Elise Marie Stefanik ( stə-FAH-nick; born July 2, 1984) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for New York's 21st congressional district. As chair of the House Republican Conference since 2021, she is the fourth-ranking House Republican. Stefanik's district covers most of the North Country and the Adirondack Mountains, some of the outer suburbs of Utica and the Capital District in New York. In addition to being the first woman to occupy her House seat, Stefanik was 30 when first elected to the House in 2014, making her the youngest woman elected to Congress at the time. Initially elected as a moderate conservative, Stefanik has moved considerably towards the right, as she aligned herself with the then-President Donald Trump. She strongly opposed the first impeachment of Trump in 2019 amid the Trump–Ukraine scandal and backed Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 United States presidential election, objecting to Pennsylvania's electoral votes after Trump supporters were involved in the 2021 United States Capitol attack. As the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack began to investigate, Stefanik claimed that Speaker Nancy Pelosi was "aware of potential security threats to the Capitol and she failed to act." Stefanik was elected chair of the House Republican Conference in May 2021 after incumbent Liz Cheney was removed due to her opposition to President Trump. Stefanik gained national attention in December 2023 for her intense questioning of university presidents during a widely televised U.S. congressional hearing on antisemitism. Some have credited Stefanik with contributing to the resignation of Liz Magill, the president of the University of Pennsylvania.