A potential battle for governor between incumbent Kathy Hochul and House Republican Leadership Chairwoman Elise Stefanik of Eastern New York and the Adirondack region began to percolate on Monday.

In Albany, Hochul welcomed Texas legislators to the State Capitol after they departed the state in order to deny Gov. Greg Abbott the quorum he needed to pass a redistricting scheme that Hochul says has national consequences.

The lawmakers’ trip comes in response to President Donald Trump and Abbott’s efforts to force what Democrats consider a radically gerrymandered mid-decade congressional map through the Texas Legislature — a move that would disenfranchise communities of color across the state in the name of rescuing an extreme conservative Congressional majority in the 2026 midterm elections. Hochul’s office claims if Texas is successful in rigging their redistricting process, it would bolster the ongoing attacks against New Yorkers and millions of other Americans by President Trump and his allies in Congress.

“I have newsflash for Republicans in Texas,” Hochul said at the press conference. “This is no longer the Wild West. We’re not going to tolerate our democracy being stolen in a modern day stagecoach heist by a bunch of law breaking cowboys. Americans don’t want a system that’s stacked against them. They believe in fairness — it’s fundamental. And I’ll tell you this, they’re done with the chaos; they’re done with the cruelty; and I would say they’re ready to vote Republicans out of power in Washington… Republicans know this. They’ve seen the polls. They know they’re sliding downhill because Americans are rejecting their policies, so this is why they’re fighting. They know they’ll lose the elections, but to subvert the will of the people, they’re hell bent on rigging the system.”

Stefanik quickly responded to what she called the “pathetic press conference” noting that Hochul is “angrily spiting the New York State Constitution, the will of New York voters, good government groups, and the courts by dismantling fair and legal district lines.

“The Worst Governor in America needs to be reminded that she conveniently forgot to tell the unlawful out-of-state radical Democrats at today’s desperate press conference that she lost not once, but twice, in her effort to illegally draw gerrymandered lines in New York to rig our Congressional elections and suppress the will of the voters.”

Stefanik is being seen by many state Republicans as the favorite to challenge Hochul, who narrowly won the race for governor against Lee Zeldin in 2022. In a Republican fundraiser in West Seneca earlier this summer, Stefanik said it was a “question of when” she will announce her formal candidacy.