纽约——不久前，有一段时间，伊莉斯·斯特凡尼克不会说唐纳德·特朗普的名字。
她会说，他只是“我的政党的总统候选人”。这位务实的纽约国会女议员更注重欢迎新一代选民加入她希望更具包容性的共和党。
如今，斯特凡尼克是特朗普在众议院最坚定的捍卫者之一，她对前总统的忠诚——以及他给予的支持——使这位36岁的女性濒临成为国会最有权力的女性之一。人们普遍预计，一旦共和党众议员莉兹·切尼(Liz Cheney，R-Wyo)因直言不讳地批评特朗普而被剥夺领导职务，她将在未来几天成为众议院第三大共和党人。
斯特凡尼克的崛起与她致力于让更多共和党女性进入国会有关，这一努力有助于使众议院共和党2021年第一任期班级成为历史上最多样化的班级之一。但与斯特凡尼克关系密切的人认为，有一个时刻巩固了她的政治转型和在共和党政治中的崛起——而那个时刻与多样性几乎没有关系。
那是2019年11月的一个周四晚上，特朗普的第一次弹劾调查正在国会山进行。斯特凡尼克在委员会听证会上成为了特朗普的主要辩护律师，但那天晚上，她第一次把自己的信息带到了福克斯新闻的肖恩·哈尼蒂。
在抨击民主党弹劾案后，她要求福克斯观众向一个旨在保护她免受越来越多政治攻击的网站捐款。
助手后来在推特上说，在15分钟内，她筹集了25万美元。第二天早上，又有几十万人加入了她的竞选。据直接了解她的行动的人说，她的团队从未见过这样的事情，这些人要求匿名以披露私下讨论。
第二天特朗普上《狐狸和朋友》，夸斯特凡尼克，雪球越滚越大。几周后，当特朗普在白宫活动中点名批评弹劾时，事情变得更加糟糕。
斯特凡尼克在此期间总共筹集了1300多万美元，几乎是她前三次选举筹资总额的两倍。她为共和党候选人额外筹集了200万美元，并组建了她的办公室，现在被描述为212名众议院共和党人中五个最强的捐助者电子邮件名单之一。
她再也没有动摇过对特朗普的支持。
尽管工作人员私下鼓励她在接下来的几周缓和她的信息，斯特凡尼克更倾向于特朗普主义。她的团队开始定期在社交媒体上侮辱批评者和记者。当斯特凡尼克(Stefanik)投票反对认证2020年选举结果时，她的转变就完成了。斯特凡尼克是乔治·布什总统的前白宫助手，也是前众议院议长保罗·瑞安(Paul Ryan)的崇拜者，尽管1月6日有一群暴力暴徒袭击了美国国会大厦。
斯特凡尼克的演变是现代共和党的故事，共和党逐渐相信，权力和筹款成功的道路贯穿特朗普，无论党员是否喜欢他。包括切尼在内的一些共和党人抵制了他的影响，但绝大多数人都顺从了，尽管特朗普继续传播关于2020年选举的同样虚假信息，这些信息引发了1月6日的叛乱。
斯特凡尼克上周在前特朗普助手史蒂夫·班农的“作战室”播客中说，特朗普“一直是任何一位支持宪法的总统的最坚定支持者”。
在同一次采访中，她再次对2020年选举的公正性提出质疑，尽管特朗普政府高级官员和全国各地数十名法官已经质疑对广泛选民欺诈的指控。
那些与斯特凡尼克密切合作的人形容她是一个勤奋、聪明、纪律严明的信使，坚持不懈地追求激励共和党选民和制定辩论条款。
2006年从哈佛大学毕业后，她成为布什政府的政策助理。到2012年总统选举到来时，她已经是一名备受尊敬的政治特工，与共和党机构有着密切的联系。她加入了前明尼苏达州州长蒂姆·波伦蒂(Tim Pawlenty)短暂的总统竞选活动，然后为米特·罗姆尼(Mitt Romney)工作，罗姆尼是该党的总统候选人，对手是民主党现任总统巴拉克·奥巴马(Barack Obama)。
选举结束后，斯特凡尼克从华盛顿搬到了她父母在纽约州北部的家，着眼于民主党人比尔·欧伟博退休后留下的美国众议院席位。在这个被广泛认为是摇摆不定的地区，30岁的斯特凡尼克赢得了比赛，成为当时当选国会议员的最年轻的女性。
她通过一条温和的信息获得了成功，这条信息侧重于为共和党带来新一代选民。
纽约沃特敦前市长杰夫·格雷厄姆记得在选举前一年见过新面孔的斯特凡尼克。他很快成为支持者。
“起初我说，‘她到底是谁?’“我在谷歌上找了一下，找不到很多关于她的信息，”他说尽管她很年轻，但她有着丰富的背景——在布什的白宫，和保罗·瑞安是好朋友。"
在国会的早期，斯特凡尼克赢得了一个勤奋的温和派的声誉，她住在离她所在的地区很近的地方，她所在的地区是纽约州北部的一个广阔的农村地区，东面与佛蒙特州接壤，北面与加拿大接壤。她特别关注鼓堡。
“她把政治放在一边，”萨拉托加县共和党委员会主席卡尔·泽尔曼说。"她知道如何卷起袖子把事情做好。"
面对2016年的第一次连任测试，她不愿意拥抱特朗普。她最初支持俄亥俄州州长约翰·卡西奇竞选总统。
支持俄亥俄州温和派的决定符合她的投票记录。斯特凡尼克在保守的美国传统行动组织(Heritage Action for America)和增长俱乐部(Club for Growth)的终身支持率分别为48%和35%，是众议院共和党人的最低支持率之一。
2016年春末，当特朗普成为共和党的推定总统候选人时，当地媒体指出，她拒绝说出特朗普的名字，只承诺“在秋季支持我党的候选人”。
随着选举的临近，斯特凡尼克变得更加直言不讳地支持特朗普，但她经常提醒选民，她有时不同意他的观点。她形容他在视频中捕捉到的关于性侵女性的言论是“冒犯性的”和“错误的”
特朗普上任后，她对他更加热情。她还成立了一个政治行动委员会，旨在让更多的共和党女性进入国会。她去年秋天的努力得到了广泛的赞扬，当时她支持的30名女性中有18名获胜。
一个是爱荷华州共和党众议员阿什利·辛森，她说自己在选举期间一直与斯特凡尼克保持沟通。除了提供战略指导和道义支持，斯特凡尼克还帮助辛森与她在华盛顿的捐助者和政治联系人网络建立了联系。
辛森说:“就讲述我们是一个由妇女、少数民族和退伍军人组成的政党的故事而言，这是共和党非常重要和关键的一年。”。"伊莉斯在这方面很有一手."
特朗普也印象深刻。
