November 6th, 2024
By North Country Now Staff
Rep. Elise Stefanik easily won re-election to her sixth term representing the 21st Congressional district on Tuesday.
With 521 of 571 election districts reporting in the 15-county district, the Republican had received 208,787 votes by shortly after midnight on Wednesday, compared with 126,345 for her Democratic opponent, Paula Collins.
In St. Lawrence County, 25,497 voted in favor of Stefanik, while 16,598 cast ballots for Collins.
There are 492,2732 registered voters in the 21st Congressional district that includes all or parts of St. Lawrence, Jefferson, Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Jefferson, Herkimer, Lewis, Montgomery, Oneida, Saratoga, Warren, Schoharie and Washington counties.
As chair of the House Republican Conference since 2021, Stefanik is the fourth-ranking House Republican. She has backing from Donald Trump supporters and was at one time on the short list as a potential vice presidential candidate.
During the campaign, Stefanik said she is ”focused on lowering inflation, securing the border including increasing resources for our Northern border, supporting local small businesses and agriculture, standing with law enforcement, and as the chief advocate for Fort Drum soldiers and military families as well as our local veterans.”
She champions the pro-life movement and opposes the use of federal dollars to fund abortions, has blamed the Biden administration for the influx of migrants, and is against a single-payer healthcare system or expanding Medicare.
Stefanik was 30 when first elected to the House in 2014, the youngest woman elected to Congress at the time.
Collins is a downstate cannabis tax attorney and former special education teacher who rented a residence in DeKalb while undertaking the campaign.
She says her views are very much in line with that of Presidential hopeful Kamala Harris.
Collins said Stefanik has had five terms to improve the lives of North Country residents and it’s time to give someone else a chance.
She advocates fighting back against the anti-abortion movement, revisiting the bipartisan federal immigration bill that failed to pass by one vote, and moving towards a single-payer health care system to lower costs.
