Republican elected officials, appearances on MAGA-friendly news outlets and a video blaming Hochul for the state’s high prices and crime, while linking the governor to New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani.

“When New Yorkers were looking for leadership the most, Kathy Hochul bent the knee to the raging Defund the Police Tax Hiking Antisemite Communist who will destroy New York,” Stefanik, who represents District 21 in Upstate New York, said in her announcement, mischaracterizing Mamdani (who is a Democratic Socialist, not a communist, and who has

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