BY: Keith S. Shikowitz, Editor in Chief/Investigative Reporter
Congresswoman Elise Stefanik is another young legislator who has risen to national prominence. She was elected as conference chair, the highest-ranking New York Republican to serve in Washington in over 100 years. On top of that, Congressman Mike Lawler said, “She ran when people thought it wasn’t possible to win. She won a seat in 2014 that was held by Democrats, and she became the youngest woman ever elected to Congress at that time.”
According to a person at the event, there was in the neighborhood of 250 people at the Peral River Elks Club in Nanuet including police and current and retired military there to support Elise Stefanik’s bid to become the next governor of New York.
On November 24, 2025, Stefanik came to Rockland County to announce her candidacy for the Governorship of New York. Lawler, in his role as Rockland County Republican Party Chairman began the event.
“Well, good morning, for being here today in support of our next governor Elise Stefanik.”
He went through the obligatory announcing of all of the elected and other governmental and former governmental officials in attendance and apologized if he missed anyone and promised to get to them ‘on the backside’.
The first speaker was the Rockland County Conservative Party Chairman Sam Naemit. He kept his speech short and sweet.
“As the chairman of Rockland County Conservative Party and standing here alongside our Republican colleagues, it is our honor to welcome Congresswoman Elise Stefanik to Rockland County, a county that not only held the line in the last election but also flipped a seat thanks to the hard work and dedication of our voters and volunteers. Elise is a fighter for taxpayers, for public safety and for the values that matter to New Yorkers. She has always stood up for us and today we proudly stand with her. Ladies and gentlemen, I am confident that she will be the next Governor of New York. Thank you and may God bless the USA, Rockland County and the great state of New York.”
Rockland County, County Executive Ed Day came up next.
“Good morning Rockland County. It is morning isn’t it?” He said with a smile. With his typical joviality, he leaned down along the left side of the podium and looked at the sign in the front of the podium. “Anyway, this is important, the only way I get your attention is by going there and showing you what I’m pointing at.”
“In any event, first of all, great to be here today. I want to welcome our great Congresswoman Elise Stefanik for being here with us today. Fantastic. And of course our congressman Mike Lawler for the great things he’s been doing.”
Day continued, “What we’ll need to do will take a decade of delivering New Yorkers with tax relief, infrastructure, small business support. She will be a national leader standing against anti-Semitism, which is extremely important in this. She brings a bipartisan results-driven approach the state desperately needs, and that is critical at this point. So, with that, I’m here for a very simple, straightforward reason. I’m throwing my support to Elise for Governor of the state of New York. I ask everybody here in Rockland County to understand what happens in Albany does affect us here in Rockland, as you can see the negativity that happens because of these policies that we just talked about. With Elise at the helm, that will be changing in very rapid order and personally I will help her in any way which I can to make sure that does not happen.
“And now Our great state senator Bill Weber.” Lawler introduced.
“Good afternoon, who’s ready to fire the worst governor in America. I’ve been there for 3 years now in Albany, and I see the progressive craziness that comes out of Albany. We have a governor who rolls over to her own party, who doesn’t negotiate, who doesn’t protect the taxpayers right here in Rockland County when we talk about congestion pricing. What an insult to everyone in Rockland who knows that we can’t get an easy ride into the city. Yet she forces that upon us.”
“We talk about bail reform. She talks about, Oh, I tinkered it. I’ve changed it. She didn’t change it. It needs to be repealed, and I know that Elise Stefanik will work towards repealing that. We need someone in Albany, who will be a fighter to be a check and balance on the crazy left that’s running the Senate and that’s running the Assembly right now, she will be that that check and balance. Listen, did anyone see her take on a college presidents? It’ll be cakewalk for you up in Albany with you.” Weber stated.
“But listen, what she did protecting our Jewish residents not only here in Rockland County but throughout the state and the country is something that I’m forever grateful for her and I know everyone in as well because we know what anti-Semitism looks like. We know it. We saw it. She exposed them to their face and really held them accountable, and that’s what we need in a governor every single day. That’s what we will get with Elise Stefanik as our next governor.”
