{"id":107552,"date":"2026-01-21T19:12:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T19:12:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/107552\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T19:12:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T19:12:09","slug":"republican-david-knapp-drops-bid-for-state-assembly-seat-in-central-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/107552\/","title":{"rendered":"Republican David Knapp drops bid for state Assembly seat in Central New York"},"content":{"rendered":"

Onondaga County Legislator David Knapp<\/a> today dropped his bid for a state Assembly seat in Central New York, saying he didn\u2019t want to force a divisive Republican primary election against John Lemondes.<\/p>\n

Knapp, R-LaFayette, said he instead will seek an eighth term as a county legislator in the November election.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I\u2019m disappointed \u2013 and was genuinely excited about our fight for safety and affordability \u2013 I believe a costly and bruising primary would have pitted Republicans against one another, weakened our eventual nominee, and risked handing the seat to a Democrat in the fall,\u201d Knapp said in a statement. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt a time when we need a strong check on one-party rule in Albany, unity matters,\u201d Knapp said.<\/p>\n

Knapp\u2019s decision is part of a chain reaction that began this month when Lemondes, R-LaFayette, suspended his campaign to unseat Rep. John Mannion<\/a>, D-Geddes, in the 22nd Congressional District.<\/p>\n

Lemondes, citing personal reasons for his decision, said he would seek another term representing the 126th Assembly District. <\/p>\n

Knapp kicked off his campaign for the Assembly seat in early December before Lemondes dropped his bid for Congress<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Knapp, 63, a farmer and Army veteran, is one of the longest serving members of the Onondaga County Legislature. He is starting his 14th year in office.<\/p>\n

Greg Herlihy, a Republican from Pompey, earlier this month announced that he would campaign for Knapp\u2019s seat in the county legislature. Herlihy did not respond today to a request for comment about his election plans.<\/p>\n

Democrat Ian Phillips<\/a>, of Auburn, said Jan. 12 that he would campaign for a second time to unseat Lemondes in the 126th Assembly District<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The district spans the towns of Lysander, Elbridge, Camillus, Skaneateles, Marcellus, Spafford, Otisco, Tully, LaFayette, Pompey and Fabius in Onondaga County. It also includes parts of Cayuga County, including the city of Auburn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Onondaga County Legislator David Knapp today dropped his bid for a state Assembly seat in Central New York,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[304,2659,9,11,10,49,51,50,12,12262,5384,10776,10777,2220],"class_list":["post-107552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-editorial","tag-election","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-news","tag-post-standard","tag-syracuse","tag-syracuse-com","tag-trimble","tag-vote"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}