Yet while Ms. Stefanick is aggressively courting the far right, she is also working to maintain a veil of respect in her party, striving to remain attractive to donors.
To secure the future of the Republican Party, said Bill Crystal, a prominent Republican who is never Trump, “you want The Wall Street Journal to feel good supporting you, but you also want networks like OANN and hosts like Tucker Carlson who say : “Yes, she is quite good. ”
Stephen K. Bannon, a former Trump White House official who now hosts an influential podcast on the right, said Ms. Stefanick was not interested in criticism from the left, using swear words to emphasize.
What keeps her awake at night, Mr Bannon said, is every threat on the right.
“She’s currently vying with Representative Jim Banks to see who’s going to the right,” he said, referring to the Indiana Republican and chairman of the Republican Research Commission, who also transformed from a conservative in the movement to an aide to Trump as he seeks to rise to power in Washington.
Some of Ms. Stefanick’s latest moves, people close to her said, appear to have been motivated by her internal competition with Mr Banks.
Last week, Mr Banks was one of 56 Republicans to vote against a $ 40 billion aid package for Ukraine. Ms Stefanik voted in favor of the bill, drawing criticism from the right.
Ms. Stefanik had reservations, people familiar with her thinking said, and expressed concerns about the optics of sending so much money abroad amid so many challenges at home. But in the end, she sided with most of the conference and Republican leader Kevin McCarthy and voted in favor of the bill.
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