Lawler came back to the podium. “Now we all know why we’re here. Our incompetent governor and radical far-left state legislative majority in Albany are destroying the great state that we all love. Let’s be honest, Kathy Hochel, Carl Hastie, and Andrea Stewart Cousins are the state-level equivalent of Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Chuck Schumer. They are feckless. They are failed. And they are driving more and more residents, businesses, and economic investment out of our state every day.”
“Year after year, New Yorkers are subjected to the highest state and local tax burden in the country and because of that, our Tax Freedom Day in New York is May 3rd. That means that every dollar you earn through May 3rd, will go to the state to feed their insatiable appetite for spending, waste, and corruption. That is the latest date anywhere in the country and it’s why New York leads the nation in outmigration. We have the highest tax burden, the worst business plan.”
According to Lawler, when you look at the challenges facing the state there’s no end in sight. If the property taxes and the income taxes weren’t bad enough, we also pay the highest health insurance taxes in the country. We have one of the nation’s highest gas taxes, and year after year, pay more for energy than pretty much anywhere else in the country.
“Even worse now, we have an incoming mayor of New York City who openly espouses socialist, communists, and radical views. He’s praising Hamas outside of synagogues. Zohran Mamdani loves that idea. Legalizing prostitution sounds good. Raising taxes and making New York less competitive. A OK with Zohran.”
“The list goes on and on, and Kathy Hochul endorsed it. Kathy Hochul embraced him. Kathy Hochul is a rubber stamp for it. It’s exactly why we need to change course. We need a fighter to be our governor. We need somebody who is going to champion the middle class and the working class and hardworking New Yorkers all across the state. We need someone who is going to make sure that New York is open for business and not running businesses out of the state and down to Florida or Texas or anywhere else in the country. Hell, they’re even going to New Jersey and Connecticut.”
He explained how Stefanik stood up against anti-Semitism by embarrassing the presidents of those universities and colleges and shaming them for allowing anti-Semitism to run amok at their universities.
He praised her as the intellectual rot at the very top of our most elite institutions in this country. He said that just for that, we owe her a debt of gratitude. He added about her leadership on issue after issue. And as a result, she was elected as conference chair, the highest-ranking New York Republican to serve in Washington in over 100 years.
“Elise is someone who is respected by her colleagues, by her friends and feared by the opposition because Elise Stefanik doesn’t take shit from anybody. There’s a reason why Kathy Hochul spends every day attacking Elise, because she knows that she’s about to get her ass kicked next. Under Kathy Hochel’s watch, New York State’s budget has ballooned to twice the size of Florida’s, over $100 billion more annually, despite Florida having several million more in population. We have the highest tax burden, and Zohran Mamdani now wants to raise taxes by $9 billion on New Yorkers, and Kathy Hochul thinks that’s just OK. No problem whatsoever.”
“Mark my words. She will capitulate. She will bend the knee because they are all petrified of being primaried by the far-left radical socialists that helped propel Zohran Mandani into office. When you think about the challenges facing the state, from public safety and the pro-criminal policies that have been put in place under one-party democratic rule. They praise and protect criminals. They disregard victims and they attack law enforcement every chance they get. They have made our communities less safe. They have allowed our city and streets to be overrun with a migrant crisis in which they spent billions of dollars of taxpayer money providing free housing, clothing, food, education, and healthcare to illegal immigrants while telling our seniors and our veterans to go pound sand.” Lawler added.
Lawler noted that they don’t care about the cost of living because if they did, they would cut taxes. They would increase domestic production of energy here in New York, allow for natural gas, and allow for nuclear power. Instead, every policy decision they have made over these last two decades of having control in Albany and controlling the governor’s mansion has made New York less safe, less affordable, and less free. Now they have thrown their lot in with an avowed socialist. When you look at the path forward it requires a fighter. It requires a champion.
“It requires somebody who’s going to shoot straight to New Yorkers and tell it like it is. It requires someone who is unafraid to take on the tough fights. Someone who will stand by her convictions and not lick her finger and throw it up in the air and see which way the wind is blowing. Not tell New Yorkers one thing, only to do another right after the election is over.”
