The Republicans are pushing Mike Lawler with the battlefield to pass on a run for the New York governor

The Republican leaders are trying to convince Rep. Mike Lawler, Rn.Y., to drop his consideration of a run for the governor of New York as concerns about the protection of his battlefield house next year next year.

Lawler says he has not made a final decision as to whether he will start a 2026 campaign for the governor. But party leaders are already being nervous because he gave up a district of only three of GOP who carried Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election and asked him privately to stay in the house to protect their close majority, the four sources said. According to two GOP sources familiar with the matter, some consultants near President Donald Trump have similar concerns about Lawler’s candidates for the governor.

MP Richard Hudson, Rn.C., the chairman of the National Republican Congress Committee, who was recently met in the White House with Trump, described Lawler as an “outstanding” home candidate.

“I would prefer not to run for the governor,” Hudson told NBC News. When asked whether he had told Lawler these feelings, he said: “Yes.”

The Republicans see Lawler, a two -year -old congress member and former member of the New York assembly, as a unique way to win his district of Hudson Valley. Therefore, several high -ranking republican sources stated that it would be difficult to recruit a candidate for him. Lawler, who was considered one of the most endangered GOP legislators for re-election in the last cycle, ultimately won almost 6 percentage points.

“Nobody is waiting in the wings of their quality,” said a national GOP strategist who is involved in the house race. “Everyone finds Mike very high, and we believe that he is uniquely qualified to run and win this seat.”

Lawler said that he would decide on his plans by June.

“As I said in this process, I will make my decision whether I should run for the governor in June,” Lawler told NBC News in an explanation. “This decision based on a number of factors and considerations will only be mine and will not be affected by the decisions or wishes of one of my colleagues.”

Democrats only have to win three seats to regain control of the house, and the president’s party usually loses the seats in the event of an intermediate election. For Trump, a democratically controlled house would also mean that he would probably be suspended before a rush of investigations and possibly a third party.

The Elise Stefanik factor

MP Elise Stefanik, Rn.Y., also tooms about the situation because she is considering an offer for governor, NBC News reported for the first time this month.

Trump withdrew Stefanik’s nomination last month as a US ambassador to the United Nations because they said goodbye to the concerns about the tight house margins of the Republicans when they try to say goodbye to a comprehensive agenda of domestic politics. However, the party leaders would be less concerned about defending Stefaniks in the state of New York, which Trump scored 21 points in November when Lawlers opened when it was opened next year.

Spokesman Mike Johnson, R-La., Said that he would prefer that both Lawler and Stefanik stay in the house when NBC News asked whether he had talked to them about their ambitions, and added that he would support what they decide.

“I have a lot of conversations. I love both of them. They are two of my favorite people and my most trustworthy colleagues, and both are super talented.” I think my preference is that they all stay with me, right? We do the work, but I do not treat anyone to have other opportunities, and we ultimately support them in what they do. ”

After Stefanik Johnson called for these comments on social media and said that it was “not” that they had spoken, Johnson made it clear that he had not spoken to Stefanik about her governor’s ambitions, but simply meant that he generally talked to his members about potential opportunities.

Stefanik’s office refused to make further comments. Johnson’s office also refused to comment on it.

The tensions between the two camps have brewed privately for weeks, since Johnson is still working on putting Stefanik back to the House Intelligence Committee after her nomination. Now some of these tensions surpass a public perspective.

In the same social media post on Tuesday, Stefanik said that she was looking forward to the conversation about the state and local tax deduction with the New York Republicans on Wednesday. Johnson had planned to organize a smaller meeting with some so-called Salt Republicans in his office, including Lawler, but not all goods, to be visited, according to a source familiar with the invitation list. This includes Stefanik, who voted against the 2017 tax law because it provided an upper limit for the salt deduction of 10,000 US dollars.

Since then, Johnson has opened the Salt meeting to include other Republicans who take care of the topic, according to another source familiar with the planning. As the Republicans address the salt cap in their draft law for Trump’s agenda, a major influence in high-tax blue countries such as New York will have, and it could result in an important problem in the race for the governor.

Senior New York Republicans announced NBC News that Stefanik, one of Trump’s top alloyed on the Capitol Hill, Lawler in a primary school could easily defeat if both decided to run.

But under New York GOP sources there is less trust about how Stefanik would do in a general choice. While some surveys found Kathy Hochul with a poor approval rate and only defeated it in 2022, New York has no longer chosen Republican governor since 2002. The political environment could be difficult for the Republicans in 2026, as this will be an intermediate year under a GOP president.

A high -ranking New York Republican was skeptical that either Stefanik or Lawler could win a general choice.

“There are 3 million more of them than of us,” said the Republican and compared the registration numbers of voters. Hochul “could just win even though she is standing on her head.”