A virtue of this profile of
Elise Stefanik by Nick Confessore is that it doesn't describe an ideological conversion.

Rather, Stefanik had no strong beliefs to begin with. Her rise is a simpler tale of ambition— and an emptiness inside. The profile is of the party's direction, as much as the person who went with it.

"Friends going back to Ms. Stefanik’s Harvard days struggled to identify any of her deeply held political beliefs at all."

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/31/us/politics/elise-stefanik.html?unlocked_article_code=ZqqumQpFaKiu36YmTlZOOTuDBVhlk4TtK8O2-2FC7sPTbFMlxwhApVFugrIV_l4-LS5oUtAJXr2GSlSqgirZdBOlymyvax8pIe-MyF0kA4ihpJiauxO7leeIb9--ksInVGbabZuloLX_nszTNxLB_P7WXJjF7dgusEVBDql-5t7R7y68tkwimey_870q2ZB0DctKhknmuE49Yybr_J6tjD3G9hiMlZGx1Gonbg2x9w6FvFLqqbGQAn2wWciRHKcBJwj459m4wzMxL0UmXKQX9DJjgcVitIkDLl63iGinQooM4TLmpszR1qzLSo-79DWxE7i0CYWtDpFyY1aN&smid=share-url

#journalism #uspolitics #uspol

The Invention of Elise Stefanik

To rise through the Trump-era G.O.P., a young congresswoman gave up her friends, her mentors and her ideals. Will it be enough?

The New York Times
@jayrosen_nyu and in that sense very similar to ambition-without-moral-compass speaker-in-waiting McCarthy https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/12/26/what-kevin-mccarthy-will-do-to-gain-power