Roll Call Politics- Rep.-elect Elise Stefanik’s path to victory in New York reflected the trajectory of the midterms nationally, as Republicans invaded Democratic territory to make double-digit gains in the House.

But in so many other ways, Stefanik’s dominant win was one of her own making.

Stefanik defeated a wealthy Democrat, Aaron Woolf, by more than 20 points in a district the president carried just a couple years ago. At 30 years old, she’s the youngest woman ever elected to Congress, and New York Republicans now tout her as the future of their party.

But that’s nowhere close to where Stefanik started the cycle in the upstate wilderness.

In late summer 2013, she drove an F-150 truck to methodically meet local Republican leaders in the vast district represented by a popular Democrat, Bill Owens.

“I had this 29-year-old political unknown who was introducing herself as willing to challenge an entrenched political incumbent,” recalled Ray Scollin, Chairman of the Franklin County Republican Party, who found Stefanik on Twitter before meeting her in a Saranac Lake coffee shop last year. “I know a lot of people who thought of it as laughable.”

The GOP had been burned before when factions failed to coalesce behind the same candidate in the North Country. The Empire State’s 21st District is one of the largest on the East Coast, extending from the Canadian border to north of Albany. From there, it’s faster to drive round-trip to Manhattan than traverse the district filled with scenic lakes, forests and struggling manufacturing plants.

Stefanik spent her days working for her family’s plywood company, checking her gmail in between stops and carrying a handful of palm cards to the smallest of GOP functions.

“She put well over 100,000 miles on that truck,” recalled Stefanik’s ad-maker, Russ Schriefer. “She’d drive five hours to meet with a half-a-dozen people.”

Hundreds of miles to the south, others also had doubts. Some House Republicans expressed concern she had spent too much time in Washington, D.C. A Harvard graduate who worked in former President George W. Bush’s White House, Stefanik managed Rep. Paul D. Ryan’s debate preparation as the vice presidential nominee. She grew up in the Albany area, but after the 2012 elections, Stefanik moved to Willsboro, two hours to the north, where her family vacationed during her childhood summers.

“I remember looking at her resume and background, and I have to say I was skeptical at first. She seemed, on paper, so young,” said Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Mo., a leader in her party’s efforts to recruit female candidates. “In about 10 minutes, she blew me away.”

On the spot, Wagner cut a check from her leadership PAC and offered to help Stefanik with an event. She raised big bucks in her first quarter, but struggled with fundraising in the final months of last year. Keeping a lean staff, she eventually hired her first staffer, Anthony Pileggi, a few years her junior, as director of operations in November 2013.

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