In devotion to Trump, House GOP elevates Stefanik to its No. 3 post
WASHINGTON — House Republicans elevated Rep. Elise Stefanik to a leadership post Friday, highlighting how the party whose lodestar has long been conservative policies increasingly views allegiance to Donald Trump as its indispensable key to electoral success.
Stefanik, a Trump stalwart from upstate New York, was elected to the No. 3 leadership job that until this week belonged to Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming. Republicans tossed Cheney from that post for continually calling out Trump for helping spur the violent Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection and relentlessly pushing his false claims that voting fraud caused his November reelection defeat.
Local officials and judges from both parties around the country have declared there is no evidence Trump was cheated out of a win.
Stefanik easily defeated Rep. Chip Roy of Texas in a 134-46 secret ballot that gave GOP lawmakers a distinct choice about where to steer the party.
Stefanik has a moderate voting record but strong backing from Trump and other party leaders, including some conservatives, while Roy is in the hard-right House Freedom Caucus and was actively opposed by the former president.
In remarks to reporters after her victory, Stefanik underscored how the twice-impeached Trump’s clout within the GOP remains potent, a rarity for a defeated former president. Polling shows strong Trump loyalty among Republican voters, giving party leaders little incentive to ostracize him.
“Voters determine the leader of the Republican Party, and President Trump is the leader that they look to,” said Stefanik, 36. “He is an important voice in the Republican Party and we look forward to working with him.”
Republicans hope Stefanik will help shift attention from their acrimonious purge of the defiant Cheney, and toward their drive to win House control in the 2022 elections.
A Trump loyalist who has stood by some of his unfounded claims about widespread election cheating, Stefanik’s elevation gives the GOP a fresh spokesperson who is one of the party’s relative handful of women in Congress.
“We are unified working as one team,” she said.
Stefanik has told colleagues she’ll serve in leadership only through next year, then try taking the top GOP spot on the influential House Education and Labor Committee. Her plans were described last week by a Republican lawmaker and an aide who discussed them only on condition of anonymity.
She was a Trump critic during his 2016 campaign, calling his videotaped comments on sexually assaulting women “just wrong” and at times avoiding stating his name.
She sprang to Trump’s attention by defending him in 2019 during his first impeachment over his efforts to pressure Ukraine to produce political dirt on Joe Biden, a Democratic presidential contender at the time.
She’s remained a Trump booster. Hours after the Capitol attack, she voted against formally approving Pennsylvania’s state-certified electoral votes for Biden.
Trump issued a statement Friday congratulating Stefanik, saying, “The House GOP is united and the Make America Great Again movement is Strong!”