Following a protracted battle\nwith fellow House Republicans and an acrimonious split with Minority Leader\nKevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) is set to lose her position\nas the chair of the House Republican Conference, the third highest position in\nleadership below the whip and party leader. Within days, House Republicans made\nher likely replacement crystal clear: Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rep. Stefanik was first elected in 2014 and was, at the time, the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. She represents the 21<\/a>st<\/a><\/sup> Congressional District of New York<\/a>, a mostly rural district that takes up most of the northeastern part of the state. The 21st<\/sup> district is notable for having supported former President Barack Obama in the 2008 and 2012 elections before becoming solidly Republican. Voters re-elected Stefanik in 2020 with 58.8 percent of the vote, and the district\u2019s Cook PVI<\/a> rating is R+8. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Democrats and the mainstream media largely attribute Cheney\u2019s fall from grace to her vocal and continued criticism of former President Donald Trump following the events of January 6th<\/sup>. She previously survived a vote to remove her from Republican leadership in February, with the support of McCarthy. However, Republican insiders note that many members \u2013 including those who voted to impeach Trump \u2013 are fed up with Cheney\u2019s leadership, or lack thereof. Conservative columnist Byron York noted in his Daily Memo<\/a> that: <\/p>\n\n\n\n “It\ncame to a boiling point a week and a half ago at our retreat [in\nFlorida] when she’s doing a press conference and she’s still talking about\nJanuary 6 and Donald Trump when we’re all talking about unifying to defeat\nPelosi’s socialist agenda and win the House back,” said one Republican.\n“At that point it became clear she’s just not interested in working with\nthe rest of us on a shared goal.” Rank-and-file members can do whatever\nthey want, Republicans say, but members of the leadership should at least\npublicly be on the same page.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Regardless, Cheney is out and\nStefanik is allegedly in. Unlike Cheney, Stefanik supported Trump, voted\nagainst his impeachment, and voted against certifying the election results from\nPennsylvania for the 2020 presidential election. But while she may come off as\na Trumpist, America-First Republican, she is anything but. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Immigration is a key example. In FAIR\u2019s 116th Congress Voting Report<\/a>, Rep. Stefanik voted with FAIR only 75 percent of the time \u2013 on the lower end of House Republicans she may lead. Cheney, on the other hand, voted with FAIR 100 percent of the time. Another group aligned with FAIR on the immigration issue, NumbersUSA, grades Stefanik as a career C-<\/a>, with a D- this Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It isn\u2019t that Stefanik has been uninterested in the immigration issue, it\u2019s that she\u2019s been plainly bad <\/em>on it. She voted in favor of illegal alien farmworker amnesty<\/a> twice<\/strong>. She voted in favor<\/a> of the FAIR-opposed \u201cFairness for High-Skilled Immigrants Act,\u201d which eliminates per-country caps and ensures that all future immigration to the United States comes only from India and China. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She opposed President Trump\u2019s travel bans<\/a> and voted against the national emergency declaration<\/a> allowing the construction of the border wall. She signed a discharge petition to give DACA recipients a pathway to citizenship<\/a> and has been a vocal and enthusiastic supporter of importing cheap, foreign guestworkers<\/a> into the United States even at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when millions of Americans were jobless. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This was all as a\nrank-and-file member without a leadership role. But to be in leadership in the\nRepublican party means that you have to respond to the beliefs and convictions\nof the people you lead. That includes both Republican House members but also\nthe voters who send these people to Washington in the first place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Republican voters do not\nsupport replacing American workers with cheaper guestworkers. Republican voters\ndo not support mass amnesty for illegal aliens. Republican voters support\nbuilding the wall and ending the crisis on our southern border. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Stefanik needs to grasp this\nif she is going to be a successful Republican Conference chair. Having the\nsupport of former President Trump cannot and should not be the only\nprerequisite for House leadership. Stefanik will need to actually lead by\nembracing the principles that animate most of the House Republican membership. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For all her faults, Cheney was strong on the issue of immigration. As immigration remains a principal issue impacting House Republicans and their voters, Stefanik will need to embrace the mantle of a true \u201cAmerica First\u201d immigration agenda. FAIR is here to help. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Following a protracted battle with fellow House Republicans and an acrimonious split with Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) is set to lose her position as the chair of the House Republican Conference, the third highest position in leadership below the whip and party leader. Within days, House Republicans made her likely<\/p>\n