Bruce Blakeman fires back at GOP rival Elise Stefanik
Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, who had considered a run for governor, and the eventual nominee Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman. Credit: Getty/Newsday/Tom Williams/Steve Pfost
Bruce Blakeman on Thursday called Rep. Elise Stefanik a "selfish, do nothing politician who didn’t lift a finger to help" Republicans, in a social media post Thursday, one day after she derided his unsuccessful bid for governor.
The intraparty skirmish then began spreading rapidly on social media, pulling in other Republicans and prompting one former top GOP official to blast all of the exchanges as "punk, loser talk" and say the party needed to grow up.
The recriminations came less than 48 hours after Gov. Kathy Hochul won reelection by a landslide over Blakeman, the Republican Nassau County executive, with unofficial totals showing the Democrat ahead, 60% to 40%.
The result was part of a nationwide trend Tuesday, with Democrats winning control of the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate and flipping five governorships, including in historically "red" states such as Iowa and Ohio.
Still, Stefanik (R-Schuylerville) pinned the blame for Hochul’s win on the state Republican Party and Blakeman, telling the New York Post that’s what happens "when you have a low energy campaign with limited resources that lacked an apparatus."
Stefanik had announced a run for governor in 2025 but dropped out when President Donald Trump wouldn’t make an endorsement in the race, and she eventually said she wouldn’t even run for reelection to Congress.
By Thursday afternoon, Blakeman fired back, saying Stefanik was focused just on herself.
"Elise Stefanik is a selfish, do nothing politician that didn’t lift a finger to help Republican candidates in New York this year," Blakeman wrote on X, the social media website formerly known as Twitter. "She had one moment of glory in what was otherwise an unremarkable career."
Two hours later, Stefanik responded on X.
"I know feelings are raw ... so I will cut some slack because while I don’t know from experience, as I have never lost any of my seven elections, I know that this is a tough loss in NY and I imagine it takes time to process," the congresswoman wrote. She said she supported Republicans, including Blakeman. "We will need everyone to be a constructive part of the effort to rebuild Republican support as we learn from this historic loss," she posted.
That wasn't the end of it.
Stefanik's successor to the upstate district, Rep.-elect Anthony Constantino, disparaged his own New York State Republican Committee as a "con job" that helps Democrats. He further singled out state party chairman Ed Cox and Blakeman.
"Even Bruce Blakeman was in on the con," Constantino wrote on X. "He just wandered around like a headless chicken going from stupid dinner, to stupid dinner and charming the 'party' while ignoring the people."
Blakeman again fired back.
"Anthony Constantino was by far the worst candidate I ever encountered," Blakeman wrote. "I ran way ahead of him in his District and if it weren’t for me he wouldn’t have won. See you in two years, pal."
Blakeman, in fact, did crush Hochul in New York's 21st Congressional District, which runs from the Mohawk Valley to the Canadian border. Stefanik won the district by 24 points in 2024, but Constantino won by just 2 points on Tuesday. Blakeman's "two years" remark apparently was aimed at Constantino's upcoming two-year term in Congress.
A spokesman for Cox noted the GOP held six of the seven congressional New York seats it controlled heading into 2026.
"We did a lot better than other states that are a lot redder," said David Laska, a Cox spokesman. He declined to specifically address Constantino's remarks.
Robert Bellafiore, a former top aide to George Pataki, the former three-term governor and last Republican to win statewide in New York in 2002, bashed the participants for what he called childish behavior.
"Stefanik's insights could have been productive, had they not been couched with a Trump-like insult," Bellafiore said in a phone interview, referring to the "low energy" insult.
"This is all punk, loser talk," Bellafiore said. "Everybody needs to grow up."
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