July 18th 2024

By Dan Clark

 

Rep. Elise Stefanik’s star has risen within the Republican party, culminating in a primetime speech at this week’s Republican National Convention that was nine years in the making.

“Nothing, absolutely nothing, will stop President Trump from standing and fighting for our great country,” Stefanik said. “And I have been proud to always stand in the breach during the toughest moments for President Trump.”

The five-term congresswoman has emerged as one of Trump’s loudest surrogates in this year’s presidential election and was even rumored at one point to be on his short list for vice president.

That would’ve been another rung on a ladder she’s quickly climbed since first being elected to Congress in 2014.

The past five years have seen Stefanik’s meteoric rise in a party that has its sights set on the White House and both chambers of Congress this November.

She arguably has two people to thank for that: herself — having pursued an education that positioned her for a career in politics — and Trump.

Elise Stefanik is SMART, STRONG, and TOUGH — she has my Complete and Total Endorsement!” he wrote in June on social media.

But their relationship wasn’t always as close, and the comments made by Stefanik nearly a decade ago could now make Trump supporters bristle.

‘Not who we are as a country’

Trump was written off by most political analysts as a long shot for the presidency when he announced his campaign in 2015.

Republicans did not coalesce around him at the time as they have since he was first elected. That included Stefanik, who had some tough words for the real estate developer.

“I think he has been insulting to women,” Stefanik said of Trump during a radio interview after he criticized former Fox News host Megyn Kelly for asking him about his behavior toward women.

“We need to ensure we’re increasing our party’s ability to reach out to women,” she said. “Donald Trump’s comments have not helped that effort. They’ve hurt that effort.”

Stefanik continued to distance herself from Trump during the first year of his campaign, when Republicans were far from choosing their nominee for president.

When Trump said Muslims should be banned from traveling to the U.S. near the end of 2015, Stefanik spoke out against him.

“This is not who we are as a country,” Stefanik said at the time to the Post-Star, a newspaper in Glens Falls.

She would go on three months later to tell another newspaper, the Press-Republican, that she didn’t think one of Trump’s signature proposals, a wall at the southern border, would work.

“I think you can use technology to have better security along the Mexican border,” she said.

Supporting the nominee

As it became clear that Trump would be her party’s 2016 nominee, Stefanik’s support began to shift.

While she had already said she would “support my party’s nominee” in May, she began to mention him more regularly after she endorsed him by name two weeks before that year’s Republican National Convention.

“Given the choice in this election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in this election, I will support Donald Trump this November,” Stefanik said.

That support was tested in October, when a recording of Trump off-camera from NBC’s ‘Access Hollywood’ was leaked. Trump can be heard making lewd comments about women on the tape.

Stefanik didn’t mince words, issuing a statement that might be her strongest condemnation of Trump to date.

“Donald Trump’s inappropriate, offensive comments are just wrong — no matter when he said them or whatever the context,” she said, but didn’t pull her support for him.

Trump, of course, went on to win the election a month later and was inaugurated the following January. But even on that day, Stefanik still was less than bombastic.

“I wish all the best to President Trump and Vice President Pence and look forward to working with them to deliver great things for our country,” she said in a statement.

Conflicts continue early on

It wasn’t long before Stefanik and other Republicans voiced public disagreement with the then-president.

After Trump issued an executive order that banned immigration to the U.S. from predominantly Muslim countries, Stefanik spoke out.

“I believe we need to work in Congress to reform and strengthen our visa vetting process,” she said. “However, I oppose President Trump’s rushed and overly broad executive order.”

Stefanik doubled down on her opposition to Trump’s border wall proposal a few months later.

“I don’t think the president’s plan is exactly right on that,” she said.

It wasn’t the last time she would split with Trump. She voted against the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the 2017 tax law Trump had negotiated with Republicans in Congress.

That law eliminated, at the time, the ability for filers to deduct their state and local taxes from their federal taxes. That was closely watched in New York, where some filers had taken advantage of that option due to the state’s high tax bills.

“The final bill does not adequately protect the state and local tax deduction that so many in our district and across New York rely on,” Stefanik said.

A sharp right turn toward the future

Their relationship didn’t start to warm publicly until Trump paid her district a visit in 2018.

But that alliance blossomed one year later, when House Democrats launched their first impeachment inquiry against Trump.

Stefanik, who was on the House Intelligence Committee, became one of Trump’s staunchest defenders during that investigation, propelling herself into the national spotlight.

“We are here to talk about impeachment and nothing in that room today, and nothing in that room this week, nothing rises to the level of impeachable offenses,” she told the press after a day of the inquiry.

She even received praise from Trump himself, who wrote on Twitter that “a new Republican Star is born.”

Her prominence rose again two years later after Trump lost his reelection bid.

After some Republicans turned on the former president following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Stefanik saw an opportunity.

She worked behind the scenes to secure herself as chair of the House Republican Conference — the third-highest ranking position for her party in the chamber. She wrestled it from then-Rep. Liz Cheney, who lost favor over her public criticism of Trump.

Stefanik said she was “truly honored and humbled” to be elected to the position, which earned her an even stronger standing within the party and from Trump.

“Congratulations to Elise Stefanik for her Big and Overwhelming victory!” he said on social media at the time. “The House GOP is united and the Make America Great Again movement is Strong!”

Stefanik is still in that position today but her political future remains unclear. She’s been rumored as a potential future speaker of the House and even a future potential presidential contender.

But her exit from the House could come sooner, she said in January, if Trump wins in November and she gets a phone call.

“I’d be honored — I’ve said that for a year — to serve in a future Trump administration in any capacity,” Stefanik said.