Elise Stefanik governor bid offers hope for New York

New York is sailing in rough waters, with a shrinking population, the nation’s highest tax burden and elected leadership that thinks the best way through a wall is to beat your head against it.

So Rep. Elise Stefanik’s entry into the 2026 governor’s race is a glimmer of hope for the million-plus New Yorkers who are considering joining the crowds already streaming toward the exits.

Florida, Texas and Tennessee — with zero income tax and lower real-estate taxes — have become magnets for high-earning New Yorkers tired of being shaken upside-down by their ankles by revenue hungry Albany pols.

“Kathy Hochul is the worst governor in America,” Stefanik thundered on X.

“Under her failed leadership, New York is the most unaffordable state in the nation with the highest taxes, highest energy, utilities, rent, and grocery bills.” Amen!

And kudos to Stefanik for refusing to let the Democrats bogart “affordability” as their new byword, when their agenda has for decades been exactly what makes New York so expensive and increasingly unlivable.

Albany’s energy policies have given New Yorkers some of the highest utility bills in the nation — especially in the city and on Long Island, with costs soaring even higher during cold snaps and heat waves.

Expensive energy is a choice made by Democrats like Gov. Kathy Hochul and affirmed by them year after year.

New York also has some of the highest rents in the nation, and the mayor-elect’s vow to “freeze” the rent on stabilized units is guaranteed to push up costs in the rest of the housing market.

The reason there’s not enough affordable housing is because union-bought Albany and City Hall have made made it unaffordable to build any.

It’s good to see Elise Stefanik raise the flag of real affordability and fiscal responsibility as she announced her run, because it’s infuriating to hear Hochul pretend that she, or her boss Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, are going to improve livability in New York.

Democrat misrule has been a total disaster for New York. We are in desperate need of a change.