Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik has announced she is dropping out of the race for governor of New York and will not seek re-election to Congress.
Her announcement comes days after Republican Bruce Blakeman, who like Stefanik is a close Donald Trump ally, said he intended to challenge her in the upcoming primary in the 2026 governor race.
Stefanik had announced her bid to challenge Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul in early November.
In a post on X on Friday, Stefanik said that while she believes she would have won the primary "it is not an effective use of our time or your generous resources to spend the first half of next year in an unnecessary and protracted" campaign.
In the lengthy statement, she said she wanted time to focus on her family.
