The rise of Elise Stefanik shows that Trump maintains his adherence to Republicans

Elise Stefanik, a first-time Republican congressman in New York, wanted to vote for Donald Trump’s presidential candidate, refusing to say her name out loud, saying she was “my party’s candidate.”

Four years later, Stefanik became one of the strongest defenders of the president. In a coveted speech at the 2020 Republican National Convention, Trump offered his full support and said the Democrats’ probe probe was “baseless and illegal.” . . shameless ”.

Stefanik, 36, is currently on the verge of leading the Republican party. She is expected to be elected to the House GOP congressional seat this week, which would make her the oldest Republican woman on Capitol Hill. Last week Trump accepted the role, calling him a “tough, smart communicator”. He also has the public backing of Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise, who are first and second in the House Republic, respectively.

Stefan will replace Liz Cheney, the daughter of Wyoming Republican and former Vice President Dick Cheney, who fell with her party because she voted to oust Trump earlier this year in a January 6 attack on Trump’s U.S. impeachment. five people dead.

“The arrival of Elise is the perfect symbol for the Trump era,” said Brendan Buck, a former aide to Paul Ryan, who served as Speaker of the House from 2015 to 2019. Stefanik worked in Ryan’s discussion preparation team when he was led by Mitt Romney. partner in the 2012 presidential election.

“By every measure, Liz Cheney is less conservative than she is, but when it comes to important measures – support for the president, a willingness to wage a cultural war, a willingness to fight the media – she controls those boxes,” he added.

Cheney is a tough economic and geopolitical conservative. But he has repeatedly called on his colleagues to push false claims that Trump has swapped the 2020 election against him.

Stefanik, meanwhile, last week appeared In Steve Bannon’s podcast and said he “fully” supported the Republican effort to overturn the results of the Arizona election when Joe Biden defeated Trump. He was one of 147 Republican lawmakers who voted against the certificate of winning the Fair Electoral College, even after violent troops of supporters of the president stormed the Capitol.

Many in Washington believe that this vote established Stefanik’s good loyalty as Trump’s loyalty – and underscored the Harvard University graduate’s tremendous change in style and substance. Stefanik has long been considered a rising star on the moderate wing of the Republican Party, with a resume that worked for former President George W Bush and former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.

Stefanik was born and raised in Albany, New York, to parents who owned a plywood distributor. He showed an interest in politics from an early age: a 1998 local newspaper article documented that 14-year-old high school student Stefanik then dropped out of class to attend a book signing for a Republican lawmaker.

He went to Harvard, where he worked as a journalist and active in politics and earned a bachelor’s degree in government. In her graduation, she wrote an opinion piece with Jeanne Shaheen, along with the former Democratic governor of New Hampshire, who is now a U.S. senator.

In 2014, she ran as a Republican and at the age of 30 won a race for the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming the youngest woman ever elected to Congress.

In the 2016 cycle, Stefanik first accepted John Kasich, a former Ohio governor, with Trump backed as a party Republican candidate. Shortly after the election, he became president of the group on Tuesday, a group of moderate Republican lawmakers who are committed to working with Democrats.

But just three years later, he turned sharply to the right, joined Trump’s defense team in his first indictment, and became one of the loudest among his supporters. As a candidate in 2020, Stefanik accepted many of the president’s rhetorical flourishes, including giving his Democratic opponent Tedra Cobb the nickname “Taxin’ Tedra ”.

Stefanik’s critics and allies say his political transformation reflects the changing views of voters in his congressional constituency.

“What [Stefanik] he saw and realized that the neighborhood was no longer the place he wanted a moderate Republican Republican, “Buck said.” He wanted a fighter. He wanted what Donald Trump was selling, so he reinvented himself. “

Stefanik represents the 21st congressional district of New York, which covers an important part of upstate New York. The white working-class neighborhood, in the open countryside, voted in favor of Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012 to become a strong Republican in the 2016 presidential election. Trump beat Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden 14 and 11 there, respectively.

“The people here, as well as nationally, appeared very ready for Donald Trump’s message of reinvention. . . there was this America, because things that were here 60 years ago were better, objectively, than they are now, ”said Alexander Cohen, a professor of political science at Clarkson University in Potsdam (New York), saying Stefanik is now“ suffocating ” in the seat.

Stefanik is one of the best Republican fundraisers on Capitol Hill, earning $ 13.3 million in the 2020 campaign cycle alone, according to OpenSecrets. Her leadership rally vehicle, E-PAC, earmarked $ 435,000 for other Republican women, helping the party double the number of female representatives in the House in 2018 and 2020.

The record puts it in its place with Republican lawmakers who will work to get Democrats back in control of the House and Senate in next year’s midterm elections.

But it will do nothing to compensate for the attacks of Stefanik’s critics, who accuse him of flip-flopping in terms of personality and politics.

Cohen said he did not know that Stefanik’s political evolution reflected “naked ambition” or “real ideological belief.”

But he added: “Of course, it’s hard for politicians to notice the difference between the two.”