FILE - Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-NY., speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC, at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Feb. 22, 2025, in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

Elise Stefanik has made it official: she is running for governor of New York state.

In making the announcement, the current U.S. representative who serves eastern New York and the North Country speaks to the Empire State’s continuing downfall.

“Kathy Hochul is the Worst Governor in America. Under Kathy Hochul’s failed leadership, New York is the most unaffordable state in the nation with the highest taxes, highest energy, utilities, rent, and grocery prices crushing hardworking families.

“Hochul has created a crime crisis with failed bail reform and her support of Defund the Police candidates. And 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. I am running for Governor to bring a new generation of leadership to Albany to make New York affordable and safe for families all across our great state. Our campaign will unify Republicans, Democrats, and Independents to Fire Kathy Hochul once and for all to Save New York.”

Stefanik, a fierce ally of President Donald Trump, represents a conservative district in upstate New York, and has been considering a run for months.

Trump had picked Stefanik to be his ambassador to the United Nations last year but later rescinded the nomination over concerns about the Republican Party’s narrow majority in the House.

Hochul, a moderate, is facing a primary challenge from her own lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado.

A spokesperson for Hochul’s campaign referred AP to a statement from the Democratic Governors Association, which said: “Elise Stefanik has spent her career selling out New Yorkers to Donald Trump — and that is exactly why she is going to lose to Kathy Hochul next November.”

State Republican Chair Ed Cox released the following statement: “Elise Stefanik is a unifier and a party builder with the brains, the guts and the resources to win statewide next year. She has fought for our principles every day of her career, and never backs down. She is the warrior we need to lead the fight against Democrats’ corrupt Albany machine.