{"id":124112,"date":"2026-02-05T18:18:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T18:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/124112\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T18:18:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T18:18:07","slug":"state-assembly-gop-leader-will-barclay-of-central-new-york-wont-seek-reelection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/124112\/","title":{"rendered":"State Assembly GOP leader Will Barclay of Central New York won\u2019t seek reelection"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay said today he will step down from his leadership post and won\u2019t seek reelection in November.<\/p>\n

Barclay, R-Pulaski, has represented an Oswego County district in the Assembly for more than 23 years. He has led Republicans in the chamber since 2020.<\/p>\n

He gave no explanation for his abrupt decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI intend to step down as Minority Leader in the coming days, allowing for a smooth transition to new leadership early in the legislative session,\u201d Barclay said in a statement. \u201cThis is the right time for me to move on.\u201d <\/p>\n

Barclay, 57, is the son of the late H. Douglas Barclay<\/a>, a former state senator who had a 52-year political career and was the respected patriarch of the New York Republican Party. <\/p>\n

Will Barclay, the eighth generation to live on his family\u2019s farm along the Salmon River in Pulaski, also followed in his father\u2019s footsteps by working at the law firm that bears the family\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

Barclay, who continues to work at the law firm, did not say whether he would stay active in politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 120th District has been my family\u2019s home for generations,\u201d he said. \u201cRegardless of what professional role I\u2019m in or where my future takes me, my roots will always be firmly planted in Central New York. My love for the region, the communities within it, and the people who have been by my side will never fade.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay said today he will step down from his leadership post and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6051,9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-124112","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-color","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-news","12":"tag-new-york-state","13":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-state-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124112","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=124112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}