AMSTERDAM, NY – The event, hard on the Mohawk River, is a meet and greet opportunity for some of New York’s most notable Republican candidates. But Representative Elise Stefanik’s focus has clearly extended far beyond her re-election bid.
“We are seeing the results of one Democratic rule both in Albany and in Washington, and it has created crisis, after crisis, after crisis,” Ms. Stefanik said. , with attacks on House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and others Democrats are drawing the biggest accolades.
“Bad ideas started in Albany, often coming to Washington,” she added.
Stefanik, chair of the House Republican Conference, is at the forefront of pushing her party to regain control of Congress, and she believes New York – a longtime Democrat – can leader. She predicts that Republicans will win 15 out of 26 seats in the State House of Representatives.
And her efforts in New York – appearing at fundraisers and press conferences across the state – were predicated on a message that New York’s Rockefeller-era Republicanism, with its dovish point on social issues under financial and budgetary austerity, has ended.
“America First is here to stay, and parties are not decided by political leaders, they are decided by the people,” said Stefanik, 38.
Indeed, among the state’s eight Republican members current congressional delegationonly one, Representative John Katko of central New York, is generally considered a consistent moderate, and he will retire, a decision the former president has welcomed with glee.
“Great news,” former President Donald J. Trump said after Katko announced he would not run for office in 2022. “Someone else bit the dust.”
Party veterans – who haven’t won a statewide race in two decades – say leaving Rockefeller Republicans is part of a larger shift, as Republicans moderates from urban areas left and party loyalties increasingly began to be found in more conservative, rural areas.
“A lot of the Republican establishment, part of that movement, has left the state,” said former congressman Tom Reed, a Republican who served as president of the Bipartisan Problem Solving Organization and resigned last spring from an area that includes the state’s Southern Tier. “They’re just not there anymore.”
Others were even more blunt about the state of the Rockefeller model.
“It’s over,” said Al D’Amato, a former Republican senator from New York. “It’s over.”
The shift in the Republican Party echoes Stefanik’s political career.
As a Harvard-trained striver from upstate New York, Stefanik has Youngest woman ever elected to Congress in 2014is running as a moderate in a county that was previously represented by Representative Bill Owens, a centrist Democrat.
She rose rapidly through the ranks of the bank shortly after Mr. Trump was elected president in 2016 and quickly received his approval after she staunchly defended him during his first impeachment hearing.
By May 2021, she had effectively ousted Representative Liz Cheney to become chair of the House Republican Conference, making her the third highest-ranking Republican on that panel. She vote against certifying the vote confirming President Biden’s victory and now describe her as “Ultra MAGA” and “proud of it”. “
If, as predicted, Stefanik wins a fifth term next month, she will be the most senior member of the state’s Republican delegation. She is also the first New Yorker to hold a leadership position in the Republican Party since Representative Tom Reynolds, from western New York, served as chair of the Republican National Congressional Committee from 2003 to 2005. 2006. And she proved a strong draw for donors, raising more than $10 million, often small dollars, for congressional and committee races across the country, according to her campaign, while giving money to conservative candidates from Rhode Island to California.
Her influence on candidates has been seen across the state, with candidates in races on Long Island trumpet and fundraising from Ms. Stefanik .’s endorsementincluding Nicholas J. LaLota, a former Navy lieutenant who was running into Mr. Zeldin’s place, and George Santosa financier attended the January 6 rally and is running for the third congressional district.
With New York the potential is a battlefield to control the houseStefanik’s efforts have also been supported by national party leaders: At a September fundraiser in Washington, DC, for Mike Lawler, who is trying to remove Representative Sean Patrick Maloney, chairman. Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, she appeared alongside Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader in the House.
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In early October, Stefanik also co-hosted a $1,000-a-ticket reception at the Women’s National Republican Club in Manhattan, along with Representative Tom Emmer, Chairman of the Republican Congressional Committee. Republic of the Nation, raising more than $120,000 for seven of the state’s states. Republican congressional candidates.
Her main campaign committee – Elise for Congress, now home to 3 million dollar bank account – has also been given regularly to other congressional candidates across New York, as well as to district committees and small-scale races such as district judges. She also leads the Elise Victory Fund (a joint fundraising committee) and E-Pac, which works to elect female Republicans.
That kind of interest, as well as her outspoken appearances on conservative cable shows and her constant criticism of President Biden and Democratic Party policies, have made Ms. one of the few Republican monarchs in New York, equal to Mr. Trump and before that, Mr. D’Amato.
