President Trump’s choice to yank Rep. Elise Stefanik’s (R-N.Y.) nomination to be ambassador to the United Nations is prompting a plethora of questions concerning the New York Republican’s future on Capitol Hill.
In his assertion saying the transfer, Trump mentioned the congresswoman would “rejoin the House Leadership Team.” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) echoed that plan, saying he would “invite her to return to the leadership table immediately.”
However it’s unclear the place Stefanik will slot in after relinquishing the place of Home GOP convention chair, which she held for almost 4 years, upon her nomination for UN ambassador.
Trump mentioned he was pulling her as his choose to go to New York Metropolis due to the Home’s razor-thin majority.
Home GOP lawmakers in November elected Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) to take her spot within the No. 4 place. The Michigan Republican doesn’t plan to resign from that slot, a supply conversant in the matter instructed The Hill. All the opposite prime elected management posts are crammed.
One Home GOP management supply instructed The Hill that prime lawmakers are searching for a spot for Stefanik to land, underscoring that they don’t want her to depart the Home after the blow to her profession plans.
“We are trying to create a position for her,” the supply mentioned. “We want her to stay in Congress and not leave.”
One risk is that Johnson appoints Stefanik to be chair of the Elected Management Committee, a currently-vacant Speaker-appointed place that can be known as the “chair of chairs” however could be a significant step down for Stefanik.
It could, nonetheless, make Stefanik a part of the Home GOP steering committee that makes choices on committee assignments, and people within the place have been a part of key management conferences prior to now. Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) resurrected the place to place former Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), his shut confidant, within the publish.
Requested what Stefanik in management would appear to be after the information broke, a second Home GOP management supply mentioned “not sure” — underscoring the stunning, and delicate, nature of Trump’s announcement.
Other than management, Stefanik’s future committee work is unclear. The New York Republican sat on the plum Home Intelligence Committee, which is now at capability after Johnson crammed her spot and others left vacant at the start of the 119th Congress.
She was additionally beforehand a member of the Home Armed Providers Committee and the Home Committee on Schooling and the Workforce, the place she grabbed headlines along with her questioning of college presidents about antisemitism on their campuses.
Trump’s choice to yank Stefanik’s nomination is a outstanding blow to the congresswoman, who turned from being a Trump skeptic to one in every of his strongest and loudest supporters.
The 40-year-old congresswoman changed former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) as chair of the Home Republican Convention in 2021 after Cheney was ousted over her criticism of Trump within the aftermath of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
She went on to grow to be one in every of Trump’s most ardent supporters on Capitol Hill and, in flip, an early choose from the then-president-elect. Trump introduced her nomination on Nov. 11.
However regardless of that early nod and bipartisan help for her affirmation, Stefanik’s nomination stalled for weeks as Home Republicans grappled with their razor-thin majority and stared down a lot of high-stakes legislative undertakings, together with adopting the convention’s framework to cross Trump’s home coverage agenda and averting a authorities shutdown.
Nonetheless, Trump indicated that Stefanik could also be known as to depart the Home once more sooner or later.
“I look forward to the day when Elise is able to join my Administration in the future. She is absolutely FANTASTIC,” he wrote.
