From the Watertown Daily Times, by Alex Gault, March 27, 2025
"Congresswoman Elise M. Stefanik will not be the next U.N. Ambassador after President Donald J. Trump said Thursday he asked her to remain in Congress. On Thursday afternoon, the White House confirmed it will move to withdraw her nomination, ending the chance she will become a Cabinet official in the Trump White House anytime soon.
In a post on social media, President Trump confirmed the news. 'I have asked Elise, as one of my biggest allies, to remain in Congress,' he said. 'With a very tight majority, I don’t want to take a chance on anyone else running for Elise’s seat,' he continued.
First reported by CBS News, confirmed by PunchBowl News and reaffirmed by sources contacted by the Watertown Daily Times midday Thursday, there had been conversations between the Trump administration, Stefanik and Congressional leadership on Thursday to have Stefanik reject the nomination and retain her seat in the House.
The White House is now moving forward on its own by rescinding her nomination. GOP officials have been concerned about the thin majority the party are holds in the House and the fact that the two special elections in Florida are not showing signs of overwhelming Republican success.
For weeks, the Republican leadership in Washington has held up Stefanik’s final confirmation because of the thin House margins, waiting for those two Florida elections to refresh the House Republican ranks. But recent polling and fundraising numbers indicate the Republicans in Florida aren’t doing as well as the party had hoped.
Sources contacted by the Watertown Daily Times also said there had been concerns raised over the ability for a Republican candidate to win in a special election for Stefanik’s 21st District should she resign: the Democrats preliminary identified a candidate in Blake Gendebien, a dairy farmer from Ogdensburg whose raised over $2.5 million in four months, while the Republicans have not selected a candidate yet and were picking from a list of largely establishment options.
Additional concerns mounted when Anthony Constantino, a Mohawk Valley businessman whose tried to take the seat through populist appeals and some fairly hard campaigning against undeclared Republican competition for the seat, announced he would seek a third-party independent bid for the seat if he wasn’t the Republican nominee. Sources within the party have said there were real concerns that a moderate Republican pick and a conservative third-party challenger could split the reliably Republican electorate enough to give a moderate Democrat like Gendebien a leg up.
Reversing course on Stefanik’s nomination at this point in time is a major lane-change and a huge set back for the Congresswoman. She was among the first Cabinet picks Trump announced in November after winning that election, although her confirmation date was pushed off repeatedly in service of the House majority.
The Congresswoman resigned her job as the House Conference Chair, did not take any Committee positions and has largely spun down her political operations in expectation of the high-powered U.N. Ambassadorship.
She’s been a part of Cabinet discussions, attending meetings at the White House, escorting the President for his speech to Congress earlier in March, and taking some credit for U.S. policy in the U.N."
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