Congresswoman Elise Stefanik represents the vast majority of North Country Public Radio’s coverage area. The story of her political evolution from moderate newcomer to one of former President Donald Trump’s most trusted and vocal allies is among the most important stories of the decade in our region.
NCPR has been among the few journalism outlets to follow that transformation from the very beginning. In 2022, we doubled down on that history of in-depth reporting, dedicating resources to hire longtime NCPR reporter Zach Hirsch on a contract to follow Stefanik’s continued embrace of Trump, far-right politics, and, in particular, their lies and misleading statements about the 2020 election. Zach worked on this beat with our full-time reporters Emily Russell, Amy Feiereisel, and Cara Chapman.
While national outlets like the Washington Post, the New York Times, and Politico have recently published in-depth profiles of Rep. Stefanik and her political transformation, NCPR was years ahead of the curve. We sat down with her in 2016, back when she was a frequent critic of Trump and even hesitated to say his name.
Those national profiles have drawn from and built upon North Country Public Radio’s expertise. In fact, Jesse McKinley, a journalist who contributed to the recent Times piece, tweeted a link to our reporting in May. “A reminder, yet again, for the thousand-th time, that we need news organizations like @ncpr keeping an eye on political leaders,” he wrote.
In our reporting...
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