Republican leaders are trying to convince the representative Mike Lawler, RN.Y., to eliminate their consideration of a career for the governor of New York as concerns about the protection of his seat of the Battleground house next year, according to four senior republican sources familiar with the situation.
Lawler says he has not made a final decision on whether he will launch a 2026 campaign for governor. But the party leaders are already becoming nervous about the perspective of leaving one of the three districts controlled by the Republican Party that Kamala Harris took in the presidential elections of 2024 and have urged him privately to stay in the house while they seek to protect his narrow majority, the four sources said. Some advisors close to President Donald Trump also have similar concerns about Lawler’s functioning for the governor, according to two republican sources familiar with the matter.
The representative Richard Hudson, RN.C., president of the National Committee of the Republican Congress, who recently met with Trump in the White House, described Lawler as a candidate for the Chamber of “Outstanding Representatives”.
“I would prefer not to run for governor,” Hudson told NBC News. When asked if he had communicated those feelings to Lawler, he said: “Yes.”
The Republicans see Lawler, a two -period congressman and former member of the New York Assembly, as located exclusively to win their district of the Hudson Valley area, so several superior republican sources said that they believe it would be difficult to recruit a candidate to replace it. Lawler, who was considered one of the most vulnerable Republican party legislators for the re -election of the last cycle, ended up winning in almost 6 percentage points.
“No one is waiting on the wings of their quality,” said a national strategist of the Republican Party involved in the Chamber races. “Everyone thinks very well on Mike, and we believe that it is uniquely qualified to run and win that seat.”
Lawler has said that he will decide on his plans for June.
“As I said throughout this process, I will make my decision on whether it will apply for governor in June,” Lawler said in a statement to NBC News. “That decision, which will be based on a series of factors and considerations, will be mine to take and will not be affected by the decisions or desires of any of my colleagues.”
Democrats must obtain only three seats to recover control of the chamber, and the president’s party usually loses seats in a half -period election. For Trump, a Democratic controlled house would also mean that he would probably face an avalanche of investigations and potentially a third accusation.
Elise Stefanik factor
The representative Elise Stefanik, RN.y., also looms on the situation, since she is considering an offer for governor, NBC News first reported this month.
Trump withdrew Stefanik’s nomination of being the United States ambassador to the United Nations last month due to concerns about the narrow margins of the House of Republicans while trying to approve an internal policy agenda. However, party leaders would be less concerned with defending the state of the New York state in the state of Stefanik, which Trump took 21 points in November, that Lawler did open next year.
The speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of La-La.
“I have many conversations. I love them both. They are two of my favorite people and my most reliable colleagues, and both are super talented, so they are spoken to do other things,” Johnson said at his weekly press conference on Tuesday. “I mean, my preference is that everyone stays here with me, right? We do the job, but, but I will not fool anyone for having other opportunities and, ultimately, we support them whatever they do.”
After Stefanik called Johnson on social networks for those comments, saying that “it was not true” that they had spoken, Johnson clarified that he had not spoken specifically with Stefanik about his governor ambitions, but simply meant that he has conversations with his members in general about possible opportunities.
Stefanik’s office refused to provide more comments. Johnson’s office also declined to comment.
The tensions between the two camps have been gesting in private for weeks, since Johnson is still working to fulfill a promise to put Stefanik again in the Chamber’s Intelligence Committee after his nomination is the UN ambassador to failed. Now some of those tensions are shedding in view of the public.
In the same publication publication on Tuesday, Stefanik said he is “waiting for conversation” about the deduction of state and local taxes with other Republicans in New York on Wednesday. Johnson had planned to organize a smaller meeting with some called salt republicans in his office, including Lawler, but not all were invited to attend, according to a source familiar with the invitation list. They include Stefanik, who voted against the tax law of 2017 because it set a $ 10,000 limit in salt deduction.
But Johnson has opened the salt meeting to include other Republicans who care about the subject, according to another source familiar with planning. The way in which Republicans address the salt limit on their bill for Trump’s agenda will have a great impact on the high -tax blue states such as New York, and could arise as a key issue in the governor’s race.
The main Republicans of New York told NBC News who believe that Stefanik, one of Trump’s main allies in Capitol Hill, could easily defeat Lawler in a primary one if they both decided to run.
But there is less confidence among the sources of the New York Republican Party on how Stefanik would act in a general election. While some surveys have found Democratic governor Kathy Hochul with a low approval index and she only defeated the former representative of the Republican Party Lee Zeldin in 2022, New York has not chosen a Republican governor since 2002. And the political environment could be difficult for Republicans in 2026 since it will be an average year under a departure president.
A high -ranking Republican of New York was skeptical that Stefanik or Lawler could win a general choice.
“There are 3 million more than us,” said the Republican, comparing the voting registration numbers. Hochul “can win even if he’s the other way around.”
