Elise Stefanik: Republicans in New York stopped listening to voters — here’s how we rebuild the GOP
After 12 years in Congress serving at the highest levels of our nation’s federal government, I want to take this opportunity to thank the people of our great state — Republicans, Independents, and Democrats. And thank you to the voters in my district, who cycle after cycle in good years and bad, placed their trust and faith in me to represent them.
I never felt entitled for your vote and I always worked my very hardest to earn it.
There will be a lot written and discussed about the national repudiation of Republicans this cycle and I look forward to that conversation. However, New York deserves its own special attention after the historic loss at the ballot box. It is time to learn and rebuild.
My theory of the case, having a front row seat to the political ups and downs over the past decade, has always been that President Trump is one of one — he is a singular figure larger than partisan politics. He built a unique historic coalition in 2016, mounted the most noteworthy political comeback of all time, survived an assassination attempt, and won the popular vote in 2024.
He also energizes and unifies Democrats and swing voters in a way no other political figure has ever done. In order to win, the next generation of Republicans will need to come to terms that Trump will not be on the ballot. Candidates are on their own to re-energize and inspire the Trump coalition of working class people and offer real solutions to win independents and swing voters to grow the tent.
This will not be a return to the pre-Trump stale Republican Party, it will have to expand.
This cycle, America saw a new generation of Democrat Socialist candidates successfully co-opt Trump’s original outsiders’ populist message of fighting for the little guy and working men and women from all walks of life. That movement started right here in New York, where smiling Socialists masking deep anti-Americanism are successfully on the march and in elected office.
Another important part of my political theory of the case is that we are living through a historic political realignment that is clearly swinging hard towards Socialism today, but will swing back with a vengeance in the next five to 10 years.
Republicans should not blow this opportunity.
America loves a comeback story and Republicans are going to need to write one.
There is no better place to do that than New York.
Unlike so many in elected office, I don’t come from a political family. I first cut my teeth in New York politics in high school when I was a volunteer at the Republican State Committee headquarters in Albany — stuffing envelopes, making posters and phone calls. That was back in the day when Republicans controlled statewide office with Gov. George Pataki at the helm with a savvy, smart operational partner in GOP State Party Chair Bill Powers.
I was further inspired to pursue public service after the deadly terrorist attacks on 9/11.
Back then, I never would have imagined I would make history serving in the United States Congress, let alone in top House leadership.
Whether fighting for small businesses and Upstate farms, being rated as one of the most effective elected officials in America, setting off the long overdue earthquake in higher education, or shaping our national defense strategy as a senior Member of the House Armed Services and Intelligence Committees, I have been grateful to earn support cycle after cycle from my constituents with a broad and sweeping coalition of Republicans, Independents, and Democrats.
When I first ran for Congress 14 years ago, the old Republican guard loved to say: “she can’t win,” “she’s too conservative for the district,” “she’s just a young girl from Upstate,” “she will lose.”
Some still say that today. I spent two years, and then the next 12, traversing the largest geographic district in New York and east of the Mississippi River leaving no stone unturned and earning support directly from the voters. Listening to them and hearing them — on national frustrations, but importantly on state, regional, and local issues as well.
I listened to voters and focused on delivering a record of clear and consistent results with a potent combination of national issues coupled with deep understanding and connection to local, state, and regional issues.
That coupled with exceptional constituent services and a very consistent and disciplined messaging strategy, cycle after cycle, we broke electoral records for any Republican in the Northeast and fundraising records nationwide.
And I paid it forward. I worked to flip nearly every county in my district. I also served in top leadership to deliver the House Majority through smart candidate recruitment and national fundraising.
Importantly, I always ran on an effective, meaningful policy platform attuned to voters’ concerns on real issues nationally and locally with a record of consistent, tangible, and real results — big and small. I always showed up. And voters in turn showed up for me.
I share this as I am leaving Congressional service because I believe Republicans in New York and across America can and should learn from this. The broad and consistently winning “Elise Coalition” was built of highly energized Republicans, nearly a quarter of registered Democrats, and the vast majority of Independents.
There was no pre-existing political machine in Upstate, we had to build it from scratch. That gargantuan effort turned a sleepy, low turnout district into the highest voter turnout district in the state. With a 100% win record. Full stop. For 14 years and seven ballots. We took a 50/50 bellwether district and won by such large margins with such strong coattails down-ballot, that we made it look easy where it was written off ad nauseum by the media as a safe Republican district.
Turn’s out, that was absolutely wrong and was lazy reporting all along. It is now back to a knife’s edge 50/50.
Last year, I made the difficult, but correct, decision not to run for governor of New York. As a working Mom to our young son coupled with professional responsibilities serving in Congress in a slim Majority where every vote is essentially decided by one vote, it was not the right time.
Additionally, I was concerned there was a lack of urgency for the need to rebuild the Republican apparatus. There was far too much party infighting, coupled with regional state fiefdoms, and not enough focus on the people.
I also had a sense that Republicans were failing to deliver an agenda or communicate a message that was worthy of the mandate voters had generously given us in 2024.