“She’s one of the coolest rock stars we’ve had,” said lead lead Sally Hogan. a Republican women’s organization in the Capital Region expressed “100% support” for Mr. Trump. “She supports women and Republican values.”
Acceptance of Trumpism is not complete among Republicans in New York. Representative Andrew Garbarino of Long Island, and a pair of competing Hudson Valley candidates, Mr Lawler and Marc Molinaro, took up a number of center positions, while Staten Island Representative Nicole Malliotakis — who is rematching Max Rose, a former Democratic congressman — has expressed support for new gun laws and abortion rights, while remaining a staunch Trump supporter.
And there are Republicans who still identify with the Rockefeller era, including Mr. Katko, the soon-to-be retired congressman who espouses a bipartisan philosophy, and has one in 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Mr. Trump in 2021.
“My bread and butter always assumed the other side was not the enemy,” he said in an interview earlier this fall. “The Democrats love the country as much as we do. They just have a different approach.”
Another New York Republican who is not a party fundamentalist – Representative Chris Jacobs – will also retire, after apply gun control policies after a racist massacre in Buffalo, bordering his county in western New York.
Mr. Jacobs’ decision earned Stefanik the somewhat surprising endorsement of Carl Paladino, a Buffalo developer and former governor candidate with a long history of racist slurs. and sexist, in the June primaries to fill that seat. (Among other remarks, Mr. Paladino, who lost to Andrew Cuomo in the 2010 gubernatorial race, commented that Hitler was “the kind of leader we need today. “)
Mr. Paladino’s endorsement shows that Ms. Stefanik is willing to take on the status quo in the state party: Mr. Paladino’s opponent is Nick Langworthy, the party’s chairman, who has been ousted by one of Ms. Stefanik’s top aides, who has called on him to attack. resignation. Mr. Langworthy countered, accused Ms. Stefanik of being a “peddler.” She didn’t back down, lending Mr. Paladino staff during his first campaign.
He didn’t winalthough he has continued to criticize Mr Langworthy, calling him a “nightmare” for the state party in a recent interview, while paying tribute to Ms Stefanik.
“She is very bright. She’s got that in the North Country for her: She’s very down-to-earth and authentic,” said Mr. Paladino. “And yes, she helped me and I am so grateful for that and all the help she has sent me. I cannot say enough good things about her.”
Mr Langworthy, who is expected to be elected to Parliament next month, declined to comment on Mr Paladino or Ms Stefanik, for his part, saying the feud was resolved. “We haven’t spoken to Mr. Langworthy yet,” but we are working very well with the New York GOP.”
Jay Jacobs, the Democratic chairman, said that Stefanik’s predictions of a “red tsunami” were overblown. Mr Jacobs said: “My advice to the congresswoman is, ‘Don’t count your chickens until they’ve hatched. “A lot can happen in the last 10 days of any campaign, especially because that’s when most voters really start to notice.”
In her own race, Stefanik, who lives in Schuylerville, in Saratoga County, NY, is expected to have the upper hand in Congressional District 21, a giant Republican district that includes all or part of it. of 15 counties in upstate New York. Her rival is Matt Castelli, a former CIA counterterrorism officer who attacks Stefanik for the very ambition that made her famous, and claims that it comes at a heavy cost to those involved. family.
“She sold all of her territory to advance her career and that was easily transparent to voters across the political spectrum,” said Mr. Castelli, 41. speak. “And people are really turned off by it.”
Mr. Castelli, a first-time candidate and Democrat, establishment of a third-party line – Moderate Party – to appeal to voters who might have been stymied by Ms. Stefanik’s total acceptance of Trumpism, and he raised over $1 million between July and September, a stretch that He said he’s been helped by sponsors across the country who understand the “stake of this particular race. “
“I have argued that this is the front line in the battle for the soul of America, because no person on the ballot this November can represent the ongoing threat to our democracy. us, rather than Elise Stefanik,” he said.
Ms. Stefanik insists she is not a pure party member, noting her work on northern border issues as well as veterans issues, as part of her role on House Armed Services Committee. “It harms the media that they don’t want to focus on that,” she said.
At the same time, she reminded voters at the recent meet and greet in Amsterdam of her prominence in Republican circles, which she said “gives this area a seats at the top level”.
“And I will never apologize for that,” she said. “You deserve more than a bad guy.”
Nicholas Fandos contributed reporting.
