Upstate Rep. Elise Stefanik is climbing the list of Donald Trump’s potential running mates, sources close to the former president tell The Post.

“She’s gaining advocates at higher and higher levels,” one person with knowledge of the Trump campaign’s workings said of the 39-year-old Stefanik, New York’s highest-ranking congressional Republican.

“I think she’s got momentum.”

Trump, 77, has openly expressed admiration of Stefanik’s performance last month during congressional hearings on college antisemitism, which led to the resignations of Harvard President Claudine Gay and University of Pennsylvania PresidentLiz Magill.

“She’s a killer,” the 45th president said approvingly of Stefanik weeks after the Dec. 5 hearing, NBC News reported this week.

“Nowadays,” the source close to the campaign told The Post of Trump, “he’s looking for someone who can be as much as a hard-charger as he is.”

Trump has had no serious deliberations about who would be his No. 2, despite claiming he had chosen his running mate during a televised Jan. 10 Fox News town hall — a statement that drew attention away from a simultaneous CNN debate featuring his top rivals for the GOP nod, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis.

However, speculation has been rampant that Trump will choose a woman to shore up his perceived political vulnerabilities — the same calculus that led him to pick then-Indiana Gov. Mike Pence in 2016 to bolster support among evangelicals.

“Where does Donald Trump have one of his biggest problems? Suburban white moms,” the campaign source said. “Elise Stefanik’s from central casting and she makes a lot of sense.”

Stefanik, a Harvard grad who was elected to Congress in 2014 and was elected chair of the House GOP conference in May 2021, is also one of the Capitol Hill Republicans most loyal to the former president — backing Trump’s 2024 bid days before he formally announced it.

Stefanik is scheduled to campaign in New Hampshire for Trump this coming weekend, joining a roster of high-profile surrogates including former 2016 candidate and ex-HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson, former first son Donald Trump Jr., and Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake.

So far, the most prominent possible rival to Stefanik for the running mate slot is Haley, the 51-year-old former South Carolina governor and Trump ambassador to the United Nations.

Official Trumpworld has skewered Haley’s veep potential, with Don Jr. going on record to say he would personally intervene to stop his dad from picking his “globalist” opponent.

Top campaign adviser Jason Miller has also squashed rumors biotech mogul Vivek Ramaswamy, who dropped out of the 2024 race and endorsed Trump Monday night, would be a contender for the ticket.

Stefanik has her detractors, however, many of whom argue that she simply isn’t conservative enough to be a heartbeat away from the presidency in a Republican administration.

“Stefanik is one of the most liberal Republicans in Congress,” argued a former senior official in Trump’s administration, citing a Conservative Review tally of ideologically significant votes that gave her an “F” grade.

“No way the base allows someone like her — radically opposed to what they believe — to be on the ticket.”

Another knock against Stefanik stems from the fact that Trump can only serve a single term if elected in November.

This argument goes that Trump would risk being overshadowed by a much younger potential successor — a fact that could undermine other relatively young contenders, such as Ramaswamy, or those who have flirted with a presidential campaign themselves, such as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, 60.

Some Trump advisers have urged him to consider Carson, 72, known as a staunch social conservative with a lower-key personality than other leading options.

The source close to the Trump campaign said he views Stefanik’s purported demerits as possible advantages in a general election against President Biden, who trails Trump in most recent national and swing-state polls, due in large part to voter frustration with inflation and high interest rates.

“There are a lot of moderates in this country who would come to Donald Trump with one more push,” the source said, adding, “He has the luxury of being able to do whatever the hell he wants.”

Stefanik also could aid Trump’s long-stated desire to win New York state — a possibly he mused about during the 2020 election before suffering a 23-point blowout.

“He’s made it clear he’d like to carry New York and nowadays, with the problems in New York City, it seems possible,” the person said.

However, the ultimate choice will be left to Trump.

“Only Donald Trump knows who will be his vice president,” a second source told The Post. “Whoever it will be will serve the nation and him well. Until he announces his pick, anything is speculation.

“Anyone who isn’t Donald Trump claiming to know ‘who the pick is’ doesn’t know.”