Single Minded Seeker of Reelection?

• Elise Stefanik's website's Media Center makes it easy to find links to all of her press releases, social media accounts, news stories that she is mentioned in, and even her youtube channel. 

• Stefanik has two official Facebook accounts that she is active on (which you can follow here and here)

• She uses this platform to "share" articles that mention her or things that she did in a positive way so that she is all over your news feed.
• She also shares personal posts like her reading list for the past year which received many comments like this one:
  
• She has also made a habit of posting what she voted for and an explanation of why she voted that way so that her Constituents are able to see directly from the source

• She also has two twitter accounts (here and here) 

• She uses these accounts just to get her name out there. 
• She retweets as many things as she can so that as you are scrolling through your feed, all you see is her name.

• Her Instagram is used more as a personal account than anything else.

• She shares pictures of her and her fiance, 
  
• As well as many pictures of Instagram worthy foods,
  

• She uses all of these platforms for all three of the Activities the Mayhew suggested. 

• Advertising

• She gets her name out there and on your news feed
• Stefanik also advertises through her weekly online newsletter. 

• Credit claiming

• With her Facebook posts about what she did and why she is pushing the idea that she is important because she is actually doing stuff.
• In these posts she also reminds her constituents what they asked her to do and proves that she is doing it. 

• Position taking

• Everyone knows that it is very easy to state your opinion on social media, and Congresswoman Stefanik is no different. 
• She continually shares what she thinks is right and what she thinks should be done about it.
• This is also seen in her posts about how she voted and why she did how she did. 

Franking

• In 2016 Elise spent over $105,700 on franking.

Travel

• Elise has three offices in her district, plus her office in D.C. that she travels between.

Many of Elise's constituents believe that she doesn't care enough about them. Just from looking at the comments on her social media posts I could tell that there are some very upset people. They believe that because she doesn't ever respond to comments, or tweets, that she is just taking their votes for granted. The big thing right now though is that she didn't show up to a town hall meeting. According to this article, when asked when she would start doing town hall meetings she said that she wouldn't, so this community decided to plan one for her. She declined the invitation and instead had the large crowd of people that showed up write down their concerns on note cards, and speak their concerns into a camera. 

Electoral Circumstances

2016 Election:

·        Congresswoman Stefanik announced that she was running for reelection in January of 2016. She, along with her democrat and green party opponents, ran unopposed in the primaries. Elise won 65.3% of the vote.

Next Election:

• New York’s 21^st is getting more and more republican every year, which was proven by Stefanik’s win by a large margin both times she has run. This was also reflected in the presidential vote from last election with Trump winning over Hillary.

• The district has shown that they like Elise, and they like the youth that she brings to the house, as that is one of the major things that she campaigned on last election. However, with Trump’s low approval rating it is assumed that the next congress will be more democratic. The relationship between presidential approval ratings and congressional elections is rough, and Republicans have some pretty clear structural advantages, but the GOP could hold the House even if Trump remains about as unpopular as he is now.

• Historically, there’s a wide margin of error between a president’s approval rating and how people vote in House elections. Generally speaking, a president’s party does better in down-ballot races when he’s popular and worse when he’s less popular. But it’s not a 1-to-1 relationship. You can see this by plotting the presidents’ final Gallup job approval ratings before every midterm election since World War II against how many House seats his party lost.
  

·        Because of this relationship and the margin that Elise has won by in the past two elections, I believe that it will be a pretty safe race for her in 2018.

Campaign Finances:

•         In the 2016 election Congresswoman Stefanik Raised a little over $3.1 Million, and only spent $2.6 million of that.

•         The majority of her finances came from PACs

Where does Elise stand on the issues?

·        Economy

o   Create jobs and economic opportunities for small businesses to grow in Upstate New York

·        Taxes

o   Reduce the out of control tax and regulatory burdens facing small businesses by reforming the tax code to be flatter and fairer

·        Healthcare

o   Repeal Obamacare and replace it with common sense solutions to lower health care costs and improve quality and access

·        Agriculture

o   Support Upstate farmers—The backbone of the North Country communities

·        Veterans and Military Families

o   Protect Fort Drum

o   Ensure that veterans and military families receive the care and services they’ve earned

·        Constitution

o   Uphold the 2^nd amendment

As you can see, many of these issues are specifically geared towards the population of her district. This reinforces their draw towards her and explains why they have voted for her with such a large margin. 

