President-elect Donald Trump announced on Nov. 11 he will nominate House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
“Elise is an incredibly strong, tough, and smart America First fighter,” Trump said in a statement.
Stefanik will be in a Cabinet-level role. The position was on that level when Nikki Haley was ambassador but was downgraded when she left. Trump said over the weekend that Haley, along with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, will not be in the administration.
With the GOP having control of the Senate, Stefanik is likely to be confirmed.
Stefanik was the first member of Congress to rise to prominence as a defender of Trump during the 45th president’s first impeachment in 2019 after he was accused of calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to ask him to investigate President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, in exchange for U.S. military assistance.
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Stefanik was first elected from New York’s 21st Congressional District in 2014 at the age of 30, becoming then the youngest woman elected to Congress.
She was elected as House GOP conference chairwoman in 2021, succeeding former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.). Her foreign policy experience includes serving on the House Select Committee on Intelligence and working at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish Washington think tank. She worked on the Domestic Policy Council in the Bush administration.
Stefanik, who is on the House Education and Workforce Committee, has been in the spotlight lately due to her criticism of college and university presidents’ response to anti-Semitism on their campuses in the aftermath of the Hamas terrorist group’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The presidents of Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, and Rutgers have since resigned.
With Stefanik’s upcoming vacancy, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul will have to call a special election no earlier than 70 days and no later than 80 days from when the seat, which is safely Republican, becomes empty.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
