Who is Elise Stefanik? Everything about the GOP Congresswoman rumored to be a potential Vice President candidate

New York’s 21st District representative, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, is rumored to be Donald Trump's potential Vice President candidate. As Trump successfully stomps into the forefront of the GOP presidential nomination with a seemingly unsurmountable lead, the question becomes who his running mate is, and Stefanik seems to be the popular answer.

Stefanik, also the House GOP chairwoman, announced on X that she would join former president Donald Trump's campaign trail in New Hampshire and said she was looking forward to the rally on Friday, January 19. NBC News cited a few Trump associates and former administration officials who all cited instances where the former president has shown his favourability of Elise Stefanik.

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Elise Stefanik and her loyalty to Donald Trump

Congresswoman Elise Stefanik had taken the spotlight after her fiery argument about the rise of antisemitic sentiments on college campuses in a hearing last month. The hearing and Stefanik's arguments led to extreme backlash towards the University of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard presidents.

University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill stepped down from her position only a few days after the hearing. Later, on January 2, Harvard President Claudine Gay announced her resignation. Stefanik took credit for the stepping down of both Presidents. She proudly wrote on X, "TWO DOWN".

Elise Stefanik on the resignation of the Harvard president (Image via X/@EliseStefanik)

Now, all eyes are on Stefanik again as she is being touted as the potential running mate to GOP presidential candidacy frontrunner and former United States president Donald Trump. This comes after she announced on X that she would join Trump's New Hampshire campaign trail.

Congresswoman Elise Stefanik is the elected representative for New York’s 21st District and serves her fifth term. She also holds the position of the House Republican Conference Chair. Stefanik's official website touts her as the "most senior Republican in New York."

Stefanik was only 30 years old when she was first elected to the House in 2014, which gave her the distinction of being the youngest woman elected to Congress in the history of the United States. This record was later broken by Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, elected to represent New York's 14th congressional District at 29.

A New York native, she reportedly worked at her family's "small" business before her rise in Congress. She graduated from the Albany Academy for Girls and, later, Harvard in 2006 with a Bachelor of Arts. She served on George W. Bush’s Domestic Policy Council Staff from 2006 to 2009.

However, Stefanik was not always the firebrand extreme right-wing representative she is today. She had even worked in the failed Mitt Romney 2012 election campaign as a moderate Republican before rebranding and becoming a tour-de-force for Donald Trump.

Self-professed as "one of the most effective and bipartisan Members of Congress," not only is Elise an Armed Services Committee senior member, but she is also a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, and the Committee on Education and Labor.

More important than that, in this context, is the known fact that Elise Stefanik is a fiercely loyal Trump supporter. She was a part of the 2019 impeachment defense team and even provided ample backing in Donald Trump's allegedly misguided crusade to overturn the 2020 election. She recently filed a judicial misconduct case against Judge Beryl Howell, who oversaw the Trump indictment case.

When NBC News asked Stefanik about her VP aspirations, she simply said,

"I’m not going to get into any of my conversations with President Trump. I’m honored to call him a friend. I’m proud to be the first member of Congress to have endorsed his re-election, and he had a huge win in Iowa. So we’re very excited about that."

However, she did say in an NBC Meet the Press interview,

"Well, I, of course, would be honored to serve in any capacity in a Trump administration."

Stefanik's loyalty has also not gone unnoticed by Trump as an NBC source cited that while talking about Stefanik as a potential VP, at a Mar-a-Lago members dinner in December, the former president remarked that she was "a killer." Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon said that Stefanik was "at the top" of the list of potential candidates. Another CNN source who attended a 2022 point fundraising committee event at Briarcliff Manor told the outlet,

"What Trump has consistently remarked about is how good she’d (Elise Stefanik) be as a VP."

Conservative political consultant Roger Stone told the outlet,

"Any shortlist in my opinion should include Elise Stefanik."

He added,

"She’s demonstrated her courage and her leadership qualities. But it’s also very, very early in the process."

Apart from the VP position, According to New York State Conservative Party chairman Gerry Kassar, Donald Trump even said in a Mar-a-Lago fundraiser a couple of years ago that Elise Stefanik could even be the next president, post-2024.