New York Representative Elise Stefanik once seemed poised for a long career that would win up with her wielding significant power. She blew it and became dependent on Trump’s whims and we all know how that turns out for people. Like so many, Stefanik has looked at the prospects of still being in the majority after the midterms and decided to try to forge her own way again by running for Governor of New York State. A tall task but not a crazy one. Today Stefanik pulled the plug, “suspending” her campaign. She also said she won’t be running to retain her seat in Congress.
Ah, the holidays – just before an election year and primaries. It’s a time for enjoying friend and family, and for some making important decisions regarding the new year that’s just around the corner. If one is lucky enough to have family it’s also time to kick back some and more fully enjoy one of life’s true blessings. I have no doubt some who are fed up with politics actually do miss simple times with family and friends back home. Others are as big assholes in their private lives as their public ones and use “spend more time with family” as an excuse to avoid losing an election. I don’t know which is true for Stefanik and frankly don’t care. She’s decided she’s had enough and the only question I have at this point is whether she’ll serve out her term (as she claims) or do an MTIG and leave early.
That last part isn’t part of what’s covered in this article from CNN explaining Stefanik’s announcement she was done for public life. Well, at least for the foreseeable future. Once considered a ‘moderate’ and sometime critic of Trump she drank the Kool Aid. Hell, a lot of folks on both sides of the aisle (including here on PZ) marveled over her conversion to full on MAGA and Trump supporter. It seemed to pay off, until it didn’t:
Once a critic of President Donald Trump, Stefanik rose to national prominence with her questioning of witnesses during Trump’s first impeachment and became one of his highest-profile supporters on television and on the campaign. She strongly backed his 2024 bid for the White House, urging the party “to unite around the most popular Republican in America.”
Stefanik had moved up the ranks of the party’s House leadership and with Trump’s return to the White House, she was nominated for the position of US ambassador to the United Nations. Her nomination was later pulled as the GOP navigated a narrow majority with Trump saying at the time it was “essential that we maintain EVERY Republican seat in Congress.”
Personally I think she wanted to imitate Nikki Haley but engineer a better outcome. Haley as you recall was supportive of Trump enough to become U.N. Ambassador. Spending most of her time in NYC she managed to avoid most of the cloud of whatever the hell it was that coated the folks serving Trump in DC. Haley had a plan. Punch her foreign policy ticket and combine that with having been a former Governor and then be a minor Party player until Trump was done. Keep her hand in by the odd campaign appearance for him and others in 2020 but she had her eye on last year. Instead of waiting till 2028 she went for it last year and now her career is dead in the water. ETTD.
I’m betting Stefanik who like Haley had (and still does) plenty of years left to mount a national campaign wanted to do what Haley did. Spend a couple of years in a high profile job where she could make all kinds of foreign/diplomatic connections and after a couple of years that she could utilize at the proper time. Then fade away to to away from the spotlight status and step out just often enough to ensure folks remembered her. What I think is that Vance and probably others thought the same thing, and manipulating Trump and Johnson to force her to stay in the House was child’s play.
By the time Stefanik realized what was being done it was too late. Having put in all that work (and it’s a lot) to prepare for her confirmation hearing for the U.N. she wasn’t around the House chamber much. That meant the work her leadership post required, especially with a hapless, weak leader like Johnson wouldn’t get done unless she was replaced! Which of course is exactly what happened. Her grand sendoff got scrapped and she was stuck in the House. The problem was her leadership position had been taken over by GOP Rep. Lisa McClain of Michigan!
Given that, and the unappealing likelihood of being in the minority a year from now it’s easy to see why Stefanik who still had ambitions would seek the Governorship of New York. Hochul should be ok but she’s not a lock. The thing is, Trump either realized she could be another Hailey trying to use him, or someone convinced him that was the case. Either way he decided to let her twist in the wind. After all the loyalty she gave him he refused to endorse her and clear the field (or mostly so) of primary challengers. One could argue he intentionally torpedoed her by cutting off her line of attack against Mamdani:
She entered the New York governor’s race accusing Hochul of not doing enough to reduce costs in the state or fight antisemitism, seeking to link the incumbent to New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who will become the city’s first Muslim mayor.
But Trump wouldn’t endorse Stefanik before or after Blakeman entered the field. And in a chummy Oval Office meeting with Mamdani, Trump declined to agree that Mamdani was a “jihadist” – undercutting a key Stefanik attack line.
“She’s out there campaigning,” Trump told reporters, “and you say things sometimes in a campaign.”
Yep. I think with the holidays and family Stefanik took an honest look at things and accepted that Trump would toy with her but never endorse her. And hell, she can have a pretty good life away from politics. That desire for bigger things, like the Presidency will never fully go away. Lincoln said once the Presidential grub starts to gnaw on a man it will forever dominate him. But leaving Congress means Stefanik will be in the political wilderness and it won’t take long before she’s a sad footnote. Only if she’s lucky will she avoid her name evoking jokes about her flameout.
ETTD Stefanik. I for one don’t feel the least bit sorry for you. You knew better but were so eager to attain great power you tried to take a shortcut by jumping on the Trump Train. Now your career is in tatters, torn up having been run over by that very train and Trump could care less.
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
Given how many devoted sycophants have been shoved under the proverbial bus by Trump, I’m amazed that any remain faithful and hopeful of Trumpian favors. Loyalty with Donald is strictly 1-way, towards himself. A quick trawl through a list of all his cabinet members would be like reading an obituary column. But that’s how it is in tyrannies: the tyrant always wins.