5 things to know about Elise Stefanik

President-elect Trump nominated Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations on Monday, further elevating her seismic rise in the Republican Party.

It is a major nod to the chair of the House Republican Conference — and the highest-ranking GOP woman in the lower chamber — who has been one of Trump’s fiercest defenders and supporters in recent years.

But Stefanik, a Harvard University graduate who was also considered in the running to be Trump’s running mate, has also been intensely scrutinized as her star power has grown.

Here are five things to know about Stefanik:

Underwent pro-Trump transformation

Like many other Republicans when Trump rose to power, Stefanik initially kept her distance from him, even publicly breaking with him on policies like Trump’s 2017 executive order to ban citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the U.S.

But that rapidly changed during Trump’s first term, surprising some political observers.

By Trump’s first impeachment proceedings in 2019, Stefanik was one of Trump’s top defenders on Capitol Hill. As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, she took a combative approach and challenged its then-Chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) during impeachment hearings.

That led Trump to post on social media of Stefanik: “A new Republican Star is born.”

Her posture stayed strong throughout the years, with Stefanik not only being among Trump’s sharpest defenders as he faced numerous legal troubles, but also taking actions such as filing an ethics complaint against special counsel Jack Smith.

Stefanik was the first member of GOP leadership in Congress to endorse Trump’s presidential bid in 2022.

Replaced Liz Cheney as conference chair

House Republicans removed former Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, as the chair of their conference in May 2021 amid her continued criticism of the former president.

Stefanik had the reputation of being a strong Trump defender by that point and quickly earned the endorsement of then-Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Trump. She easily won the position over Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), who also ran.

At the time, conference chair — a position tasked with leading the party’s messaging — was the No. 3 position in the House GOP. When Republicans took the majority after the 2022 midterms, Stefanik remained in the role instead of seeking to move up to House majority whip, and she became the No. 4 Republican in the House.

Went viral for taking on university presidents on antisemitism

While Stefanik has had a spot on the national stage for years, her prominence shot up last year after she, at a congressional hearing, pressed three university presidents about antisemitism on college campuses following Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel — a line of questioning that went viral.

Two out of three of the university presidents testifying resigned after the hearing amid blowback from their appearances, a development that Stefanik celebrated.

“TWO DOWN,” she wrote on the social platform X after Harvard President Claudine Gay resigned.

The hearing — which took place before the House Education and Workforce Committee — earned Stefanik approval from both sides of the aisle, with Democrats and Republicans backing her push to have the university presidents removed from their positions.

Stefanik has since emerged as the face of the House GOP’s efforts to combat antisemitism — and defend Israel against Hamas. In May, she gave a speech before the Israeli Knesset, making her the highest-ranking member of the House to visit Israel since Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel.

Stefanik has also used that position to go after the United Nations. In October, for example, she wrote in a statement that the organization had been "allowed to rot with antisemitism” and appeared to threaten future funding for the group.

“American taxpayers have no interest in continuing to fund an organization that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have allowed to rot with antisemitism,” she said.

Focused on lifting up female House GOP candidates

Stefanik put significant energy into supporting female candidates for Congress, starting a political action committee — Elevate PAC — to recruit and support Republican women running for the House.

She started the efforts after the number of Republican women in the House dwindled to just 13 in the 116th Congress, after the 2018 “Blue wave.” That rose to 23 Republican women in the next session, starting in 2021.

Stefanik’s efforts included making plays in GOP primaries to support the female candidates, which at times put her at odds with others in House GOP leadership. After then-National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) said it would be a “mistake” for Stefanik to intervene in GOP primaries, Stefanik fired back: “NEWSFLASH… I wasn’t asking for permission.”

One former candidate supported by Stefanik: Karoline Leavitt, the national press secretary for Trump’s 2024 campaign, who ran for a House seat in New Hampshire in 2022.