Conservative Texan Chip Roy slams Elise Stefanik in scathing memo ahead of leadership vote

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), a member of the House Freedom Caucus, considers Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) his friends, but he doesn't think either should be the GOP conference chair.

Cheney, he said in a memo Tuesday, "forfeited her ability" to remain in the No. 3 leadership position by criticizing former President Donald Trump and "pulling us into distraction." So he's with most of his colleagues on that front. He's concerned, though, that they're rushing into supporting Stefanik, who has the backing of both Trump and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and looks like a shoo-in to replace Cheney after a Wednesday vote.

Roy's reservations stem from Stefanik's voting record, which hasn't been reliably conservative over the years. For example, despite being a close Trump ally these days, she actually voted against many of the former president's policies, including his 2017 tax cut, which is widely considered his signature legislative achievement. Roy compiled a list of some of Stefanik's votes that he considers antithetical to the party's strategy, arguing that her record "embodies much of what led to the 2018 a---kicking we received by the Democrats."

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Ultimately, Roy questioned how the GOP could tell "the forgotten men and women of this country ... we are standing up for them with a leadership-tapped colleague with that record as our spokesperson." Read Roy's full memo below. Tim O'Donnell

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.