Stefanik voted in as House GOP’s new No. 3 leader

Elise Stefanik cruised to victory in a Friday vote to replace Liz Cheney as House Republicans’ third-ranked leader, an unsurprising outcome after the New Yorker’s aggressive campaign for the spot.

Stefanik won in a 134-46 secret-ballot vote, defeating her sole challenger Rep. Chip Roy of Texas. Roy, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, which includes most of the chamber’s most conservative members, was easily defeated.

Her win is the culmination of a fast-paced effort by GOP leaders to remove Cheney (R-Wyo.), the party’s top woman leader and frequent Donald Trump critic, from the conference chairmanship and install Stefanik in her place. The 36-year-old New Yorker, known as a moderate turned Trump ally who’s used her fundraising skills to help elect a new class of GOP women, is now the highest-ranking woman in elected Republican leadership.