April 19, 2021: -According to the people briefed on the matter, a Republican congressman who voted to impeach Donald Trump is being recruited to run for New York governor in the coming year. The lawmaker, Rep. John Katko, has not ruled out running, said the people who are declining to be named due to the conversations’ private nature.

The development comes as a Democrat, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, is under fire for more than one scandal. Many women have accused him of harassing them sexually, which he denies, while his administration is under investigation to handle Covid-19 death data. Cuomo has refused calls to resign and is on track to run for a fourth term.

Katko is a prominent member of the House Republican caucus, who has called for Cuomo’s resignation. He is the House Committee on Homeland Security ranking member, potentially putting him in line to be chairman of the GOP Republicans retake the House during 2022′s midterm elections.

According to the Cook Political Report analysts, the race in his district, New York’s 24th, is pegged as a toss-up next year. The community, including Syracuse, is one among 17 House Republican races deemed competitive.

Republicans gained in the House in the last year’s election and are only a handful of seats away from becoming the majority. The recruitment push for Katko shows that GOP members seek a more moderate contender for the high level of office in a traditionally Democratic state.

The New York GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin has declared his candidacy for governor already. Andrew Giuliani, the son of a former lawyer of New York Rudy Giuliani, said that he might run on the Republican ticket.

Katko is the chair of the moderate Republican Governance Group. His voting record indicates he isn’t necessarily a hardliner. While Katko has pushed back on specific pieces of the Affordable Care Act, he voted no on repealing it in its entirety in 2015. Katko later voted against the Affordable Health Care Act, the Republican’s replacement for the ACA that passed the House but failed to get through the Senate. Meanwhile, Cuomo has said he will run for the fourth term despite being under scrutiny.