The nation’s capital may be convulsed in controversy over Iran, immigration, walls and massacres that never happened, but U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Willsboro, appears to float serenely above it all — for now.

As the curtain rises on the 115th Congress, Stefanik is more and more at stage center as something of a rising star in the constellation of Republicans controlling Capitol Hill — which includes House Speaker Paul Ryan, her mentor whom she helped on debate prep in 2012 when he was the GOP’s vice-presidential nominee.

She is conservative by inclination but willing to diverge from GOP orthodoxy when it conflicts with her view of her North Country district’s interests.

At age 32, she has been named chair of the House Armed Services subcommittee on emerging threats and capabilities — an unusual honor for a sophomore lawmaker. The subcommittee is focused on cyber threats, counterterrorism and controlling proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

And she won appointment to the House Select Committee on Intelligence, which oversees the U.S. intelligence community and receives classified briefings on the most sensitive intelligence matters facing the nation.

All in all, not bad for a 2002 graduate of the Albany Academy for Girls whose family operates Premium Plywood Products in an industrial park in Guilderland Center.

To read the full story on Stefanik from the Hearst Washington D.C. Bureau’s Dan Freedman, click here.