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New York Republicans are focused on keeping control of the House, by trying to hang on to six seats in regions where Democratic President Joe Biden won in 2020. Democrats only need five more seats to retake the House majority.
As reported by Crain’s NY, Democrats are hoping that their stance on key issues, including abortion, transgender rights and book bans, will help voters decide in their favor for the pivotal seats. For their part, Republicans are hoping that voters in these vital regions, including the upstate areas of Hudson River Valley, the Catskill Mountains and Syracuse, will prioritize pocketbook issues and concrete local concerns including farm subsidies, electrical vehicle requirements for school buses, and especially the cap on the state and local tax deduction. The Republicans in these upstate regions have traditionally been known as “Rockefeller Republicans”, with moderate-to-liberal mindsets.
In November’s election, the Republicans had taken over the House by a narrow victory, in which they gained four new NY districts. Their success was based on concern over the US economy and soaring inflation. Republican Mike Lawler was elected in 2023 as the U.S. representative for New York’s 17th congressional district, in a narrow win against Sean Patrick Maloney, marking one of November’s most notable congressional upsets. “This is a district Joe Biden won by 10 points. There’s 70,000 more Democrats than Republicans,” Lawler said. “People expect that you’re going to be reasonable, rational, and that you are working to address the challenges we are facing as a community and as a country.” There were key political and economic issues that helped him win votes, but he says he had to gain support on a non-partisan basis. “If Lawler wants to stick around, he needs to find middle ground,” said Jack Duncan,66, who told Crain’s that he and his sons are Republicans, while his wife is a Democrat and his daughter is an independent. “You’ll find being in lockstep with an extreme position — either the extreme left or the extreme right — won’t work.” In fact, Lawler’s voting record is more liberal than 98% of fellow House Republicans. Veteran New York political consultant Tom Doherty, agreed with the middle-stance approach, saying that getting stuck in far-right policy controversies “never helps anyone in New York.”
Per Crain’s, Lawler is one of four first-term New York Republicans who is slated for a close race. The others include Republican Rep. Brandon Williams, Marc Molinaro and Anthony D’Esposito. Meanwhile, Republican Rep. George Santos seems sure to lose his seat, due to the legal and ethical scandal surrounding his resume– but there are other Republicans vying for his Long Island and Queens district seat.
Speaking in their respective districts, Lawler, Williams and Molinaro each said that they are not really pushing their party line but rather aim to portray themselves as pragmatic conservatives working to accomplish local goals for their constituents. “I know why I am in Washington. And that is to help fix railroad bridges. It’s to help get jobs in upstate New York. It’s to fix agriculture policy. To expand farming and agriculture in upstate New York,” Molinaro said in an interview.
