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Election Day 2025 is in the rear-view mirror, and the Republican party took its share of lumps, losing gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia and the mayoral race in New York City. The GOP is now turning its attention to the mid-term election of 2026, and in New York State, that means challenging Kathy Hochul for governor. Representative Elise Stefanik officially declared her interest in challenging Hochul for the post Friday morning; does- or should- anybody else plan on tossing their hat in the ring? Former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino appeared on 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning program an hour after Stefanik declared her intent to run to discuss what the GOP should do to brush off 2025 and gear up for 2026.
Astorino told host Larry Mendte he likes Stefanik’s chances, but feels the GOP has a couple of prominent candidates it could run in ’26: “I love Elise. I’ve known Elise a long time. When I ran for governor in ’14 against Cuomo, she was first running for Congress, so she and I campaigned a lot together as newbies on the big scene. She’s just wonderful… the “but” is, what is Bruce Blakeman going to do in Nassau County, because I wouldn’t underestimate him, either. He’s coming in with huge numbers in Long Island, and that’s the base. It’s not just Nassau; Suffolk has a big base, too. You cannot win New York without winning Long Island… I would say we would win, or could win, with either one of them.”
One big name that Astorino thinks will stay out of the race for Albany is Mike Lawler, who will have a tough fight on his hands running for a third term in the House of Representatives: “Mike’s not running, and Mike is gonna have a battle on his hands in his district, but I think Mike will win. Mike has raised a lot of money. Mike will get a lot of support nationally. That’s a key race… it’s gonna come down to maybe five races, and his is going to be one of them, on who controls the House.”
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