About
Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2015, representing New York’s 21st Congressional District. She ran for reelection in 2022 with Trump’s endorsement and won.
After a degree at Harvard, Stefanik worked in the George W. Bush administration for the chief of staff and as part of the Domestic Policy Council. Prior to her election to Congress, she served as the director of vice presidential debate prep for former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and as director of communications for the Foreign Policy Initiative.
During her tenure in Congress, Stefanik has been an outspoken Trump loyalist. In May 2021, she called him the “strongest supporter of any president when it comes to standing up for the Constitution.” Stefanik worked to reinforce their relationship through the effort to oust Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) from her House Conference Chairwoman position once she voted to impeach the former president and hold him accountable for the insurrection. In January 2022, Trump rewarded Stefanik’s loyalty by proclaiming that she will be president in 2028.
Stefanik’s unrelenting support for Trump also led her to become one of the most vocal proponents of the Big Lie. She has repeatedly given interviews with right-wing media outlets to make baseless accusations of irregularities with voting machines and accuse state officials of illegally tampering with ballots. Stefanik has defended her decision to reject certification of Biden’s Electoral College win more than a year after the insurrection and blocked any meaningful effort to investigate the many paths Trump took to try to overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election.
January 6, 2021
- Just hours after Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, Stefanik joined 146 other congressional Republicans in refusing to certify Biden’s win of the 2020 presidential election.
- Stefanik voted against impeaching Trump for his role in inciting the attack on Congress and the Capitol, and for fanning the flames once the riot broke out. In a prepared statement, she called the proceedings “a partisan ploy with no basis in the Constitution” and added: “The Democrats’ decision to impeach the President with one week remaining in his term further fuels the divisions in the country during this very trying time.”
- Stefanik voted against establishing a House committee to investigate the genesis of the violent assault that disrupted congressional proceedings underway that day. She dismissed the committee concept as “political theater” and questioned why Democrats didn’t investigate other instances of “violence that happened all 2020.”
- A year after the insurrection, Stefanik released a statement that said, “I stand by my objection to the electors of certain states based on the unconstitutional overreach by unelected state officials and judges ignoring state election laws.”
The Big Lie
- In a Dec. 1, 2020 Newsmax interview, Stefanik vaguely claimed that there were “irregularities” with Dominion voting machines that helped swing the election in Biden’s favor.
- On Dec. 10, 2020, Stefanik signed an amicus brief in the Texas v. Pennsylvania lawsuit asking the Supreme Court to consider overturning the results of the presidential election. In an interview with Newsmax, she said, “This lawsuit was not about overturning the election. It was about standing up for the Constitution and protecting election integrity and election security.”
- On Jan. 4, 2021, in announcing her intention to oppose certification of the 2020 Electoral College results, Stefanik said that “tens of millions of Americans are rightly concerned that the 2020 election featured unprecedented voting irregularities.”
- Speaking on the House floor once congressional proceedings resumed after the mob attack on Jan. 6, Stefanik doubled down on the need to reject certification of Electoral College votes from several states. During her remarks, she focused on state election officials in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere who she claims made illegal changes to election procedures.
- As she was speaking on the House floor on Jan. 6, 2021, Stefanik claimed—without providing any evidence—that “more than 140,000 votes came from underage, deceased, and otherwise unauthorized voters—in Fulton County alone.”
- When the Harvard Kennedy School of Government removed Stefanik from a senior advisory committee for repeatedly disseminating lies about the 2020 election, she responded by saying that “the decision by Harvard’s administration to cower and cave to the woke Left will continue to erode diversity of thought, public discourse, and ultimately the student experience.”
- In August 2021, Stefanik sent a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) demanding that she not force a vote on H.R. 4, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which she dismissed as “another partisan power grab aimed at instituting dangerous voting measures to solidify Democrat power in Washington.” The NAACP called H.R. 4 a much needed restoration of the Voting Rights Act.
Election Audits
- Stefanik backed an election audit in Arizona, saying, “We want transparency and answers for the American people. What are the Democrats so afraid of?” She later blamed the Department of Justice for trying to block an audit by state officials in Arizona.
Top contributors for the 2024 election cycle.
The organizations themselves did not donate, rather the money came from the organization's PAC, its individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals' immediate families.
| Organization Name | Total | PACs | Individuals |
|---|---|---|---|
| American Israel Public Affairs Cmte | $209,344.00 | $5,000.00 | $204,344.00 |
| Apollo Global Management | $29,400.00 | $0.00 | $29,400.00 |
| Andreessen Horowitz | $19,800.00 | $0.00 | $19,800.00 |
| Cassidy Organization | $19,800.00 | $0.00 | $19,800.00 |
| Nextgen Management | $19,800.00 | $0.00 | $19,800.00 |
| Vmar Dev LLC | $19,800.00 | $0.00 | $19,800.00 |
| NorPAC | $18,988.00 | $0.00 | $18,988.00 |
| Goldman Sachs | $17,500.00 | $0.00 | $17,500.00 |
| Corning Inc | $16,951.00 | $10,000.00 | $6,951.00 |
| Apollo Management | $15,200.00 | $0.00 | $15,200.00 |