Elise Stefanik, Reinvented in Trump’s Image, Embodies a Changed G.O.P.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — On the second ground of an upscale golf resort close to Jacksonville this previous week, Home Republicans gathered for drinks as they kicked off a three-day retreat to plot their path to profitable the bulk on this yr’s midterm elections.

Consultant Jim Jordan of Ohio, dressed down in a fleece vest, stood in a single nook whereas Consultant Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia hustled out and in of the reception space. But it surely was Consultant Elise Stefanik of New York, the No. 3 Republican and an architect of the get together’s message, who was working the present, working the room together with her 7-month-old son on her hip.

A yr in the past, the identical Home Republican retreat was fraught with drama as Consultant Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who then held the third-ranking management submit, publicly denounced former President Donald J. Trump’s election lies. That prompted a backlash from different Republican leaders, who swiftly moved to oust her and set up Ms. Stefanik in her place.

This yr, with Ms. Stefanik appearing because the occasion’s organizer and M.C., there was little dissent on show. Inflation, immigration and President Biden’s failures had been performed up, whereas Mr. Trump’s false claims of fraud within the 2020 election and his denial of any duty for the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol didn’t even advantage a point out — a mark of how totally the get together has rallied across the former president.

That Ms. Stefanik, 37, can be internet hosting this explicit get together appeared becoming. A once-moderate Republican who labored in President George W. Bush’s White Home and was a protégé of former Speaker Paul D. Ryan, she is the embodiment of the fast shift within the Republican Celebration. In only a few quick years, she has morphed from the conservative mainstream into an unlikely star of the MAGA universe and a die-hard Trump loyalist.

In an interview on the sidelines of the get together retreat, her reinvention was on vivid show. Ms. Stefanik repeated Mr. Trump’s lies concerning the 2020 election being stolen and refused to acknowledge Mr. Biden because the legitimately elected president.

“Joe Biden is within the White Home proper now — the American individuals perceive that — however they do have questions,” she stated in between a lunch with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a dinner with the creator of a ebook referred to as “Woke, Inc.”

“In my district, I nonetheless get questions on it,” Ms. Stefanik stated, including, “I feel there are constitutional questions on the unconstitutional overreach of unelected people in states like Pennsylvania.”

And as her get together veers towards extremism, Ms. Stefanik refused to sentence the Republicans who converse most loudly to the perimeter. Requested about Ms. Greene, who just lately spoke at a white nationalist occasion, and Consultant Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, who has referred to as President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine a “thug,” she stated the 2 had been merely reflecting the views of the voters of their districts.

“They characterize their constituents, and they’re held accountable for the statements they make,” Ms. Stefanik stated, noting the Home Republican convention as an entire didn’t share their views.

It has been a fast transformation. Ms. Stefanik, who graduated from Harvard, was as soon as seen by Democrats as a vibrant spot within the Republican Celebration, somebody who was going to dig into coverage points on the Home Intelligence Committee, which she joined in 2017.

In personal conversations, Ms. Stefanik typically conceded to former colleagues and confidants that Mr. Trump was a catastrophe for the get together, although she stated she didn’t see an upside to publicly criticizing him. She vented to confidants that the administration made “dumb” selections that left Republicans in Congress shouldering the blame — annoyed, for instance, at Mr. Trump’s on-again, off-again backing of sweeping immigration laws to grant authorized standing to unauthorized immigrants delivered to the USA as youngsters, usually often known as Dreamers.

(A senior adviser to Ms. Stefanik, Alex deGrasse, stated she by no means made these feedback about Mr. Trump and his administration.)

However lately, Ms. Stefanik is a loud and unapologetic Trump acolyte, even defending his reward of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. (“I feel that President Trump was saying that Vladimir Putin assessed the weak point of Joe Biden, and sadly took benefit of it,” she stated, noting that Mr. Putin was a battle felony.)

Whereas some Republicans have tried to stroll a cautious tightrope, supporting Mr. Trump’s insurance policies whereas distancing themselves from his false claims concerning the stolen election, Ms. Stefanik makes no such {qualifications}.

“I converse to President Trump incessantly,” she stated. “He’s an extremely necessary voice when it comes to rising the get together among the many working class.” Requested whether or not Mr. Trump’s affect on her get together was on the wane, she flatly rejected the notion.

“No, it’s on the rise,” she stated. “Particularly now that voters have regrets about voting for Joe Biden.”

Ms. Stefanik, who beforehand stated she would serve just one time period in management, is on the rise herself inside her get together’s ranks. She may lead a robust Home committee or throw her hat within the ring in what is anticipated to be a aggressive race for whip. A part of her success in management, aides stated, is predicated on her effort to assist elect extra Republican girls to Congress via her political motion committee, which has additionally helped her construct a community of help in her convention.

She has labored exhausting to win over detractors who query her conservative bona fides and is now broadly widespread amongst Republicans, together with right-wing members who had been as soon as suspicious of her mainstream background. The most important assist in that effort has been the help of Mr. Trump, who doesn’t care about her extra centrist previous when she has proven him whole fealty.