“It requires someone who will be governor, who will actually do the job and will have a spine to push back against the state legislature and Mayor Mamdani. That is why I am proud today to stand here as chair of the Rockland County Republican Committee, as a member of Congress representing the 17th Congressional District of New York and as a longtime friend, to announce that I am proud to endorse Elise Stefanik to be our next governor. On election night, next November when Elise Stefanik is declared victorious it will be because of the people right here in Rockland County. Rockland County will deliver the governorship to the next governor of the State of New York, Elise Stefanik!!”
Congresswoman Stefanik walked onto the stage amid rousing applause and cheers.
“Congressman Mike Thank you. Let’s hear it for your great Congressman Mike Lawler. It is great to be back in Rockland County. I have campaigned many times here before with my colleague Mike Lawler, and I will tell you the energy and enthusiasm is incredible. The inroads that Republicans have made both locally, at the county level, and in this region have been tremendous, and it’s really a model for the rest of the state. So, thank you to County Executive Ed Day. Thank you to State Senator Bill Weber for your support and the Republican Party support of Rockland County. I am grateful for the Conservative Party’s support as well.”
She then invited all of the elected officials up there to join her on the stage because this is a team effort.
“We are working as one team to fire Kathy Hochul and save New York. Under Kathy Hochul’s failed leadership, New York is the most unaffordable state in the nation with the highest taxes, highest utility bills, highest energy prices, and highest insurance prices. The list goes on and on, skyrocketing rent, unaffordable groceries.”
Stefanik continued talking about what she says are Hochul’s failures. “She puts New Yorkers last. I talked about the affordability issues, but let’s talk about the safety issues. Kathy Hochul has doubled down on failed bail reform. Every single day New Yorkers are suffering violent crimes, increases of assaults, increases of rapes. Look at the news over this past weekend of what happened in Queens. You have criminals who are prioritized and released into our streets, and Kathy Hochel puts New Yorkers last.”
“She has turned her back on our hardworking men and women in law enforcement, and she has doubled down in the New York Democratic Party, which is the party of defunding the police. Enough is enough. We need a governor who backs the blue. When it comes to the skyrocketing of anti-Semitism that has happened on Kathy Hochul’s watch, enough is enough. I am proud to be the leader in the nation in standing up against anti-Semitism, delivering accountability, and providing moral leadership that we deserve right here in New York.” Stefanik added.
Stefanik started her conclusion by stating, “You will get that with the next government. Most recently, when New Yorkers were looking for leadership in this New York City mayoral election, what did Kathy Hochul do?
She bent the knee to the defund the police, anti-Semitic, tax hiking socialist who barely got above 50%. That means that nearly half of New York City voters know this is not the direction.”
“But why did Kathy Hochul do that? I’ll tell you why. It is because her own polling is plummeting into the toilet. She can’t break 50% of registered Democrats because she has failed every New Yorker, no matter what your party affiliation, and Kathy Hochul, who spent this past year saying she’s not going to raise taxes, even though we know she has raised taxes multiple times. It took her less than 24 hours to say she will bend the knee and she’s going to raise taxes at a time when New Yorkers cannot afford higher and higher taxes. I’ll tell you that’s a stark difference to what we delivered. I was proud to negotiate shoulder to shoulder with Mike Lawler, the largest tax cut for middle class New Yorkers in history with the Big Beautiful Bill.”
“In an election year she lies to voters and then will make horrible policy decisions after election day. We saw this with congestion pricing, which is a tax on commuters, a tax on working families in New York. She punted that until after the election to try to lie to voters to desperately try to resuscitate her electoral prospects. Now we’re seeing that again. Kathy Hochul signed into law an insane gas, natural gas ban. When we talk to our colleagues in Congress about it, they cannot believe that it is real, that that’s happening in New York. What will that cause? An absolute skyrocketing of energy prices.
“So, what did she do? She put a politically cynical pause in place. I will tell you we need a full repeal of her insane ban on natural gas. So, I ask you today to join us in this fight, whether you’re Republican, Democrat, or Independent. This is a large coalition of common-sense New Yorkers who are focused every day on saving our great state, on firing the worst governor in America, and I don’t just call her that because I made it up. I call her that because it’s true and everyone knows it, including Democrats in our own state. We need to save New York to make it the most affordable state in the nation, the highest ranking for businesses, the best state to be a senior, to be a small business owner, and to be a hardworking family.”
Join me!
Join this team here today!!
Let’s fire Hochul and save New York!!!