FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, April 4th, 2024
NEW YORK, NY — This evening, House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik received the prestigious ‘Jack Kemp Leadership Award’ presented by the New York Republican State Committee at its annual gala in New York City. The ‘Jack Kemp Leadership Award’ is the highest award given by the New York Republican Party. Chairwoman Stefanik joined Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Lee Zeldin, and RNC Chairman Michael Whatley in addressing the over 500 attendees.
NY GOP Chairman Ed Cox’s introduction of Chairwoman Elise Stefanik as delivered:
“Tonight, the Jack Kemp Leadership Award goes to someone who represents and helped deliver our New York-made Republican House majority.
When she was first elected to Congress in 2014, Elise Stefanik was the youngest woman of any party elected to Congress – ever. She flipped her district from blue to red.
Now in her fifth term, she serves as our Republican Conference Chair, which makes her the highest-ranking elected Republican in New York and the fourth in Congress, behind the Speaker, Majority Leader and the Whip. She is the youngest woman ever – of either party – to serve in top elected leadership. New York hasn’t had a Republican in top Majority Congressional leadership in over 100 years.
Elise is a unifier and a party builder. She puts others first and empowers Republican leaders all around the state. She has led the effort in her district to flip 3 county legislatures, ensuring all 15 counties in NY-21 are represented by Republican leadership. Elise has flipped over 30 towns and cities as well from blue to red. Everyone knows Upstate New York and the North Country is ELISE Country.
Democrats have thrown everything they have at Elise Stefanik over the years – nearly $100 million dollars – and she’s still standing stronger than ever. She doesn’t back down from a fight and knows how to win – and if you don’t believe me, just ask the now former Presidents of Harvard and Penn Universities.
It’s been almost half a century since we’ve had a Vice President from the State of New York. If you ask me, it’s time for another.
It is an honor to present the Jack Kemp Leadership award to the Chairwoman of the House Republican Conference, New York’s own Elise Stefanik!”
Congresswoman Elise Stefanik’s remarks as prepared below:
“Thank you Chairman Cox for that kind introduction, for your friendship and support, and for all you do as our incredible Chairman.
Thank you to Governor Abbott for speaking here today. Unlike our own failed Governor in New York, Governor Abbott is a leader on securing the border.
And make no mistake, despite Joe Biden, Kathy Hochul, and Chuck Schumer’s catastrophic border policies, everyday New Yorkers want to secure the border, build the wall, and we support Texas’ right to defend itself.
I want to welcome the newly elected RNC Chair Michael Whatley who is a strong America First leader who will get the job done this November with a clean sweep of Republican victories – electing President Trump, flipping the Senate, and holding the House. We look forward to working with you.
I want to recognize my colleagues in Congress who are great teammates and delivered the House Republican Majority right here in our great state.
History has proven that the road to the Speaker’s gavel and the House Majority always runs right through New York, and mark my words Hakeem Jeffries, every New York Republican incumbent is coming back and we will pick up at least one more seat. New Yorkers will hold the line.
It’s great to see Lee Zeldin who led an extraordinary campaign at the top of our New York ticket in 2022 that helped down ballot races all across the state and who I know will be back in elected office someday very soon.
I also want to thank my longtime close friend John Faso who I have known longer than anyone else in this room – I’ve known him since I was in Middle School in the same grade as his son. John and Chairman Ed Cox led our legal effort to defeat the Democrats desperate and illegal attempt to gerrymander our districts and New Yorkers have fair lines today because of their hard work.
Most importantly, thank you to our supporters all across New York and the entire country, and most especially thank you to my constituents in Upstate New York and the North Country who took a chance on a 29 year old unknown young woman when I first ran for Congress.
I am proud everyday to give you a voice at the highest levels in Washington. And amidst the smears from the mainstream media, I will never back down for being a fighter on your behalf.
I am truly humbled by this extraordinary honor of receiving the Jack Kemp Award by the New York GOP.
Jack Kemp was an iconic leader in our great state who was known as the quintessential Happy Warrior who advocated for hardworking families, economic opportunity, and strengthening the American Dream.
I have gotten to know Jimmy Kemp over the years and am grateful for his family’s work to continue Jack Kemp’s legacy.
My story starts in childhood – I was proudly born and raised in Upstate NY and grew up in a small business family with incredibly hardworking parents who were determined to give their two children a better opportunity than they had themselves.
I was the first member of my immediate family to have the opportunity to graduate from college. I graduated from Harvard – but that’s not the achievement, I graduated from Harvard and stayed a Republican.
More on Harvard later…
What many of you may not know is that the New York State Republican Party was where I got my start in politics and public service.
Twenty five years ago, I started off as a high school intern for the NY Republican Party in the historic Albany Headquarters.
Before I could even drive, my mom would drive me from Albany Academy for Girls to State Street and drop me off by myself in my school uniform to help for a few hours. I would stuff envelopes, help answer phones, and draw campaign signs.
I never could have imagined as a 15 year old girl that a mere fifteen years later, I would make history as the youngest woman elected to Congress – flipping a Democrat district to Republican.