New York's 21st

Populationà 710,842

Major Citiesà Glens Falls, Platsburgh, Watertown

This district is very rural, it contains most of the Adirondack Mountains. It also contains US Army Fort Marshal.

Demographics

Race

New York’s 21^st is very white. Over 92% of the population is white,  3% Hispanic or Latino, and 3% Black or African American.

Income

The average income is $64,672

The two largest industries are Retail trade, and Accommodation and Food Services

Only 12.44% of the population over the age of 25 has obtained their bachelors degree or higher. This falls dramatically below the national average of 18.52%.

Age

The average age is 40 years old, and most of the population is between the age of 45 and 54 years old.

Political Affiliation

During the 2016 election this district voted for Trump, although in the past they have voted more on the democrat side. In fact, Congresswoman Stefanik is the first republican representative of this district since Hamilton Fish IV was elected in 1983

Elise Stefanik

Biographical Informationà http://eliseforcongress.com/about/

Born- 1984 in upstate New York where she was also raised.

Residence- Willsboro, New York

Education- Elise attended Albany Academy for Girls and went on to graduate from Harvard University with honors. She was the first person in her immediate family to graduate from college.

Background- Elise’s parents owned and operated a small business, Premium Plywood Products, which she worked at prior to winning her election. She says that growing up around her family’s small business has taught her the perseverance, challenges, and risks that go into opening and operating the businesses that provide jobs for many people in upstate New York today.

Career-

From 2006 – 2009, Elise served in the West Wing of the White House as part of President George W. Bush’s Domestic Policy Council Staff, and in the Chief of Staff’s office where she assisted in overseeing the policy development process on all economic and domestic policy issues.

Later, Elise served as “Director of Vice Presidential Debate Prep” to Paul Ryan where she oversaw all debate preparations for the Republican Vice Presidential nominee. She also served as Director of Communications for the Foreign Policy Initiative.

Elise was elected to the house in 2014 where she represents New York’s 21^st district.

Political Party- Republican

Policy Focuses-

• ·        Creating jobs and economic opportunities for small businesses and hard working families in Upstate New York.
• ·        Reducing the out-of-control tax and regulatory burdens facing small businesses by reforming the tax code to be flatter and fairer and eliminating red tape.
• ·        Repealing Obamacare and replacing it with common sense solutions to lower health care costs and improve quality and access.
• ·        Fighting for fiscal responsibility by balancing the budget and protecting and preserving entitlements.
• ·        Supporting Upstate farmers – the backbone of our North Country communities.
• ·        Protecting Fort Drum and advocating for veterans and military families.
• ·        Pursuing energy policies that help North Country families and businesses.
• ·        Finding solutions for hard working North Country families to help make education higher quality and more affordable.
• ·      Promoting and strengthening U.S.-Canadian trade relations.

(https://stefanik.house.gov/about/full-biography )

 Committee Assignments-

• ·        House Committee on Armed Services
• Chair for the Subcommittee on Emerging threats and capabilities. In adition she serves on the subcommittee on Readiness.  
• ·        House Committee on Education and the Workforce
• Serves on the Subcommittees on Higher Education and Workforce Development  and Workforce Protections.
• ·        House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
• Serves on the Subcommittees on Department of Defense Intelligence and Overhead Architecture and the NSA & Cybersecurity.

(https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/elise_stefanik/412648 )

Fun Facts-

• ·        Elise was the first member of her immediate family to graduate from college.
• ·        She holds the title for being the youngest woman ever elected to Congress in US history.
• ·        She was in the same year as Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard and, as a result, was one of the first people to use Facebook

(http://heavy.com/entertainment/2014/11/elise-stefanik-congress-youngest-woman-elected-age-boyfriend/ )