Elise Stefanik makes stump debut for Donald Trump in New Hampshire amid VP rumors

LONDONDERRY, New Hampshire — Upstate Rep. Elise Stefanik made her debut Saturday as a campaign surrogate for Donald Trump 2024, saying she would be “honored” to be his VP — while ripping his rival Nikki Haley as a “non-starter” for the pick.

“He’s going to make the right decision. I trust him to make the right decision for him. So he’s going to look for qualities that he thinks are important,” Stefanik (R-Schuylerville) told reporters at Poor Boy’s Diner in Londonderry, amid speculation that she’s on a short list to be his VP pick. “I’d be proud to serve in a Trump administration in any capacity.”

Haley — who is within seven percentage points of Trump in at least one poll — has also emerged as a possible VP contender, but is the wrong choice because she is “attacking Trump viciously every single day,” Stefanik said.

“It’s a non-starter. It’s a non-starter for voters,” she said.

Trump has said he has chosen who will be on his ticket but has not made the decision public.

Stefanik told The Post she would serve in his administration “in any capacity,” adding she’ll “do everything we can to win this election this November.”

Stefanik has been fiercely loyal to Trump and was the first member of Congress to endorse him for his re-election campaign — before he announced it himself — and has been one of his strongest supporters through his legal battles.

She also has been seeing some support from the MAGA base. At Trump’s HQ in Concord, volunteers led a “VP” chant following her remarks later in the morning.

Stefanik first showed up on stage Friday evening to stump for him in Concord, before swinging through a diner to speak to voters Saturday morning and then rallying volunteers at the Trump HQ.

Over the course of her swing, Stefanik leaned into her New York roots, arguing New Hampshire shares a lot of the same issues as her home state.

“We have so much in common with New Hampshire, so I feel right at home in the cold, in the snow. I’ve campaigned like this before,” she said in Londonderry, adding she wants to “put up a win in New Hampshire” and “really unify House Republicans.”

“My district really tells the story of today’s Republican Party and the America First movement under President Trump. This is a district that House Republicans, at the House level, struggled to win,” she said. “It’s one of the swingiest districts in our direction, so I’m seeing that first hand — how he’s grown the Republican Party.”

She also stressed the record-breaking migration at the northern border as an issue that unifies her home district with the Granite State and called for all other GOP candidates to drop out of the race so the party can unify behind Trump.

Trump won the Iowa caucus on Jan. 15, defeating Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis by a 30-point margin. In New Hampshire on Jan. 23, Trump hopes to increase his numbers, telling voters at his Friday night rally that “margins are important.”

Stefanik said “their momentum is definitely in support” of Trump, who was boosted by “a very important endorsement” from former 2024 presidential candidates Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and Vivek Ramaswamy.

For those who have not endorsed Trump, “voters are paying very close attention,” she warned.

At the Trump HQ in Concord on Saturday, Stefanik stressed to volunteers that New Hampshire needs to build on the “momentum” that he got in Iowa, again stressing her New York background as a way to connect with voters on the northern border.

“Hearty people, pro-America people, America First people, — this is Trump country. Just like my district. I know we have a couple New Yorkers here,” she said. “We’re a border district in my district, and this is a border state as well.”

Trump plans to hold rallies throughout the weekend before Tuesday’s primary, hitting cities throughout the state.

On her future plans with the former president, Stefanik wouldn’t divulge more details, but said she and Trump “talk on a regular basis.”