Mr. Trump, individuals near him stated, can be more than pleased to see Ms. Stefanik make historical past because the Republicans’ first feminine speaker, though he doesn’t plan to get entangled within the race for the submit and can be unlikely to face in the best way of Consultant Kevin McCarthy of California, the minority chief, if Republicans reach profitable again the Home majority. However his fixed reward of Ms. Stefanik serves as a reminder that she has handed a loyalty check with Mr. Trump that Mr. McCarthy has not.

Mr. Trump speaks with Ms. Stefanik a number of occasions per week and describes her as “considered one of my killers,” because of her key position as his chief defender on the Home Intelligence Committee throughout his first impeachment trial.

Her opportunism is criticized by her detractors, however celebrated by some on the exhausting proper, who suppose she has revealed herself as somebody prepared to go to any size to rise.

At a current fund-raiser in Palm Seashore, Mr. Trump even floated her title as a possible presidential candidate in 2028.

“I’m not going to even have interaction in that,” she stated when requested about her future in Home management. “I’m supporting Kevin McCarthy for speaker. I don’t measure the drapes. It’s a very long time between now and the November election.”

(In search of to downplay any trace of rivalry, Ms. Stefanik’s aides famous that Mr. McCarthy not solely attended her wedding ceremony in 2017, but in addition campaigned for her at a biker bar in upstate New York throughout her first race. )

Her political metamorphosis has include heady rewards for an formidable politician: a prime-time talking slot on the Republican Nationwide Conference in 2020 and a jet-fueled rise within the ranks of her get together.

“Congress has gotten more durable and rougher,” stated Consultant Tom Cole, Republican of Oklahoma. “She didn’t begin that. She’s confirmed she is aware of the best way to combine it up, and that’s one of many qualities we search for in a convention.”

However Ms. Stefanik’s political calculation surprised the networks she had spent her life cultivating. She misplaced a lot of her school associates from Harvard and was requested to step apart from her position on the senior advisory committee of the college’s Institute of Politics due to her false assertions of voter fraud within the 2020 election.

Her onetime mentor Mr. Ryan declined to remark about her for this text, though aides to each stated they had been nonetheless in contact usually.

Many associates and former colleagues suppose she made a cynical, short-term political gamble in her full-bore flip to Trumpism. Some have tried to warn her at varied factors alongside the highway, however acquired a stony response.

Melissa DeRosa, a childhood buddy of Ms. Stefanik’s who served as a secretary to former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, stated she had reached out in 2019 after seeing Ms. Stefanik’s efficiency throughout the impeachment hearings.

“I’m actually involved you’re doing this stuff that can harm your credibility in the long run,” she recalled texting Ms. Stefanik.

Ms. DeRosa stated the reply was well mannered however curt. “She wrote again saying, mainly: ‘You need to all the time really feel like you may inform me what you suppose. I recognize your enter.’” It was the tip of the dialog.

Different former associates and mentors stated they discovered her shape-shifting miserable. Invoice Kristol, a outstanding By no means Trump conservative, stated he as soon as considered her as a rising star within the get together.

“I launched her to donors and contributed to her marketing campaign in 2014,” Mr. Kristol stated, noting that at a gathering in her workplace in 2018 she privately agreed with him that Mr. Trump was a legal responsibility. “She appeared like a accountable elected official. Fallacious.”

To elucidate her personal transformation, Ms. Stefanik factors to the rightward lurch of her onetime swing district, which voted for Barack Obama and was represented by a Democrat earlier than she flipped the seat in 2014 and the district turned Trump nation.

“I consider that my document and my time in Congress is reflective of my constituents,” she stated.

Privately, she has informed individuals she was “radicalized by Adam Schiff,” the Democratic chairman of the Intelligence Committee who led the primary impeachment effort towards Mr. Trump.

Different members of the panel say that as Ms. Stefanik grew extra partisan concerning the impeachment, her attendance at committee occasions and briefings dropped to virtually zero.

Again dwelling, in a district that has change into redder within the redistricting course of, Ms. Stefanik has solely grown safer politically. “Whenever you stay in an space like this, it’s slightly little bit of a quiet space,” stated Jeff Graham, a conservative radio host and the previous mayor of Watertown. “If you happen to see your member of Congress on the information, you be ok with it.”

Nonetheless, there are awkward moments.

Final fall, when Ms. Stefanik was at an apple orchard in Saratoga County together with her husband and her new child son, a lady who grew up within the North Nation area approached her and informed her bluntly how she thought the congresswoman had compromised her values for energy.

Ms. Stefanik bristled, telling the constituent that she was thought of some of the bipartisan congresswomen within the nation, a document that she was happy with. (A report by the Lugar Heart, which seeks to boost bipartisanship, ranked her as some of the bipartisan members of the earlier Congress, in response to its index.)

In an interview, Ms. Stefanik stated she recalled the incident however refused to consider the girl was from her district.

“Not a voter,” she stated firmly. “Not a constituent.”