Elise Stefanik urges House Republicans to rally behind Trump as VP rumors swirl

House Republican Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik appealed to her fellow lawmakers during a closed-door meeting Tuesday to unite behind former President Donald Trump, a source familiar with the discussion told The Post.

Stefanik (R-NY), 39, told her colleagues that the 2024 battle for the Republican nomination is over, with Trump set to all but formally wrap up the race in the coming weeks.

The upstate GOP lawmaker also showed off polling data that indicated Trump, 77, would best President Biden, 81, in the Nov. 5 general election — while former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley would lose to the incumbent — to help her make the case that the 45th president represents the GOP’s best hope for victory.

Trump has official endorsements from at least 135 of the 219 current House Republicans.

In the Senate, at least 31 of the 49 Republicans have thrown their support behind the former president.

More lawmakers have gotten behind Trump after he recorded double-digit victories in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary earlier this month.

Stefanik pre-emptively endorsed Trump before he even launched his re-election campaign in November 2022, making her the first House Republican leader to do so.

Since then, all the top House GOP lawmakers have given Trump their official stamp of approval.

“I am proud to support President Trump,” Stefanik told NBC’s “Meet the Press” earlier this month. “President Trump is winning in poll after poll against Joe Biden.”  

Stefanik has also stumped for Trump on the campaign trail, including in New Hampshire, as rumors swirl that she is a top candidate to be his running mate.

“She’s gaining advocates at higher and higher levels,” one source close to the Trump campaign’s workings told The Post earlier this month.

“I think she’s got momentum.”

“She’s a killer,” Trump said after Stefanik’s high-profile grilling of three university presidents over antisemitism on campus during a Dec. 5 House hearing, NBC News reported.

Stefanik further showed her loyalty to Trump earlier this month by pulling her endorsement from Ohio state Rep. Craig Riedel in a closely watched House race after he was caught on audio bashing the former president.

She justified the stricken endorsement by noting Reidel’s “inappropriate comments” about Trump, in which he called him “arrogant.”

Stefanik hasn’t ruled out serving as Trump’s VP, telling “Meet the Press” that “I, of course, would be honored to serve in any capacity in a Trump administration.”