ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Voters will get the chance to decide who represents their interests as early voting gets underway on Saturday in New York. With local primary elections taking place throughout the state, the two Democratic candidates running for New York’s 54th Senate District share their goals during their campaign.

“We’re no longer left behind,” said Democrat Scott Comegys. “We’re moving Finger Lakes forward. Now, full disclosure, serving the state Senate has not been the ultimate goal in my life. Honestly, all I wanted was to literally live a simple and productive and happy life and somehow help to make the world a better place. And with that in mind, I’ve made my living. I worked from the ground up in construction and retail and public service healthcare, and I’ve led teams, and I worked my way up so that we can deliver better services for good. And times have changed. If our children don’t at least have the same opportunities that we’ve had for a good life, we’ve done something very wrong. I hope to earn your vote in the upcoming Democratic primary and win in November.”

“We’re seeing hospitals closing in this district, services going away,” Democratic Michael Mills said. “It’s because we don’t have a voice. We don’t have a seat at the table. But you also need to understand how to advocate. Getting a seat at the table isn’t enough. You need to know what to do and how to advocate and pass legislation. I’ve done that for nearly 30 years. I grew up in Honeoye, spent the first couple of years of my life there in a trailer before my parents strengthened, saved and moved to a small 1,100-square-foot home on the West side of Rochester, where I spent my entire upbringing. I’m ready to fight and we will rise together come November.”

Comegys and Mills are fighting to represent voters in a district that includes Ontario, Wayne, Livingston and parts of Monroe counties. 

“We’ve seen across the campaign that people are hungry for leadership,” Mills said. “People are hungry for the opportunity to make their voices heard and to be heard. What I realized is that we don’t have a seat at the table in Albany. Our current senator can’t get things done for us. And so, she will tell you all the time it’s because she’s a Republican. So having that first-hand experience, I realize it’s critically important to have a seat at the table in Albany.”

“We’ve enabled people to be more engaged, to be more, to participate in the process and to become candidates,” Comegys said. “In 2016, my eldest turned 18, and it really hit home that they didn’t have the same opportunities to just go out and live a life that I had when I was 18, that we had done something wrong. And in examining that, if what we’ve done wrong is we had eliminated a lot of the supports that are coming from the state into our areas to make sure that we’ve got the resources, that we’ve got the foundation for everybody to live the life and successful lives that they want.”

Mills is a former Canandaigua city councilman and is a small business owner who is prioritizing affordability and the environment.

“People are finding it hard to afford their rent, to afford food, for gas in their car,” Mills said. “A lot of that at the federal level. But there’s a lot we can do at the state level as well. I am the only candidate who’s put forward a platform on protecting our lakes, which I say all the time how good our lakes make our lives. And we’ve got to protect them and protect people from our lakes, and our environment generally. I’m showing up at doors, no matter what party you are, what organization you are, and what the ideology is, to really get to the root of the problem and see how we build a coalition and bring the resources together to solve it. I was the executive director of the Geneva Business Improvement District, interim president of the Ontario County Chamber of Commerce. And that’s what it was about. It was about bringing people together for these large, really intractable issues. There aren’t really simple issues that if they get to Albany or Washington, that you’re tackling, they really are complicated and interwoven.”

Comegys, an alpaca farmer and New York state citizen public health leader, is focusing on healthcare and public service.

“There’s a lot of things that the New York Health Act does, and I think a lot of people don’t know, but it is one of those things that really does represent the intersectionality of a lot of different issues,” Comegys said. “I’ve been working different jobs throughout my entire life, managing different operations. I’m just one of the people, and our government is supposed to be made up of ordinary people doing work for ordinary people. I’ve been in operations from retail to construction to health care to public service. I’ve got a lot of different skills to bring people together and to creatively work, work up solutions, real solutions that we can put in place in public. One of the things that I’ve always done in every operation is bring people together in the first place and say, ‘OK, we all have different perspectives, we all have different life experiences.’ And approaching them and bringing people together is not just gathering them in the room, it’s also articulating a vision.”

Both candidates have agreed to support one another no matter the turnout.

“They all want to have a good home,” Comegys said. “They all want to have a good, productive life. They all want to have some form of happiness. And we can make that happen if we have the right support in place. So, I know the message is right because this is what people want out of our government. They want a government that is not rulers, but a government that supports us, and they’re willing to work for it as well.”

“I think this election, you know, the candidates we heard today have a lot of similar positions,” Mills said. “The difference is electability and experience. And I’m the only one who’s held elected office in this race. I’m the only one who’s passed legislation. And it’s important to have a seat at the table. But it’s more than that. You need to know what to do when you get that seat.”

The winner will take on Republican and Conservative Party incumbent Pam Helming.