Rep. Elise Stefanik (R) hopes to be New York’s next governor, which is a heavy lift considering that, even though Donald Trump managed to close the gap a bit with the Democrats in 2024, he still lost the Empire State by double digits. For Stefanik to win in a political environment that will likely not favor Republicans, something drastic would have to happen between now and Election Day next year.

She shouldn’t count on Trump, whom she fervently backs, to do her any favors. The economy is faltering, prices are on the rise, and the president is not endearing himself to New Yorkers by punishing them for voting against him.

For example, last week he threatened to “terminate” the nation’s largest infrastructure project — a tunnel connecting New York and New Jersey that would benefit hundreds of thousands of commuters.

Therefore, Republicans like Stefanik will have to look elsewhere for a boost… and what would be better suited than watching New York City, the state’s crown jewel, fall apart under the leadership of Zohran Mamdani, the frontrunner to become the city’s next mayor (which is precisely what they tell voters will happen)?

Nothing!

In fact, seeing how GOP candidate Curtis Sliwa has no chance of winning, all Republicans should be thrilled at the prospect of a Mamdani victory.

Watching his Democratic Socialist policies of taxing the rich to make life more affordable for everybody else fail in the world’s preeminent bastion of capitalism would prove to Americans once and for all that the only path to prosperity for them is to put their money into the pockets of billionaires.

But here is the curious thing: Republicans don’t seem thrilled at all.

In fact, they seem terrified of Mamdani because, while progressives like him are itching to put their policies into practice, the GOP appears to have no interest in finding out what happens when somebody redistributes wealth in the other direction for once.

Which leads us to believe that they think it’s going to work… and in New York City, the world’s financial capital, no less. And, to paraphrase Frank Sinatra, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.

Therefore, a good case can be made that, at this moment, Mamdani is the biggest threat to the GOP. Certainly bigger than his fellow New York Democrats Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who have so far failed to endorse him because he also threatens their brand of politics (which, if we were forced to describe it, would be a mix of feckless centrism and tepid progressivism).

Here is what that looks like in the case of Stefanik.

On Wednesday night, during the final debate between Mamdani, Sliwa, and former Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo (who is running as an independent after losing the primary to Mamdani), she took to social media to call the Democratic frontrunner a “communist jihadist.”

While Mamdani is neither (and we don’t know whether Stefanik doesn’t know what the words “communism” and “jihadism” mean or whether she trusts that her voters don’t), that certainly sounds scary.

Apparently, the lawmaker also didn’t get the GOP’s memo that it’s time to tone down incendiary rhetoric in a politically charged atmosphere, especially in this case seeing how one person has already been charged with making death threats against Mamdani.

Most importantly, it illustrates our point.

If Stefanik really were confident that the Democratic nominee is going to fail, she would just point that out, for example by saying something like “electing Mamdani would be a huge mistake for New Yorkers that I am going to fix as governor.”

Instead, however, Republicans are trying really hard to get Cuomo elected.

Trump, for example, has urged Sliwa and current mayor Eric Adams to get out of the race (Adams, who owes the president a solid for making his criminal case disappear, complied).

He has also threatened to cut off federal funds to New York.

Those are not the actions of someone who is convinced that Mamdani’s election would be a boon for Republicans down the road.

And that’s the key point.

With so many Americans unhappy with the direction in which the country is going and a two-party system that offers them little choice, they should be curious about what will happen when a Democratic socialist gets an opportunity to govern and try something new.

Republicans, however, are hellbent on trying to make sure that doesn’t happen.