New York GOP gubernatorial candidate Rep. Elise Stefanik blasted Governor Kathy Hochul Sunday night for endorsing what she called a “raging antisemite” while accepting an award from a major Jewish organization. The controversy erupted after Hochul endorsed Zohran Mamdani for New York City mayor — a figure Stefanik accused of expressing support for extremist views.
Speaking at the Zionist Organization of America’s annual gala, Stefanik warned of a moral and political crisis in the state’s leadership. “We know we are at a tipping point when the most important city in the world elects a raging antisemite, defund the police, tax-hiking Communist as mayor,” she said. The congresswoman alleged that Mamdani had defended Hamas and sympathized with terrorists. “This, from the person who will lead a city with over 1 million Jewish people. And this mayor was endorsed by none other than the weakest and Worst Governor in America, Kathy Hochul,” Stefanik added.
Stefanik received the ZOA’s Maccabee Warrior Award for combating antisemitism and pledged to confront what she called a “full-blown takeover of the Democrat Party by the Antisemitic Socialists.” She said Hochul’s endorsement “propelled him to this office, putting every Jewish New Yorker at risk.”
The congresswoman tied her gubernatorial bid to both moral and economic renewal. “When Jewish New Yorkers needed Kathy Hochul’s leadership the most, she bent the knee to Commie Mamdani,” Stefanik said. She connected the rise in antisemitic incidents — including a swastika painted outside a Brooklyn yeshiva — to Hochul’s weak leadership.
“Kathy Hochul hasn’t just allowed this downward spiral into dangerous antisemitism — she has blessed it, signed it, embraced it, and endorsed it,” Stefanik said, vowing to lead with “strength and moral clarity.”
