Elise Stefanik’s ascent to Trump administration leaves power-broker void in New York

NEW YORK — An ascendant New York Republican Party that’s made inroads in the Democrat-dominated state will soon have an Elise Stefanik-size hole to fill at its helm.

Stefanik has no formal title in the state’s GOP, but serves as its de facto leader. And the upstate power broker’s expected departure from New York’s political stage will likely pose a challenge for Republicans given her considerable political, fundraising and media prowess.

The woman nominated to become President-elect Donald Trump’s U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is the same one who raised $40 million this year alone for herself and her colleagues, catapulted to national fame for grilling university presidents over antisemitism and rose from the youngest woman elected to Congress in 2014, at age 30, to the House GOP’s fourth-highest ranking member.

Stefanik will face confirmation in the Senate, which will soon be controlled by Republicans. If she’s confirmed, her days of actively politicking will be behind her when she begins a new chapter as a top State Department official bound by Hatch Act rules.

If New York Republicans want to maintain her political momentum — and fend off state Democrats who flipped four House seats this year — they will need to move quickly to assume her mantle.

“We have to pick the ball up and continue the work that she has done and do all that we can do to strengthen our party,” New York State Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt said in an interview, adding that “certain kinds of Republicans come out of New York,” those who are battle-tested by the Democrats outnumbering them.

The political void Stefanik leaves won’t be the only one Republicans have to fill as a result of migrations to the incoming Trump administration. The Florida GOP will have to replace Sen. Marco Rubio, Trump’s pick for secretary of State, and Rep. Matt Gaetz, who resigned his House seat almost immediately after the president-elect chose him to be attorney general. In South Dakota, Gov. Kristi Noem is set to vacate her seat to lead the Department of Homeland Security.

In New York, Stefanik has raised her party’s profile as she’s raised her own — as a prolific fundraiser, through a PAC that focuses on GOP woman candidates and with combative defenses of Trump.

Upstate Rep. Nick Langworthy, a former chair of the state party, and Rep. Claudia Tenney, who also represents upstate, could step into the leadership role Stefanik would leave behind, several New York GOP members told POLITICO. And downstate Reps. Mike Lawler and Nicole Malliotakis, both fixtures on the cable news circuit, could expand their influence in her wake, the members said.

State committee Chair Ed Cox said keeping up the fight would be a team effort. Langworthy, Tenney, Lawler and Malliotakis are “common-sense legislators” who boost Republicans — and strong county and state parties lend to the effort, he said in an interview.

Stefanik, who represents a swath of upstate New York that extends from the Canadian border to just south of Albany, will by no means be erased from the Empire State’s political firmament. If anything, she’s expected to lift her home state GOP from the outside — even though she’ll be severely limited in what she can do.

“Her success in the U.N., addressing antisemitism, like she’s done against college presidents, does more for our party in dragging our candidates across the finish line than anything she can do politically,” New York City Council Minority Leader Joe Borelli told POLITICO. “Showing New York voters what Republican success looks like and what Republican strength looks like does more for us than anything she’s done before.”

Hatch Act rules dictate that as a government employee, Stefanik could not fundraise and would be permitted to give political speeches only in a personal capacity, according to ethics expert Richard Painter, who served as an official in President George W. Bush’s administration.

“We don’t want to have a repeat of this situation we had with Secretary of State [Mike] Pompeo giving that speech to the RNC convention, zooming in from the Wailing Wall,” Painter told POLITICO.

Stefanik is a fierce critic of the U.N., who has called for a “complete reassessment of U.S. funding” to the entity. The House member accepted Trump’s nomination with praise for the incoming president and said in a statement, “The work ahead is immense as we see antisemitism skyrocketing coupled with four years of catastrophically weak U.S. leadership that significantly weakened our national security and diminished our standing in the eyes of both allies and adversaries.”

Stefanik isn’t the only one who’s leaving the New York GOP political apparatus for Trump. The president-elect also tapped former Long Island House member Lee Zeldin to leadthe EPA. Zeldin had come within 6 points of unseating Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2022, a good year for New York Republicans — and one when they also turned four New York House seats red.

Stefanik and Zeldin were a visible, vocal presence this election year around the state and country. Both are deeply loyal Trump allies, and both voted to overturn the 2020 election results.

Their colleagues expressed pride in having fellow New Yorkers serve in the Trump administration, even as some said the country’s gain could be the state’s loss.

“As New Yorkers, they know how to fight in the toughest of circumstances,” Langworthy said. “And they are going to be instrumental in executing his vision for a strong America, both here at home and on the world stage.”

Langworthy and Tenney didn’t comment on their names being floated as Stefanik’s political successors in New York.

Separately, several Republicans are mulling whether to throw their hat in the ring for the special election for Stefanik’s upstate seat — which would be held between 70 and 90 days after Hochul is formally notified there will be a vacancy. The district is deemed safely Republican, but Democrats will make a play, considering the slim margin in the House.

Potential GOP candidates include outgoing Reps. Marc Molinaro and Brandon Williams, who lost reelection bids earlier this week to Josh Riley and John Mannion, respectively. State Assembly members Chris Tague and Robert Smullen, state Sen. Dan Stec and Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin are also viewed as possible contenders.

Stefanik’s colleagues widely credit her for leading the charge to flip New York seats over the years, and they won’t have her coattails to ride at a time when the state is on its way to becoming a battleground.

“We’ll fill the void and do what we can to keep electing strong Republicans throughout the state,” Malliotakis of Staten Island said in an interview, pointing to recent state Senate and Assembly victories. “We’ll identify who wants to run and help get them elected to fight the one-party rule.”

Republicans in New York stressed Stefanik may still advise colleagues and act in a personal capacity that steers clear of Hatch Act violations and perceived conflicts of interest.

And they said they’ll figure out the rest quickly.

“We have a cohesive delegation, and I think we’ll all pick up the slack and work cohesively together to do that,” Lawler said in an interview.

One of the next big tasks for New York Republicans?

Prepping and nominating a GOP challenger to Hochul in 2026 who could succeed where Zeldin nearly did in 2022. Lawler is on that short list.