SARANAC LAKE — A vote on North Country Rep. Elise Stefanik’s appointment as President Donald Trump’s United Nations ambassador has reportedly been set for April 2.
After a long wait, as national politicians maneuvered for power, this Senate vote has the potential to send Stefanik to the global stage and kick off a special election in NY-21 to replace her.
Her confirmation vote isn’t on an official calendar yet, but the news outlet Axios reported earlier this week that “two sources familiar” with the situation told them the date is April 2.
Stefanik is the last Trump Cabinet nominee to get a confirmation vote, despite being the first nominee announced after his win in November. That’s because her place in Congress has been important to the Republican Party as the GOP holds a slim 218-213 majority in the House.
The confirmation vote is scheduled for the day after two special elections in Florida to replace Republican Reps. Matt Gaetz and Mike Waltz. Both districts are heavily Republican, but Democrats have been fundraising a lot in these elections, too. The GOP has a slightly larger majority now than at the start of the month, after the deaths of two Democratic representatives at ages 70 and 77.
After Stefanik submits her resignation, election law dictates that Gov. Kathy Hochul will have 10 days to issue a proclamation calling for a special election. Then, the election must be held within 70 to 80 days of the proclamation. Major party nominations must be made within 10 days of Hochul announcing the election. Independent candidates would have 12 days to collect signatures to be nominated.
Last month, Albany Democrats discussed a bill which could delay the special election until either June or November, leaving NY-21 without a representative in Congress for months. They’ve since backed off that plan. News outlet Semafor reported last week that people “familiar with (Hochul’s) thinking” say she still plans to slow-walk the election — but it was unclear how.
In any case, NY-21 will be without a representative for around three months between Stefanik’s resignation and the special election.
The vote on Stefanik’s appointment is not expected to be controversial. Some Democratic senators, like John Fetterman, have voiced support for her appointment. Other Democrats oppose her taking on the role, particularly because of her belief that Israel has a biblical right to the West Bank in Gaza. But while the Democratic party has a small rift over support of Israel in its war in Gaza, Republicans appear unified behind Trump’s selection of Stefanik.
To read more about Stefanik’s plans as ambassador, go to tinyurl.com/mw284389 and tinyurl.com/uxx3wy25.
If confirmed, Stefanik would need to resign her position in Congress before acting as ambassador, meaning it would likely come soon after a confirmation.
The race
The list of candidates from all parties lining up to seek a run for her seat has continued to grow and grow in the four months since Stefanik’s nomination.
A special election is not run like a normal election. Instead of primaries — where members of each party vote on who will represent their party on the ballot — the candidates are selected by the 15 county party chairs in the district. Essentially, it’s a primary with only 15 voters.
In February, the 15 Democratic Party chairs unanimously chose Lisbon-based dairy farmer Blake Gendebien as their candidate, deciding to not wait for the election to become official before making their decision. This has given Gendebien a bit of extra time to campaign and raise funds. To read more about Gendebien, go to tinyurl.com/yuu62re9.
The Republicans have not selected a candidate yet, choosing to keep their promise to wait until the election is officially called fore before selecting who will run. They have an incredibly long list of candidate hopefuls, several of whom have been campaigning on their own for months now.
The GOP chairs say they’re talking with a shortlist of candidates now.
As the anticipation and tension between candidates has built in recent weeks, a handful of them have each declared themselves to be frontrunners. There is no official polling right now, since there is no primary, but candidates have been conducting internal polls.
The Enterprise was not able to reach Warren County Republican Chair Tim McNulty, who is heading up the GOP’s process, by press deadline Friday to answer how many people are on the shortlist, how many applied in total and when their chair vote might be.
Double-duty
When Stefanik’s nomination was announced, most officials assumed it would be confirmed relatively soon. But House Majority Speaker Mike Johnson has slow-walked the vote to keep her in the House as long as possible.
In the past few months, Stefanik’s been lossely filling both roles — voting in Congress, attending Cabinet meetings and sitting with the Cabinet at Trump’s presentation to joint session of Congress.
In late February, she was an important vote on a budget resolution which sets up the agenda for federal spending in the future. This resolution was narrowly approved 217-215, with one Republican voting against it and one Democrat absent. It includes large-scale cuts to federal spending, and to taxes.
The resolution sets the administration up to extend its 2017 tax cuts, authorizing $4.5 trillion in cuts over the next decade, which would reduce taxes for a majority of Americans, with wealthy taxpayers reaping a large portion of the benefit.
The resolution includes cutting Energy and Commerce Committee spending by $880 billion, which will potentially result in significant Medicaid cuts. It also includes an additional $300 billion border and military spending — which currently total more than $1 trillion, or almost 15% of the total budget. The resolution calls for an additional $4 trillion to be added to the U.S. debt limit.
In January, Stefanik gathered bipartisan votes from the 22-member Senate Foreign Relations Committee to advance her nomination out of committee and into a vote by the full Senate.
To read more about how committee members voted, go to tinyurl.com/y3j7h8ju.
With the House having a narrow Republican majority after the last election, this special election race could also attract national attention for its importance for both parties.