she announced earlier this month she would not run for reelection.<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cThis campaign is about presence, understanding, and representation,\u201d Gentile said in a statement. \u201cIt\u2019s about showing up in our communities, listening to people\u2019s concerns, learning their stories, and making sure every voice in the Mohawk Valley is heard. Government works best when it reflects the people it serves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gentile won a seat on the Oneida County Legislature’s 23rd District in 2023 but lost his reelection bid in 2025. He said his campaign for the state\u2019s lower chamber will focus on affordability.<\/p>\n
\u201cToo many families are working harder than ever just to keep up,\u201d Gentile said. \u201cWe\u2019re living in a time where people are scared to open their National Grid bills, and unpredictable expenses are putting unbearable stress on everyday life. Yet instead of focusing on real solutions to lower costs, the latest news out of Albany is about banning gas-powered snow blowers,\u201d Gentile said in a statement. \u201cWe need leadership in Albany that understands what it means to stretch a dollar, make tough choices, and recognize the impact policies have on individuals and our local municipalities,\u201d he added. \u201cAffordability isn\u2019t a talking point \u2014 it\u2019s a reality for our families, and it deserves real action.\u201d<\/p>\n
Utica Common Councilman Joe Betar is running for the Assembly seat as a Democrat.<\/p>\n
The 119th Assembly District covers Utica and Rome, and several surrounding communities in Oneida County.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Oneida County Legislator Mike Gentile will run for the New York state Assembly in 2026, he announced…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[109,116,257,270,9,11,10,49,51,50,12,112,87,3476,27],"class_list":{"0":"post-116580","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-app-local-state-politics","9":"tag-app-ny-state-of-politics","10":"tag-central-ny","11":"tag-luke-parsnow","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-new-york-state","16":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","17":"tag-new-york-state-news","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-ny-state-of-politics","20":"tag-politics","21":"tag-state-assembly","22":"tag-top-stories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116580","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=116580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}