{"id":334777,"date":"2026-09-01T12:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T12:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/334777\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T12:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T12:02:12","slug":"democrats-are-again-angling-for-rep-mike-lawlers-house-seat-can-he-hold-on-in-liberal-new-york-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/334777\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats are again angling for Rep. Mike Lawler’s House seat. Can he hold on in liberal New York?"},"content":{"rendered":"

HAVERSTRAW, N.Y. — U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler is considered one of the nation\u2019s most vulnerable Republicans in this year’s midterm elections<\/a>. It was the same story in his last campaign, too. <\/p>\n

But in a political era where both parties are drifting further apart, he’s banking on New York voters still wanting a rare moderate voice in a polarized Washington<\/a>. In fact, he thinks it’s helpful that he’s a Republican in an otherwise liberal state. <\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I think one thing to keep in mind is New York is controlled by Democrats,\u201d he said in an interview. \u201cTheir policies are directly responsible for the high cost of living, the decline in the quality of life, the out-of-control pro-criminal policies that make people less safe. These are their policies.\u201d <\/p>\n

Lawler, who represents a lush and leafy section of the Hudson Valley, is trying to harness suburban anxiety over New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani<\/a> and the surging progressive movement as he tries to beat the odds in a battleground district<\/a> with many more registered Democrats than Republicans.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocrats, to me, have gone crazy,\u201d said Frank Zambrano, a 70-year-old retired fire marshal who lives in Rockland County and said his kids went to school with Lawler. \u201cGive me something in the middle.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Lawler’s foes try to tie him to President Donald Trump’s most inflammatory positions, he argues that he’s willing to push back on both sides. In a recent campaign video, Lawler showcased a clip of Trump jokingly using an expletive to describe how much of \u201ca pain\u201d the congressman was to push for expanding a critical tax deduction known as SALT, which benefits homeowners in more expensive states like New York. <\/p>\n

It may be difficult, however, for Lawler to paint his Democratic opponent Cait Conley as a progressive in Mamdani’s mold. <\/p>\n

A decorated combat veteran with degrees from Harvard and MIT, Conley is running as a pro-military moderate who can fight the president’s agenda and capture some of the outsider energy that has lifted Democrats elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that that fire, that drive, that desire for change, it\u2019s not just contained to progressive voters,\u201d she said in an interview. \u201cPeople are sick of status quo politicians. They\u2019re sick of the people who got us here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats want to claw back control of Congress by leveraging concerns over the U.S. war with Iran and an affordability crisis that’s hitting everything from food to fuel to housing. <\/p>\n

Lawler has heard a lot of those concerns firsthand, since they have been shouted at him during raucous town halls he’s held in the district. He said it’s possible to back Trump but also not agree with him on everything. <\/p>\n

At a recent campaign event, Lawler told reporters he didn’t support the president\u2019s decision to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitian immigrants, noting he shepherded bipartisan legislation<\/a> in the House to extend the policy and argued Haitians make up a critical part of his district\u2019s healthcare workers. <\/p>\n

After the event, Lawler told The Associated Press: \u201cWhen I agree with the president, I\u2019m willing to say it. And when I disagree with him, I\u2019m willing to say it.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to President Trump, number one, he\u2019s the president of the United States, and the idea that you just say \u2018I hate you, I refuse to work with you,\u2019 you get nowhere. Where does that get you in terms of serving your constituents or your districts? Too many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have taken that posture and they\u2019ve gotten nothing done,” he said. <\/p>\n

Like other Democrats running this year, Conley has sought to play up her opponent\u2019s relationship to Trump, painting the incumbent as too beholden to the president\u2019s agenda on Iran, tariffs and cuts to the social safety net. <\/p>\n

“Trump is throwing all the love on Lawler,” she said, mentioning her opponent’s recent rally in the district with the president. \u201cDon\u2019t tell me you stand up to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conley, a former counterterrorism director at the National Security Council under President Joe Biden, has tried to distance herself from some progressive positions that could damage her in the district as Lawler moves to lump her in with urban liberals. <\/p>\n

She said she doesn’t want to defund the police, and she doesn’t use the term genocide to describe Israel’s military actions in Gaza. Instead, she argues voters are more concerned with the economy and \u201cthe corruption and greed\u201d coming from the Trump administration. As Conley strolled through a Jewish music and arts festival in the district on a recent Sunday, one voter appeared to agree. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to flip this Congress and fight the corruption,\u201d Francine Goldstein, a 67-year-old retiree, said after greeting Conley at the event.<\/p>\n

Lawler appeared to invite controversy recently by posting a picture of himself wearing a red jacket that he apparently previously used for a Michael Jackson costume in college. <\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Lawler said the post \u2014 which included a caption that said \u201cit\u2019s a little snug, but it still fits!\u201d \u2014 was intended as a joking reference to people saying his clothes were too tight in a recent campaign video. <\/p>\n

But critics swiftly pointed out that Lawler had used blackface<\/a> when he wore the jacket two decades ago, and the photos emerged during his last campaign. He apologized at the time and said the costume was meant to be \u201ca genuine homage to one of my childhood idols.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawler first won the seat<\/a> in 2022 when he defeated former U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, then the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. It was a major upset that came as Republicans flipped a handful of suburban New York House seats by gearing campaigns toward crime concerns. <\/p>\n

In that race, Lawler was boosted, at least in part, after a bungled redistricting process by state Democrats resulted in a new court-ordered map that reshaped the seat. <\/p>\n

Lawler then won a second term<\/a> after defeating former U.S. Rep. Mondaire Jones by a wider margin. Jones held the seat before redistricting, but he struggled to adapt his progressive background to a new set of voters. <\/p>\n

Lawler was victorious in the same election that the district supported former Vice President Kamala Harris over Trump. That year, Democrats were able to flip a few other battleground<\/a> seats the party lost in the previous election, making Lawler’s victory even more vexing for Democrats. <\/p>\n

That dynamic has made the district a priority of national Democrats and their campaign spending groups, which are expected to make a big play for the seat this fall. <\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody who thinks they know what\u2019s going to happen in November I think is fooling themselves,\u201d Lawler said. \u201dThis is not like any normal midterm.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HAVERSTRAW, N.Y. — U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler is considered one of the nation\u2019s most vulnerable Republicans in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[416,417,1073,13305,1075,9,24,55,54,56,87,421,420],"class_list":["post-334777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-elections","tag-general-news","tag-government-policy","tag-midterm-elections","tag-military-and-defense","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-politics","tag-u-s-news","tag-washington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334777","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=334777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}