Mike Lawler made it official on Wednesday. After spending the past year unofficially campaigning for Governor of New York, he threw in the towel and announced that he will instead run for reelection to the House.
He made the announcement to his favorite Fox & Friends, saying:
While I fundamentally believe I am best positioned to take on Kathy Hochul and offer New Yorkers a real choice for Governor, I have made the decision to run for re-election to the House . . . .
Odd. He thinks he’s the best GOP candidate for governor, but has decided not to run. Maybe because Donald Trump said this back in May?
Of course Lawler wasn’t looking for an endorsement at the time. But Trump reportedly preferred Elise Stefanik for NY Governor, both as a consolation prize for his withdrawal of her nomination as UN Ambassador, and because she is a hardcore MAGA warrior. She doesn’t even pretend to be a “moderate,” as Lawler must in his purple district. Trump also needs Lawler to get reelected in order to hold on to a majority in the House.
Lawler was back in the Principal’s office last week, where they “had a wholesome discussion” about his ambitions, as recounted by Lawler. Which means Trump told him what to do or else. And once again, we see Mike Lawler bend the knee as “a true America First Patriot,” giving up his gubernatorial dreams.
CNN’s headline trumpeted Lawler’s decision as “a win for Trump.” Our ever gracious NY Governor Kathy Hochul hounded:
And the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee crowed:
And so a new acronym is born: Lawler Always Submits to Trump (LAST). Which is why he’ll finish last in his chosen contest.
Acronyms can be fun. TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) has had its run. And now there’s the MAMDANI Act, introduced by Mike Lawler during the same Fox & Friends interview where he dropped out of the governor’s race.
You guessed it: the Measuring Adverse Market Disruption And National Impact (MAMDANI) Act. An acronym that’s more desperate than it is fun. It’s also a taste of the campaign to come. While the Democrats sort through the 7 candidates who have announced campaigns against Lawler, he has decided to focus his campaign on NYC’s Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, a self-declared Democratic Socialist.
Expect Lawler to cherry pick the most extreme of Mamdani’s many progressive policy proposals to brand Democrats as Marxist. In this case, Mamdani’s proposal to create a network of city-owned grocery stores to lower food prices.
Lawler will point to similar experiments that have failed, with scary footage of empty grocery store shelves. But does he offer solutions? No. Instead he proposes a bill as a campaign stunt, to spend federal tax dollars to study the downstream effects of an undeveloped policy proposal by an unelected candidate in a NYC mayoral race. Instead Lawler gave us the Big Ugly Bill that slashes food assistance benefits. And the Trump tariffs which are estimated to raise fresh produce prices by 6.5% in the near term.
What about government-run commissaries? Or the Healthy Food Financing Initiative that Trump reauthorized during his first administration? Are those radical Marxist fantasies?
This election campaign is the last taco for stuntman Lawler. Once it’s over, he’ll have to go shopping for a job somewhere else.
Rule of Lawler 