Elise Stefanik, likely Cheney successor in House leadership, has rural district but questionable rural bona fides

Rep. Elise Stefanik

Rep. Elise Stefanik, the likely House Republican leadership successor to Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, represents the rural 21st District in upstate New York, but she's been focused on moving up, Brian Mann of North Country Public Radio reports in a series of tweets with links to his years of reporting on her:

"In 2014 she presented herself as a moderate and her past career suggested as much - including her writings at Harvard and her work with Democrats . . . She also worked closely early in her career with moderates and people who've emerged as never-Trumpers . . . had a remarkable resume in 2014 and a strong track record working in Washington, D.C. Not the typical resume for someone seeking an Upstate N.Y. House seat. . . . Reporting at @ncpr found, however, that she was eager to downplay her D.C. cred and her identity as a political insider. She claimed to have grown up in a rural Adirondacks community in NY-21. I couldn't find anyone there who knew her." Stefanik lives in the Hudson River village of Schuylerville, near Saratoga Springs.

New York U.S. House District 21 (GovTrack map, adapted)

Mann goes on to report that Stefanik "was a skilled campaigner, disciplined, dogged, fierce. She got better and better, dismantling Republican and Democratic challengers. Stefanik made it clear that she wanted a national profile in the GOP, but her rise was complicated by the victory of Donald Trump in 2016. At first [she] was wary of Trump, criticizing him often but in careful ways. During the Trump years however [she] executed a complete pivot, embracing Trump using the impeachment to build her national profile, securing more Fox News appearances, endorsing him fully in 2020."

Having fully branded herself as a Trump ally, "She secured this position more fully by embracing and amplifying Trump's lies about the election and downplaying his role in the 1/6 insurrection," Mann writes. "Throughout the process [she] showed steady ambition, an ability to adapt and evolve her politics, and a willingness to shed old loyalties and allies while amplifying factual untruths when necessary. Her brand may be a perfect match for the modern GOP."

Stefanik "has regularly echoed Trump’s falsehoods" and made false claims about the Senate runoff elections in Georgia, reports Glenn Kessler of The Washington Post.