{"id":261182,"date":"2026-06-09T22:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T22:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/261182\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T22:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T22:56:10","slug":"5-democrats-are-gunning-for-rep-mike-lawlers-seat-in-new-yorks-17th-congressional-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/261182\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Democrats are gunning for Rep. Mike Lawler&#8217;s seat in New York&#8217;s 17th Congressional District"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Experts predict up to $60 million will be spent this fall on the New York 17th Congressional District race in the northern suburbs. <\/p>\n<p>Two weeks from Tuesday, we&#8217;ll know which Democrat will challenge <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/newyork\/news\/president-trump-rockland-county-mike-lawler\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Republican Rep. Mike Lawler<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Early voting begins Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>The leading Democratic candidates<\/p>\n<p>Five Democrats are on the ballot for the primary on June 23.<\/p>\n<p>Debates and joint appearances have mostly been polite. Limited polling shows two at the top &#8212; former Biden administration cybersecurity expert Cait Conley and Rockland County Legislator Beth Davidson &#8212; running as pragmatic moderates.<\/p>\n<p>Running in the progressive lane and polling third is Tarrytown Village Trustee Effie Phillips-Staley.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s hard to say any one district is a &#8216;must win,&#8217; but this one is certainly close to it,&#8221; said Erin Covey of the non-partisan Cook Political Report.<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/5-aiello-image.jpg#.jpeg\" alt=\"5-aiello-image.jpg \" height=\"349\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\"  loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  Rockland County Legislator Beth Davidson and former Biden administration cybersecurity expert Cait Conley are the leading candidates to represent the Democrats in the 17th Congressional District race in November.<\/p>\n<p>                CBS News New York<\/p>\n<p>Covey said Democrats in Washington are closely watching this primary with an eye on November.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In a purple sort of district, typically a more moderate candidate is going to do better in appealing to the crossover voters that you need to win this election,&#8221; Covey said.<\/p>\n<p>What to know about NY-17<\/p>\n<p>NY-17, a swing district, sprawls across all of Rockland and Putnam counties, and parts of northern Westchester and southeastern Dutchess.<\/p>\n<p>In terms of party registration, the district has far more Democrats than Republicans &#8212; 212,000 versus 138,000. Yet it is one of only three districts nationwide won by Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election that is represented by a Republican in the house.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats are frustrated Lawler keeps winning there.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll hand it to him. He&#8217;s a good politician,&#8221; voter Tom Burns said. &#8220;He knows how to play the game.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Voters told CBS New New York electability in November is on their minds.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It has to be someone who is fearless,&#8221; Jonell Restivo said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Who will beat Mike Lawler, who will do something about healthcare, do something to end unnecessary wars,&#8221; Burns added.<\/p>\n<p>\n          More from CBS News\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Experts predict up to $60 million will be spent this fall on the New York 17th Congressional District&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8115,883,9,11,10,38417,13177,13176,1628],"class_list":["post-261182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-dutchess-county","tag-mike-lawler","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-rockland-county-new-york","tag-u-s-house-of-representatives","tag-united-states-congress","tag-westchester-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261182","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=261182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}