虽然切尼的保守派支持率远高于斯特凡尼克，但特朗普在过去一周称切尼为“一个好战的傻瓜，与共和党领导层毫无关系。”
他在一份书面声明中说:“伊丽莎白·斯特凡尼克是一个非常好的选择，我完全支持她担任共和党大会主席。”"伊莉斯是一个坚强而聪明的沟通者!"
回到纽约北部，长期支持者已经注意到斯特凡尼克的演变。
前沃特敦市长格雷厄姆承认，斯特凡尼克已经变得更加“通快”，但像农村地区的许多其他共和党人一样，他对她的职业轨迹总体上感到满意。
格雷厄姆说:“我们在这里的国会议员在国家舞台上没有多少时间。“我们为其中的大部分感到自豪。”
Stefanik's political evolution mirrors story of today's GOP
NEW YORK -- There was a time, not long ago, when Elise Stefanik would not sayDonald Trump's name.
He was simply “my party's presidential nominee,” she would say. The pragmatic New York congresswoman was far more focused on welcoming a new generation of voters to what she hoped would be a more inclusive Republican Party.
Today, Stefanik is one of Trump's fiercest defenders in the House of Representatives, where her loyalty to the former president — and the support he returned — has carried the 36-year-old to the brink of becoming one of the most powerful women in Congress. She is widely expected to become the third-ranking House Republican in the coming days once Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., is stripped of her leadership post because of her vocal criticism of Trump.
Stefanik's rise is linked to her commitment to bringing more Republican women to Congress, an effort that helped make the House GOP's 2021 first-term class one of the most diverse in history. But those close to Stefanik suggest there is one moment above all that solidified her political transformation and rise in Republican politics — and that moment had little to do with diversity.
It was a Thursday night in November 2019, and Trump's first impeachment inquiry was raging on Capitol Hill. Stefanik had emerged as a leading Trump defender in committee hearings, but on that night, she brought her message to Fox News' Sean Hannity for the first time.
After attacking the Democrats' case for impeachment, she asked Fox viewers to send money to a website designed to protect her from a growing wave of political attacks.
Within 15 minutes, she had raised $250,000, aides later tweeted. Several hundred thousand more flowed into her campaign by the next morning. Her team had never seen anything like it, according to people with direct knowledge of her operation who spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose private discussions.
The snowball grew the next day when Trump went on “Fox and Friends” and praised Stefanik. It grew still more weeks later when Trump singled her out during a White House event as he crowed about beating impeachment.
