Nancy Pelosi told GOP Rep. Mike Lawler he should thank Gov. Hochul for his election win

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently told Republican Rep. Mike Lawler that he should thank Gov. Kathy Hochul for helping him and other New York GOPers get elected, the Hudson Valley lawmaker told The Post Friday.

Pelosi said Lawler and his fellow Republican state reps should be grateful to Hochul because weak Democratic results had allowed them to win their House races two years ago.

The California Democrat noted, too, that they should express gratitude after the governor approved new congressional maps last month with limited alterations to district lines.

“We all had a great laugh,” Lawler told Politico, who was first to report on the exchange.

“I think Nancy Pelosi is a very astute observer of politics and understands that on a fair set of maps, Republicans have a big opportunity in New York.”

The conversation unfolded in the aftermath of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address in Washington DC last week, which Hochul also attended.

“Lawler is right about one thing — Speaker Pelosi knows politics,” a spokesperson for Pelosi said in a statement when asked about her remarks.

“And she knows that next January, Mondaire Jones will be back in the House, Democrats will be back in the majority and Hakeem Jeffries will be speaker.”

Pelosi, on her part, has already thrown her weight behind Jones to take on Lawler at the upcoming election in a bid to claw back the Lower Hudson Valley seat from the GOP.

In the wake of the 2022 midterms, which saw Lawler oust Democrat Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney in a major upset, Pelosi blamed Hochul and other Empire State pols for not realizing soon enough that crime was a critical issue in the election.

“That is an issue that had to be dealt with early on, not 10 days before the election,” Pelosi told The New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. “The governor didn’t realize soon enough where the trouble was.”

The GOP candidates ended up flipping a net of four House seats in New York in the midterm election.

The Dems have for months been pouring money into funding a slew of attack ads and billboards in an attempt to take Lawler when voters next head to the polls.

Lawler, who is widely regarded as a relatively centrist Republican, is seen by Democrats as one of the most vulnerable going into the 2024 election cycle.

Hochul’s campaign gave the Post a statement Friday: “Governor Hochul’s focus has always been on electing Democrats up and down the ballot. In 2024, the Governor is committed to taking back the House majority and making Hakeem Jeffries Speaker, and that’s why Governor Hochul is building an unprecedented coordinated effort in New York to get the job done.”