The Cautionary Tale of Elise Stefanik
The New York Congresswoman learned what happens when you pledge loyalty to a man for whom loyalty only goes one way.
Elsie Stefanik had it all.
Stefanik had a privileged journey through the ranks of the Republican Party. Bush staffer. Romney campaign. When she was elected to Congress at the age of 30 in 2014, it seemed like the latest step in a career trajectory that seemed pre-ordained.
When she was elected, no office was not open to Stefanik in her political future.
And then Donald Trump happened.
Despite being a more mainstream Republican in her early career and in her first term in Congress, she became more and more aligned with the populist wing of the GOP. The voters who elected her began to wonder what happened to the Elise Stefanik they elected.
Things have changed for Stefanik, who now embraces a bad president to safeguard her job. She no longer gets flustered by tough questions — mostly, she doesn’t give anyone the chance to ask them. Instead, she parrots the Trump line on Fox News and lets her attack-dog spokesman argue with reporters on Twitter.
If her integrity has been sacrificed, that isn’t worth a shrug. She calls for the whistleblower to be outed and avoids talking about the way Trump held military aid to Ukraine hostage to his demand for an investigation of Joe Biden.
She will differ with Trump’s policies here and there. But when it comes to critical questions of presidential character and patriotism and job performance, she is a loyal mouthpiece for Trump’s talking points.
That was five years ago. And what did Stefanik get for her thirty pieces of silver?
She received Trump’s endorsement for House Republican Conference Chair when Republicans decided to kick Liz Cheney to the curb;
Trump nominated her to be the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. Then he pulled the rug on her four days before her confirmation vote, saying that he needed her vote in Congress;
Last month Stefanik announced she was running for Governor of New York. An even Trumpier candidate got into the race and, to repay the loyalty that Stefanik gave to him, Donald Trump refused to even endorse her in the race.
Ms. Stefanik’s shoddy treatment by the president amounted to karmic comeuppance for a Republican lawmaker who came to Congress as a Harvard-educated moderate but tacked unapologetically to the MAGA right when it suited her political purposes.
So is it any wonder that Stefanik decided that she was leaving political life today?
She had it all. She had a safe seat. She had upward mobility. The Presidency was not out of Stefanik’s reach. Instead, she sold her soul to Donald Trump. She pledged loyalty to a man for whom loyalty only goes one way. And after being screwed over by her allies more than a few times, she decided that enough was enough and became the 43rd member of the House of Representatives to announce they are leaving the House this year.
Stefanik’s story is a sad morality play about what happens when you sell your principles in exchange for short-term political expediency. Stefanik shows us all that the price to pay for supporting Trump and his agenda is steep and never worth the perceived reward.
Never go full MAGA…