New York State

Stefanik ascendance shows increasing Trumpiness of New York GOP

Republican legislators are stoked she is moving up in GOP politics despite her support for the Big Lie.

Rep. Elise Stefanik

Rep. Elise Stefanik Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

Elise Stefanik of the North Country has been a key defender of former President Donald Trump, making her a rising star in Republican politics, both nationally and in New York. As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, she dismissed his attempt to withhold military aid to extort election interference from Ukraine.After raising massive sums for her reelection bid in 2020, Stefanik aided Trump's efforts to falsely claim the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Months later, she remains a Trump fan despite his incitement of a violent mob of his supporters to storm the U.S. Capitol in an effort to overturn the election’s result. 

In fact, her pro-Trump stance may propel her to a top leadership position. “Thank you President Trump for your 100% support for House GOP Conference Chair. We are unified and focused on FIRING PELOSI & WINNING in 2022!” Stefanik tweeted Wednesday after the tax cheat and accused sexual predator announced his support for her to replace Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming as the third-highest ranking Republican House member. Cheney (unlike Stefanik) has said her party should reject Trump’s personality cult, insurrection and ongoing role in the party – especially given how the former reality TV star remains obsessed with baseless claims of mass voter fraud. A vote on the leadership switch is expected in the coming weeks.

New York Republicans – who claim to be the party of law and order – say they are thrilled that Stefanik is moving up in national GOP politics as a reward for her support of Trump’s subversionof therule of law. Even state legislators with reputations as relative moderates are embracing Stefanik’s role.

“Most of us see Congresswoman Stefanik as an extremely bright, talented young legislator and rising star in Congress and the Republican Party nationally – not solely by her relationship to President Trump,” state Sen. Phil Boyle of Long Island, who has a relatively moderate voting record in the Legislature, said in a text. “Elise has earned this position through years of hard work.”

The Harvard-educated Stefanik entered Republican politics by working for more traditional conservative Republicans like former Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. Her years in Washington, D.C. were a mixed blessing during her successful 2014 campaign for Congress, when she emphasized political moderation and local roots as a native daughter of the Adirondacks – no matter accusations of carpetbagging. While she now claims otherwise, she also distanced herself from Trump’s 2016 campaign. She then continued cultivating an independent political persona by criticizing some of Trump’s more controversial moves in 2017 and 2018. 

That all changed in 2019 when she defended Trump against impeachment for his attempts to leverage military aid to Ukraine to dig up dirt on now-President Joe Biden as he sought the 2020 Democratic nomination. “I started out skeptical of Rep. Stefanik because I viewed her as part of the broken GOP establishment,” Assembly Member Kieran Michael Lalor, a pro-Trump firebrand from the Hudson Valley who has appeared on right-wing cable news networks like Newsmax, said in a text message. “But she has shown real courage and a willingness to take on the DC swamp.” 

Stefanik’s office declined to comment on the record for this story, but a spokesperson said that the Congress member’s evolving stance towards Trump reflected an effort to represent the views of her constituents. 

A day after the deadly insurrection, despite condemning the violence, Stefanik joined other Republicans in voting against the certification of the Electoral College results in the 2020 election, which she said was an attempt to highlight irregularities in four states. A spokesperson declined to provide any evidence to substantiate those election-irregularity claims when asked by City & State. 

Republican legislators say they have no problem with Stefanik’s role in undermining public confidence in the Democratic process. “I don't see any concerns and it isn't relevant in my opinion,” Assembly Member Michael Reilly of Staten Island, a former NYPD lieutenant known for reaching across the aisle, said in a text. 

“Rep. Stefanik stated that, ‘We can and we should peacefully discuss concerns people had with some judges disregarding state election laws,” Boyle added. 

Four months later, Republicans like Cheney who argue against promoting baseless conspiracy theories and for respecting the results of elections are increasingly a dying breed in the GOP. “President Trump started a movement that has given millions of people a voice to vent their frustrations with the status quo,” Assembly Member John Salka of Central New York, who was first elected by a narrow margin in 2018 despite historic losses for the GOP elsewhere in the state that year. “I believe this sleeping giant is not going away.” Even bigger losses for Republicans in 2020 are evidently not making New York Republicans give up on Trump.

Republicans like state party Chair Nick Langworthy, who once encouraged Trump to run for governor, are talking about winning their first statewide election in two decades in 2022, given how ongoing scandals might hurt Gov. Andrew Cuomo next year. With Rep. Lee Zeldin of Long Island, another Trump acolyte, having secured the backing of key Republican county party chairs for the gubernatorial nomination, Stefanik appears to be backing away from a rumored run that would require her to give up her seat in Congress. Perhaps news that New York is only losing one congressional seat eased any concerns Stefanik may have had about facing a tough reelection battle after redistricting. With her aspirations now dependent on the goodwill of fellow House Republicans rather than New York’s statewide electorate, Stefanik’s incentives point her toward being a loyal member of Team Trump. GOP leaders like Langworthy are now hoping her success in mobilizing other Republican women will help them flip the handful of seats the party needs to win the House majority in 2020. If Stefanik becomes the third-ranking Republican before that happens, she could be serving in the powerful post of House majority whip by 2023. 

And as the Republican Party moves farther to the right-wing fringes of Stefanik can claim to still be a relative moderate. Unlike some of her colleagues, she has never called for executing Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for treason for refusing to fund Trump’s border wall or spread false conspiracy theories about Jewish lasers starting forest fires in California. With a reputation like that, New York Republicans expect big things are coming for Stefanik. “I fully expect to see her as a future Speaker of the House of Representatives,” Boyle predicted. “We are not talking about (Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia) here.”

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.