Kathy Hochul has never looked cooler than she does right now, and Republicans are freaking out over it.

The election isn't until November 2026, but it would seem Kathy Hochul is well-placed to win and end the political career of Elise Stefanik.

Source: New York Post

Gov. Kathy Hochul endorsed lefty Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani for mayor in a bombshell Sunday guest essay — after her camp tried to keep the candidate at arm’s length through the campaign.

“The question of who will be the next mayor is one I take extremely seriously and to which I have devoted a great deal of thought,” Hochul wrote in a New York Times Opinion piece published Sunday night.

“Tonight I am endorsing Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani,” she said.

Hochul's opinion piece appeared in the New York Times, Kathy Hochul: Why I Am Endorsing Zohran Mamdani.

Before her official endorsement was announced, the governor said she had “frank” discussions with Mamdani, but confidently landed on endorsing the lefty candidate despite their “disagreements.”

“In the past few months, I’ve had frank conversations with him. We’ve had our disagreements,” Hochul wrote in the guest essay.

“But in our conversations, I heard a leader who shares my commitment to a New York where children can grow up safe in their neighborhoods and where opportunity is within reach for every family. I heard a leader who is focused on making New York City affordable — a goal I enthusiastically support,” she said.

Among the talking points the governor said she discussed with the mayoral frontrunner were affordability, ensuring strong leadership “at the helm” of the NYPD, and “urgently” tackling the “rise of antisemitism” across the five boroughs.

Naturally, the New York Post freaked out and started calling her "Comrade Kathy."

Kathy Hochul just denied Israel’s right to exist, legalized prostitution, voted to throw open the jails and defund the NYPD, and said New York should be a socialist city.

By endorsing Zohran Mamdani for mayor, the governor has backed all this and more, embracing an antisemitic radical in a stunning act of political cowardice.

Hochul's opponent, Rep. Elise Stefanik, was triggered as well by the news, sending out at least a dozen tweets, accusing the moderate, pragmatic (boring) Kathy Hochul of suddenly turning into the second coming of Che Guevara.

Stefanik's characterization of her race with Kathy Hochul is not supported by the facts, however. New York's best pollster, Sienna College, is giving her a much larger lead than in August, and her approval ratings have shot up from negative to positive for the first time since early 2024. "Kathy Hochul is having a bit of a revival," said pollster Stan Greenberg. A spokesperson for Stefanik called Sienna's numbers "a fantasy."