Stefanik, Hochul trade swipes over new poll showing GOP rep closing in on NY Dem gov: ‘I don’t really care what she says’

The claws are out!

North Country Rep. Elise Stefanik and Gov. Kathy Hochul traded swipes over a new, internal poll showing the Republican congresswoman and potential gubenatorial challenger trailing the Democratic incumbent by just a handful of points.

Stefanik jabbed at the governor, accusing her of having a “meltdown” over the survey’s results that Hochul’s endorsement of socialist Democratic mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani hurt her with voters.

“Hearing that Kathy Hochul had a meltdown at her presser when asked about her endorsement of Communist Mamdani and tried to pivot by desperately hugging Joe Biden’s 2020 election,” Stefanik — who has said she’ll run against Hochul in next year’s election — said in a lengthy post on X Wednesday.

North Country Rep. Elise Stefanik accused Hochul of having a “meltdown” in response to an internal poll of hers. Getty Images

Hochul, during her unrelated press conference earlier that day, was dismissive when asked what she makes of her GOP foe’s attempts to tie her to Mamdani, a democratic socialist state assemblyman from Queens.

“I will continue to be dismissive of outrageous claims like those. I will always support the outcomes of elections. That’s what our country has been founded on over the last 250 years,” Hochul said.

“I’ve not been supportive of efforts to overturn elections, like happened when Joe Biden was taking office,” she added, seeming to reference the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

When pressed again about whether it was “fair” that Stefanik has said Hochul’s endorsement of Mamdani ties her to him, she waved off the question.

“I don’t really care what she says,” Hochul replied.

The survey from Stefanik’s pollster, GrayHouse, showed her only five points behind Hochul in a theoretical statewide matchup.

“I don’t really care what she says,” Hochul said of Stefanik. SARAH YENESEL/EPA/Shutterstock

Asked for a response to Stefanik’s “meltdown” comment, a spokesperson for Hochul’s campaign referred The Post back to her original response.

Public polling by Siena Research Institute has shown dramatically varied results for a potential Hochul-Stefanik matchup.

In August, Siena’s poll showed Stefanik 14 points behind Hochul. The research institute’s September survey showed the gap at 25 points.

Both Siena polls were conducted before Hochul officially endorsed Mamdani last month.

Other GOP sources said internal polling is showing Hochul bleeding support in suburban areas like Nassau County with voters detesting Mamdani’s socialist policies.