The district is considered a challenge for Democrats: Despite a creeping increase in registered Democratic voters in recent years, Republicans still outnumber Democrats by nearly 50,000. The last Democrat to hold the seat was Bill Owens, who won a 2009 special election and retired in 2014. Her sudden prominence comes less than a year after she clashed with Republican leaders over the party’s direction. “She now appears very partisan,” Mr. Owens said. While Ms. Stefanik’s youth and gender make her an outlier among Republicans in the impeachment hearings, she rejected any suggestion that her enhanced role in the hearings was politically calculated.

Source: New York Times November 18, 2019 19:11 UTC