Outgoing Republican Rep. Mike Lawler is leaving the door open to a potential run for New York governor — but says he’s done with Congress — following his stinging re-election defeat last week.
Speaking to The Post in some of his first public comments since his midterms loss, the two-term Hudson Valley rep said he had no plans to vie for Congress again — but didn’t rule out running for governor or another statewide office in 2030.
“If running for office in a different capacity presents itself, great. If not, fine,” he said in a phone interview Tuesday.
Lawler said there was nothing he would have done differently to prevent the loss to Democrat Cait Conley, who surfed the nationwide blue wave in the Nov. 3 elections.
“I have no regrets,” he said.
But he warned Democrats that “the pendulum swings back,” noting that Democrats won’t be able to tie Republicans to President Trump forever.
“Politics is cyclical,” Lawler said.
Eventually, he said, voters will more clearly recognize who’s responsible for the problems in the high-taxed, spendthrift Empire State.
“The Democrats have been in control of the state since 2019 and they’ve run it into the ground,” he said.
Regarding his own race for re-election in the swing 17th House District, Lawler simply said: “The bottom fell out.”
The district, which encompasses all of Rockland County and Putnam County and parts of Westchester and Dutchess, has 80,000 more Democrats than Republicans and in his prior two elections, he attracted more than 20% of the Democratic vote.
He could not meet that benchmark this time, and Conley won by 19,000 votes.
He’s weighing employment in the private sector and did not rule out a media gig, but right now he is focused on finishing his term through the end of December.
Lawler said he would be meeting Wednesday with Conley, an Army veteran who served as a national security adviser in the Biden administration, to aid in the transition.
Meanwhile, he said he would play a role in helping rebuild the state Republican Party, but did not commit to becoming chairman, as current party boss Ed Cox faces a target on his back.
“The goal is to build out a state party not only to compete but to succeed,” he said.
But GOP infighting and finger-pointing about the midterm losses is counterproductive, he said.
“The circular firing squad is not helping anybody,” Lawler said.
“We got obliterated in red states. We lost in Texas, Iowa, Kansas and Mississippi,” he added. “New York was not going to be an outlier.”
