It’s disappointing to hear Representative Elise Stefanik is dropping her challenge to Governor Kathy Hochul to lead the Empire State — and will be leaving Congress, to boot. The bid by the upstate Republican, one of the most compelling conservatives of her generation, would have offered New Yorkers an off-ramp from the failed leadership of Albany’s Democrats. For now, it puts the spotlight on Nassau County’s executive, Bruce Blakeman.

Early reports suggest that Ms. Stefanik was daunted by a polling gap of some 20 points in a prospective matchup with Ms. Hochul. Plus, too, Ms. Stefanik wanted to avoid a contentious primary within the GOP prompted by Mr. Blakeman’s entry into the race. The state party chairman, Ed Cox, has now endorsed Mr. Blakeman in the race, and the Long Island county leader is said to be backed, too, by the billionaire businessman, Ron Lauder.

Ms. Stefanik’s departure from politics is all the more lamentable in light of her growing profile as a foe of the antisemitism that is rampant on the political left and among America’s cultural elites. Her grilling, in the aftermath of the attack by Hamas on Israel of October 7, 2023, of Ivy League college presidents helped expose the moral rot at the heart in some of America’s most esteemed institutions of higher education.

Ms. Stefanik, in hearings on Capitol Hill, had the moral clarity to question the presidents of Harvard, MIT, Columbia, and the University of Pennsylvania over whether their campus rules prohibited, say, calls for the genocide of Jews. As these columns reported at the time, several of these leaders “refused to say yes, resorting instead to pettifogging.” The resulting outcry later helped lead to the resignation of Harvard’s president, Claudine Gay.

It was likely to become a “congressional classic,” we contended, marking the contrast between Ms. Stefanik and the “smug, self-serving” college presidents. The hearings helped launch a reform of policies pertaining to antisemitism on America’s campuses, an effort that was bolstered by President Trump’s re-election in 2024. Yet there’s more work to be done on this head, as New York’s election of Zohran Mamdani as mayor illustrates.

Ms. Stefanik’s decision to step down from her seat in Congress could reflect, too, the growing gloom among House Republicans over the party’s chances of holding the majority in the coming midterm elections. Few, one imagines, would relish serving in the minority under a speakership of, say, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, especially in light of the limited opportunities for substantive debate or opposition under the rules of the House.

That said, could the upper chamber beckon for Ms. Stefanik? The next opportunity won’t come until 2028, when Senator Charles Schumer will be on the ballot — if he runs for re-election, that is. One wouldn’t want to rule out New York’s senior senator facing a primary challenge from the left wing of his own party, with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez oft-mooted as a potential rival. 

More broadly, the loss of a leader of Ms. Stefanik’s caliber speaks to the challenge facing the Republican Party in a deep-blue state like New York. The state’s last GOP governor was George Pataki, who left office in 2006. A generation later, a free-market, low-tax, pro-growth agenda might find an opening in New York, if the right standard-bearer emerges. Ms. Stefanik was such a candidate. So all eyes in the New York GOP will now be on Mr. Blakeman.