April 11, 2023
By Lydia Moynihan
New York Rep. Elise Stefanik will launch a new “battleground fund” on Tuesday to boost Republicans in the perennially blue Empire State as the party looks to hang on to gains made in the last election, The Post has learned.
Stefanik, who became the third-highest ranking Republican in the House as conference chair last year after Liz Cheney was deposed, has become a powerhouse fundraiser for the party.
The unabashed Trump supporter from upstate New York pulled in $3 million in the first quarter of 2023 after raising $13.4 million In the 2020 cycle and $9.2 million in 2022, according to election filings.
“The fight to save our country and our state will not be easy but I have never been more determined to work my hardest to save our country,” said Stefanik, who represents the 21st District, an area north of Albany. “I am grateful for the hundreds of thousands of grassroots donors in upstate New York and across the country.”
Stefanik also raised $9 million in 2022 for national PACs supporting GOP candidates including WinRed and E-PAC, which aims to put more Republican woman in office.
Her new fund will funnel money to GOP causes in the state at a time when Democrats increase their efforts to win back some of the seats they lost in 2022.
Republicans flipped four blue seats in districts Biden won in his 2020 Presidential election — contributing to the GOP reclaiming the House with a narrow nine-seat majority.
In February, a Democratic Super PAC announced plans to spend $45 million in New York State alone for the 2024 election cycle after the disappointment last year.
“The path to a Democratic House majority runs through New York,” Mike Smith, House Majority PAC President said about the campaign spend.
People close to the Harvard-educated congresswoman believe her new fund will help defend and possibly expand the number of seats Republicans have in New York.
She has been hauling in seven figures every quarter since 2019 — relying on smaller donors as well as big names like Paul Singer, founder and co-CEO of Elliott Management; John Catsimatidis, founder and CEO if Red Apple Group, and Long Island billionaire Andy Sabin.
The $18 million total she raised in the 2022 election cycle was the most any Republican in New York has raised.
“She’s raised record amounts and we want to further entrench our gains,” a source close to Stefanik told The Post.
Many look to the 38-year-old Stefanik as an example for how to succeed as a Republican in New York politics. She was first elected in 2014, managing to flip a district that Barack Obama had won both times when he ran for president.
While it’s unclear if the GOP in New York can gain more seats in 2024, it doesn’t appear that Stefanik’s spot will be in jeopardy.
“No one, so far, has expressed an interest in running [against Stefanik],” Lynne Boecher, the Democratic Chairwoman in Stefanik’s district, told The Post-Star on Friday.
Read the article in The New York Post here.