The focus of top House leadership became surviving another day in power rather than listening to the American people and delivering solutions on affordability, housing, and lowering energy costs.
Yes, Congress delivered the expansive and important One Big Beautiful Bill where I cast the deciding vote, but other than the message discipline of New York Republicans communicating on the historic tax cut we delivered on SALT, did Republican candidates ever really explain why the bill is so important? The answer is no. It showed up in exactly zero exit polls.
We know it is possible for Republicans to make inroads electorally and strategically in New York. Over the past decade, I successfully delivered real results to my constituents while rebuilding the Republican Party in my district and nationwide by supporting and helping elect a historic number of Republican candidates both in our state and across the country — including a historic number of women.
As the highest ranking New York Republican to serve in Congress in over a century, I worked closely with Speakers of the House when we delivered the House Majority through New York. We developed a savvy winning legal strategy to defeat the New York Democrats’ attempted gerrymander in the courts.
And let’s not forget, Lee Zeldin ran a generationally great statewide race with a strong state party chair in Nick Langworthy coupled with savvy Congressional candidates like Mike Lawler who flipped key districts. These were smart and massive wins on the board that were wiped away in last week’s blue tsunami.
I think back to a lengthy one-on-one conversation I had late last spring with still one of the smartest tacticians in New York politics, former governor George Pataki — one of my friends and neighbors on beautiful Lake Champlain. A few hours learning from him is worth more than decades of any consultant. He wisely suggested that part of the winning strategy must be a complete rebuild of the New York GOP apparatus and state party that was accomplished before he won in 1994 — a historic wave year for Republicans.
He was right. There is no question that needs to happen and it needed to happen yesterday. We have seen a hollowing out of the Republican support in the Hudson Valley while previous strongholds like parts of Upstate New York and Long Island have slipped away and are aging out. This suggestion is meant to be honest and productive, putting the voters — not the party insiders — first.
You have regions and races where New York Republicans didn’t even put candidates on the ballot. On Election Day, Elon’s patriotic mom, Maye Musk, earnestly tweeted a telling photo of the fact that there wasn’t a single Republican judicial candidate on her ballot. So prescient and on point, as usual, for the widely admired matriarch of the Musk family.
Which brings me to the most important lesson in politics and it is about what matters most — the voters.
The people are, by far, the best part of the job serving in elected office. I have always strongly believed that voters are smart and astute. As a candidate, you can never be entitled to certain voters, you have to earn it in every election.
You also can’t tell voters what to care about. They tell you and your job is to listen and put forth real solutions and deliver results.
Republicans did not do enough listening, let alone hearing. We didn’t earn or build the apparatus needed to win. There was a sense of entitlement on Republican strongholds whether Upstate or on Long Island, and those slipped away. There was a stark tone-deafness on affordability and a lack of clear agenda of how Republicans would tackle it.
Voters don’t like being taken for granted. And they shouldn’t be. This, coupled with a record-setting low fundraising crisis for the statewide ticket in New York — the lowest in a century — made for a cauldron of epic losses.
And the sad reality is that the voters of New York of all political parties desperately deserve an alternative to this sickening Socialist-Marxist-antisemitic experiment that we are undergoing in our city and state under single-party Democrat rule.
Republicans have an enormous opportunity to rebuild. It will take a new generation capable of thinking outside the box, playing on offense in all parts of the state, rebuilding from scratch at the local level, lots of honest conversations rather than finger pointing and lashing out on X. There needs to be a deep, substantive post-mortem. And we need to have the courage to say what every voter is thinking: there needs to be new Republican leadership in our state.
Most importantly, as I have done for over a decade, Republicans will have to meet voters where they are, have a big tent approach, and put forth solutions to solve real and dire economic and existential challenges that hardworking families are facing in their day to day lives.
Voters are genuinely looking for leadership and how to get involved. The dangerous radical Left in New York is very tactically issue-focused with specific 24/7 organizing tasks, bottled with a slick communications behemoth behind it.
Republicans should take note. It needs to not just be the grand old party but instead an entire rebuild of the apparatus of institutions, media, organizations, and technological tools built to win.
New York City is the most dynamic and resilient city in the world coupled with the beautiful Great Upstate that delivered the first victory of the Revolutionary War at Saratoga 250 years ago. There is no question that New York politics is some of the toughest and bare-knuckled in the nation. Don’t I know it!
My fellow New York Republican Congressional delegation colleagues often joke to one another that electeds in other parts of the country have no idea how tough it is to win elections as a Republican in New York. We need our own brand, we need to build a broad coalition, and we need to rebuild in a way that is compelling to voters whose trust Republicans lost this cycle across the nation.
As a lifelong New Yorker, Mom, Congresswoman, and a New York voter myself, I am looking forward to this next chapter and having an honest conversation in the months and years to come with people from all walks of life about how we must save our state and country after this Election Day walloping.
At heart, New Yorkers and Americans are builders and fighters.
It’s time to build.
And then we need to fight and win.
Elise Stefanik served as representative for New York’s 21st congressional district since 2015.