Nor could I have ever imagined ten years after that, being honored with this incredible award as the highest ranking Republican elected in New York as Chair of the House Republican Conference.
And while it’s meaningful to look back on the hard work that got us here today, in the spirit of Jack Kemp, I want to look forward to our fight for brighter days ahead.
We say every election cycle that this is the most important election of our lifetime. But this one truly is.
The fate of our country, the fate and stability of the entire world, rests in our hands.
The American people have experienced crisis after crisis of failed Far Left Democrat policies.
Joe Biden’s border crisis – as Governor Abbot talked about earlier – has turned every state into a border state. It’s not only an economic and national security crisis, it is a humanitarian crisis of millions illegally crossing and women and minors getting raped and assaulted.
All because of Joe Biden failed policies.
And we see this border crisis right here in New York with the catastrophic influx of illegal migrants.
Just his week, I was in my district and met with our brave border patrol at the Northern Border and there has been an 800% increase in illegal crossings in the past two years alone.
This would have been unthinkable just four years ago, under Joe Biden, it is now the norm.
President Trump and Republicans will run and we will win on securing the border.
Historic Bidenflation – due to trillions of reckless Democrat spending – is crushing hardworking families facing skyrocketing costs of groceries, utilities, housing, mortgage rates and more.
The majority of the American people believe the American Dream is slipping away for the next generation.
This is not who we are. This should never happen in the United States of America.
The dangerous crime crisis has wreaked havoc on this great city and our entire state.
Kathy Hochul, Eric Adams, Tish James and Democrats in the cesspool of Albany continue to double down on their epically failed bail reform that is causing tragic and irreplaceable loss of life – why? Because they need to cater to the Defund the Police Democrats that are now mainstream in their party.
Our brave NYPD officers have been assaulted, shot, and murdered. As a new mother, who can forget the horrible footage of Jonathan Diller’s young wife – now a widow at 29 – with their precious one year old baby.
How many more Kathy Hochul, Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer?
You are all a disgrace.
Republicans proudly BACK THE BLUE.
And Joe Biden is not just causing these crises at home.
It’s the chaos around the world from a weak President that has emboldened our enemies.
The catastrophic withdrawal of Afghanistan.
Putin invasion’s Ukraine.
And now we see our most precious ally Israel under attack from barbaric Hamas terrorists murdering Israelis – babies, mothers, daughters, brothers, fathers, grandparents.
The bloodiest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.
These terrorists want to erase the state of Israel and the Jewish people off the face of the earth.
And today Joe Biden called for a ceasefire to try to force Israel to surrender to Hamas terrorists.
Republicans will continue to do everything in our power to unequivocally stand with Israel.
And what happened on our so-called most “elite” college campuses after October 7th, their presidents failed to condemn the genocide of Jews or combat the skyrocketing of antisemitism.
Did you all see that hearing?
It is now the most viewed testimony in the history of the United States Congress with over 1 billion views in a week and billions more since then.
I asked a simple moral question: “Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate your university’s code of conduct?”
And one after the other after the other – MIT, Penn, and Harvard presidents said verbatim “it depends on the context.”
It does NOT depend on the context.
Two Down. So many to go.
This hearing set off an earthquake exposing the moral rot and intellectual laziness of today’s woke radical Left that has cratered our once great institutions.
A reckoning is coming and I believe this scandal will prove to be the greatest scandal ever in higher education.
And mark my words, I will not rest until they are all exposed and held accountable. The world is looking for strong moral leadership and these university presidents failed the test.
And amidst all of these crises created by Joe Biden and Democrats’ failed policies, with their polling plummeting…
the illegal weaponization of the justice system against President Donald Trump is an unprecedented and desperate form of election interference.
And it’s Far Left New York Democrats who have been leading this unconstitutional and unethical lawfare against President Trump because they know they can’t beat him at the ballot box.
From corrupt Tish James to unethical judges whose families are profiting off of these illegal witch-hunts.
The latest?
Alvin Bragg’s sham case against President Trump.
The Democrat Manhattan Judge overseeing the trial donated to Biden’s campaign and another anti-Trump cause in 2020.
This judge’s direct family member is a Democrat political operative who is directly profiting off the trial to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.
And the Democrat stenographers in the mainstream media are trying to do everything they can to cover this up and refuse to report on it.
When President Trump raised this additional evidence of the judge’s bias, the judge retaliated by expanding his unconstitutional gag order on Trump.
The Left and the media seeks to silence us because they can’t afford to let the truth be known.
Times are, indeed, dark.
But I have faith in the American people – because the American people are smart.
They see through the unconstitutional abuse of power by today’s Democrat party.
And in this room, we all see the light.
We know that we must keep up the righteous fight to save New York, save America and the American Dream.
It is We The People who will save our great state and save our country.
We the People will never give up on New York, and we will never give up on the United States of America.
And this November, with your help, we will elect President Trump the 45th and 47th President of the United States to Save America.
Thank you for this unbelievable honor.
God Bless You. God Bless New York. And God Bless the United States of America!”
