Elise Watson Popular Books

Elise Watson Biography & Facts

Elise Marie Stefanik ( stə-FAH-nick; born July 2, 1984) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for New York's 21st congressional district. As chair of the House Republican Conference since 2021, she is the fourth-ranking House Republican. Stefanik's district covers most of the North Country and the Adirondack Mountains, some of the outer suburbs of Utica and the Capital District in New York. In addition to being the first woman to occupy her House seat, Stefanik was 30 when first elected to the House in 2014, making her the youngest woman elected to Congress at the time. Initially elected as a moderate conservative, Stefanik has moved considerably towards the right, as she aligned herself with the then-President Donald Trump. She strongly opposed the first impeachment of Trump in 2019 amid the Trump–Ukraine scandal and backed Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election, objecting to Pennsylvania's electoral votes after Trump supporters were involved in the 2021 United States Capitol attack. As the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack began to investigate, Stefanik claimed that Speaker Nancy Pelosi was responsible for the attack. Stefanik was elected chair of the House Republican Conference in May 2021 after incumbent Liz Cheney was removed due to her opposition to President Trump. Stefanik gained national attention in December 2023 for her intense questioning of university presidents during a widely televised U.S. congressional hearing on antisemitism. Some have credited Stefanik with contributing to the resignation of Liz Magill, the president of the University of Pennsylvania. Early life and education Stefanik was born in Albany, New York, on July 2, 1984, to Melanie and Kenneth Stefanik. Stefanik claims that her father is ethnically Czech and her mother is of Italian ancestry; existing data suggest that her father's family came from the area of present-day Polish Subcarpathia. Her parents own Premium Plywood Products, a wholesale plywood distributor based in Guilderland Center. In October 1998, when she was 14, Stefanik was featured in a Times Union profile about U.S. Senator Al D'Amato. In the article she is quoted saying, "I support the Republican view, especially his". Stefanik worked in Washington for six years before entering politics. According to Stefanik, she first considered a career in public service and policy in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. Stefanik graduated from the Albany Academy for Girls and enrolled at Harvard College, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in government in 2006. She was elected vice president of the Harvard Institute of Politics in 2004. At Harvard, she received an honorable mention for the Women's Leadership Award, an endowed student award for leadership and contributing toward the advancement of women. Early career and personal life After graduating from Harvard, she joined the George W. Bush administration, as a staff member for the U.S. Domestic Policy Council. Stefanik later worked in the office of Joshua Bolten, the White House Chief of Staff. In 2009, she founded the blog American Maggie, a platform to promote the views of "conservative and Republican women", named after British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Stefanik helped prepare the Republican platform in 2012, served as director of new media for Tim Pawlenty's presidential exploratory committee and worked at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and Foreign Policy Initiative. She managed Representative Paul Ryan's debate preparation for the 2012 presidential debates. After Mitt Romney and Ryan lost the 2012 presidential election, she returned to upstate New York and joined her parents' business. After the 2012 election, Stefanik bought a home in Willsboro, near Plattsburgh. Her parents had owned a vacation home in Willsboro for many years. By April 2014, she owned a minority interest in a townhouse near Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., valued at $1.3 million. On August 19, 2017, in Saratoga Springs, New York, Stefanik married Matthew Manda, who works in marketing and communications. In December 2018, Stefanik and Manda moved to Schuylerville, near Saratoga Springs. As of 2022, Manda works as the manager of public affairs for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for firearms manufacturers. Together they have one child, Samuel Albritton (born 2021). U.S. House of Representatives Elections 2014 In August 2013, Stefanik declared her candidacy in the 2014 election for the U.S. House of Representatives in New York's 21st congressional district. The district had been in Republican hands for 100 years, before Democrat Bill Owens was elected to represent it in a 2009 special election. In January 2014, Owens announced that he would not seek reelection. Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party nominee in 2009, endorsed Stefanik. Stefanik defeated Matt Doheny in the 2014 Republican primary election, 61% to 39%. She faced Aaron Woolf, the Democratic Party nominee, and Matt Funiciello, the Green Party nominee, in the November 4 general election. Stefanik won with 55% of the vote to their 34% and 11%, respectively. At age 30, she became the youngest woman ever elected to Congress at the time. 2016 Stefanik ran for reelection in 2016. She became increasingly supportive of Donald Trump's candidacy for president after he won the 2016 Republican Party presidential primary. Stefanik said that Trump's crude remarks in the Access Hollywood tape were "wrong" but continued to endorse him. Stefanik faced Democratic nominee Mike Derrick and Green Party nominee Matt Funiciello in the general election. She won with 66% of the vote to Derrick's 29% and Funiciello's 5%. 2018 In 2017, former ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton endorsed Stefanik for reelection, lauding her work on the House Armed Services Committee. Stefanik was reelected with 56% of the vote to Democratic nominee Tedra Cobb's 42% and Green Party nominee Lynn Kahn's 1.5%. 2020 Stefanik defeated Tedra Cobb with 59% of the vote to Cobb's 41%. 2022 Stefanik defeated Matt Castelli, a former CIA officer, with 59.2% of the vote to Castelli's 40.8%. Tenure In January 2015, Stefanik was appointed to the House Armed Services Committee. The freshman representatives of the 114th Congress elected her to serve as the freshman representative to the policy committee. In February 2015, she was appointed vice chair of the House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Readiness. She was invited to join the Senior Advisory Committee at the Harvard Institute of Politics shortly after her election. Stefanik was removed from the committee in 2021 following her objection to Pennsylvania's electoral votes after the storming of the U.S. Capitol. On January 11, 2017, Stefanik announced that she had been elected co-chair of the Tuesday Group, "a caucus of ... moderate House Republicans from across the country". Ste.... Discover the Elise Watson popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Elise Watson books.