In devotion to Trump, House GOP taps Stefanik for a top post

WASHINGTON (AP) — Demonstrating their allegiance to Donald Trump, Republicans have elected Rep. Elise Stefanik to a House leadership post.

Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., speaks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington, Friday, May 14, 2021, just after she was elected chair of the House Republican Conference, replacing Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who was ousted from the GOP leadership for criticizing former President Donald Trump. She is joined by, from left, Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Ala., House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The New Yorker’s elevation highlights how a party whose lodestar has long been conservative policies increasingly views devotion to the former president as indispensable to electoral success.

Stefanik is a Trump stalwart, and on Friday she was elected to the No. 3 leadership job that until this week belonged to Rep. Liz Cheney.

Republicans tossed the Wyoming Republican from that post for continually calling out Trump for helping sp

ur the violent Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection and relentlessly pushing his false claims that voting fraud caused his November reelection defeat.