In total, Stefanik raised more than $13 million over that cycle, almost twice as much as the combined fundraising totals from her previous three elections. She raised an additional $2 million for Republican candidates and assembled what her office now describes as one of the five strongest donor email lists among 212 House Republicans.
She never wavered in supporting Trump again.
Even as staff privately encouraged her to moderate her message in the following weeks, Stefanik leaned harder into Trumpism. Her team began regularly insulting critics and reporters on social media. Her transformation was complete when Stefanik, a former White House aide under President George W. Bush and admirer of former House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., voted against certifying the 2020 election results even after a violent mob stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
Stefanik's evolution is the story of the modern Republican Party, which has come to believe that the path to power and fundraising success runs through Trump, whether party members like him or not. A few Republicans have resisted his influence, including Cheney, but the vast majority has fallen in line even as Trump continues to spread the same disinformation about the 2020 election that inspired the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Trump “has been our strongest supporter of any president when it comes to standing up for the Constitution,” Stefanik said this past week on former Trump aide Steve Bannon's “War Room” podcast.
In the same interview, she again cast doubt about the integrity of the 2020 election, even though allegations about widespread voter fraud have been discredited by senior Trump administration officials and dozens of judges across the country.
Those who have worked closely with Stefanik describe her as a hardworking, smart and disciplined messenger, tenacious in her pursuit of energizing Republican voters and framing the terms of the debate.
She became a policy aide in the Bush White House after graduating from Harvard University in 2006. By the time the 2012 presidential election arrived, she was a well-regarded political operative with strong ties to the Republican establishment. She joined former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s short-lived presidential campaign before going to work for Mitt Romney, the party’s presidential nominee against the Democratic incumbent, Barack Obama.
After the election, Stefanik moved from Washington to her parents’ home in upstate New York with an eye on the U.S. House seat left open by Democrat Bill Owens' retirement. In what was widely considered a swing district, the 30-year-old Stefanik won the race and became the youngest woman, at that time, ever elected to Congress.
She found success with a moderate message focused on bringing a new generation of voters to the Republican Party.
Jeff Graham, the former mayor of Watertown, New York, remembers meeting the fresh-faced Stefanik a year before the election. He quickly became a supporter.
“At first I said, ‘Who the hell is she?’ I went on Google, couldn’t find a lot about her,” he said. “Even though she was young, she had a rich background -- being in the Bush White House and being pals with Paul Ryan."
In her early years in Congress, Stefanik earned a reputation as a studious moderate who stayed close to her district, a massive rural expanse of upstate New York bordered by Vermont to the east and Canada to the north. She paid especially close attention to Fort Drum.
“She put politics aside,” said Carl Zeilman, chairman of the Saratoga County Republican Committee. “She knows how to roll up her sleeves and get things done.”
Facing her first reelection test in 2016, she was reluctant to embrace Trump. She initially backed Ohio Gov. John Kasich's presidential bid.
The decision to support the Ohio moderate was in line with her voting record. Stefanik has a lifetime rating of 48% from the conservative Heritage Action for America and 35% from Club for Growth, among the lowest grades for House Republicans.
In the late spring of 2016, when Trump emerged as the GOP’s presumed presidential nominee, local press noted that she refused to say Trump’s name, promising only to “support my party’s nominee in the fall.”
Stefanik became a more vocal Trump supporter as the election approached, but she regularly reminded voters that she disagreed with him at times. She described his remarks captured on video about sexually assaulting women as “offensive” and “just wrong.”
She warmed to Trump further after he took office. She also started a political action committee, Elevate PAC, designed to bring more Republican women to Congress. She was widely praised for the effort last fall, when 18 of the 30 women she endorsed won.
One was Rep. Ashley Hinson, an Iowa Republican who says she was in constant communication with Stefanik throughout her election. Beyond offering strategic guidance and moral support, Stefanik helped connect Hinson with her network of donors and political contacts in Washington.
“It was an important and very pivotal year for the GOP in terms of telling the story that we were a party of women, minorities and veterans,” Hinson said. “And Elise had a great hand in that.”
Trump was impressed, too.
While Cheney's conservative ratings are far superior to Stefanik's, Trump this past week called Cheney “a warmongering fool who has no business in Republican Party Leadership.”
“Elise Stefanik is a far superior choice, and she has my COMPLETE and TOTAL Endorsement for GOP Conference Chair,” he said in a written statement. “Elise is a tough and smart communicator!”
Back in upstate New York, longtime supporters have noticed Stefanik's evolution.
Graham, the former Watertown mayor, acknowledged that Stefanik has become more “Trumpian,” but like many other Republicans in the rural district, he's generally pleased with the trajectory of her career.
“Our members of Congress up here have not had much time on the national stage," Graham said. “We’re proud of most of it.”
