Rep. Mike Lawler got an indirect public signal from President Donald Trump to forgo running for governor next year with Trump’s full-throated endorsement of Lawler to keep his House seat.
Trump sidled into the 2026 governor’s race with a pair of back-to-back social media posts backing the re-elections of Lawler and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, both viewed as potential Republican candidates for governor. Taken together, the GOP’s most powerful endorser appeared to be throwing his weight behind Rep. Elise Stefanik, who’s also weighing a 2026 bid for New York’s top office.
“Mike is doing an outstanding job representing the Hudson Valley, and all of New York,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post just after 8 p.m. on Tuesday, May 6. “Because of the excellent job he is doing, Mike has my Complete and Total Endorsement for Re-Election to New York’s 17th Congressional District – HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!”
Lawler has been openly considering a run for governor instead of a third House term since last year, and has said he plans to decide by June. He holds a highly sought swing seat that already has attracted five Democratic contenders for 2026, and NBC reported last month that party leaders were prodding Lawler to seek re-election to help protect the narrow GOP House majority.
Lawler told NBC then that his decision “will be mine alone to make and will not be impacted by the decisions or desires of any of my colleagues.” Unlike Blakeman, he didn’t reply online to Trump’s endorsement after it was reposted on X Tuesday night, and his campaign spokesman didn’t respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Democrats pounced on Trump’s post by declaring that it effectively ended Lawler’s gubernatorial hopes.
“Mike Lawler just received a presidential level snub from Donald Trump,” Kevin Donohoe, a spokesman for the Democratic Governors Association, said in a statement. “With one tweet, Trump has completely undercut Lawler’s dreams of running statewide. Donald Trump, and no one else, will choose New York’s next Republican gubernatorial nominee — and it’s not going to be Mike Lawler.”
Trump’s intervention comes as Gov. Kathy Hochul — the Democrat and former lieutenant governor who has led New York since Andrew Cuomo’s resignation in 2021 — is gearing up for her next re-election run. Potential challengers in both parties have been testing the waters for months. No Republican has won a statewide office since 2002 in New York, where Democratic voters outnumber Republicans by more than 2 to 1.
Stefanik, a staunch Trump ally who has represented a huge chunk of northern New York for 10 years, revealed last month she was considering a run for governor after her nomination to be United Nations ambassador was withdrawn. Trump said he canceled her appointment out of concern Republicans could lose even her ostensibly safe GOP seat in a special election.
Bill O’Reilly, a Republican consultant from Westchester County, also read Trump’s very early re-election endorsement as a message to Lawler on the political choice he must make.
“I suspect that, like Speaker Johnson, the President would ultimately prefer that New York members of Congress run for reelection rather than for higher office, with the margin so tight in the House,” O’Reilly told the USA Today Network. “But that said, Stefanik has always been a Trump loyalist, and with the UN position taken away from her, she has to hold a big chit with him. We’ll have to wait and see where and when it’s cashed in.”
Like Lawler, Blakeman got an effusive re-election endorsement from Trump for his campaign this year for a second term as leader of Long Island’s Nassau County. Blakeman, who has said little about the 2026 governor’s race in the midst of his current run, responded on X with his appreciation and praise for Trump.
Stefanik, meanwhile, immediately reposted Trump’s endorsements for Lawler and Blakeman for their current offices.
Three Democrats vying for the 17th District seat also highlighted Trump’s endorsement of Lawler on social media, though for a different reason. They hope to tie the GOP incumbent to the president and his policies in next year’s House race.
“Trump just made it official: Mike Lawler is his guy,” Democratic candidate Beth Davidson posted on X.
Chris McKenna covers government and politics for The Journal News and USA Today Network. Reach him at cmckenna@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Trump sends signal on NY governor race by backing Lawler for House re-election instead
Reporting by Chris McKenna, New York State Team / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
