Elise Stefanik

Elise Stefanik represents New York's 21st congressional district, a role she has held since her first election in 2014 at the age of 30 — making her at that time the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. A Harvard Class of 2006 graduate who grew up in Albany and spent time at Harvard Hillel, Stefanik rose to Chair the House Republican Conference in 2021, becoming the third-ranking Republican in the House. President Trump nominated her as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations in November 2024 — a nomination that was withdrawn in March 2025 to protect the Republican House majority. Stefanik has announced she will not seek reelection in 2026 and will retire from Congress in January 2027, concluding a twelve-year career defined by a sharp rightward turn on Israel and a national moment that made her one of the most recognized faces in the fight against campus antisemitism.

That moment came in December 2023, when Stefanik used a congressional hearing to ask the presidents of Harvard, Penn, and MIT whether calling for the genocide of Jewish people would violate their campus policies. All three answered that it "depended on context" — a response that cost Penn's Elizabeth Magill and Harvard's Claudine Gay their presidencies within weeks. The exchange, which Stefanik had meticulously prepared, was viewed more than 10 million times and established her as the most prominent congressional voice on American university antisemitism. She subsequently criticized Harvard's Antisemitism Task Force composition and delivered the keynote address at the ADL's Never Is Now Summit in March 2025 as Ambassador-Designate. She has received upwards of $980,000 from AIPAC through November 2025.

Stefanik's broader pro-Israel record includes support for Israel's right to sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, consistent votes for military assistance to Israel, and outspoken condemnation of the Biden administration's attempts to condition arms deliveries. While her political trajectory has shifted — from moderate upstate Republican to MAGA-aligned fighter — her commitment to Israel and Jewish American safety has been a consistent through-line. At Rank 5, she earns her place on the Iron 100 as the congresswoman who used a single hearing to reshape the national conversation about antisemitism and forced three Ivy League presidents to reckon with the consequences of their moral equivocation.