For the past four years, Democrats have attempted to win state Senate District 39, a Democratic-leaning seat centered around Poughkeepsie. Now, Dutchess County Legislator Lisa Kaul is trying her hand at unseating Republican state Sen. Rob Rolison, the moderate former mayor of Poughkeepsie who has held the seat since its creation in the last redistricting cycle .<\/p>\n
After winning a three-way primary in June, Kaul advanced to take on Rolison in November. Although Democrats initially lost the open seat in 2022 by 6 points, they came closer to besting Rolison in 2024, losing by just 1.4 points. Now, with headwinds favoring Democrats in the midterms, Kaul feels confident that her life experiences and record of serving her community will result in a victory over the well-liked Republican.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kaul spoke with City & State about her campaign, her immigrant background and priorities should she win. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n
What brought you into this state Senate race against Republican Rob Rolison?<\/p>\n
I\u2019m a new American. I became a citizen in 2008, came here in 2004, joined the (Dutchess County) Legislature in 2023. And at that point in time, I entered electoral politics because I really wanted to do something about climate change. Having been in office and having now knocked on thousands of doors, I realized that our climate crisis is really intertwined with our affordability crisis. At the doors \u2013 and what I\u2019m personally experiencing too at many levels \u2013 is, I see that the cost of living is crushing us. And that we are facing enormous challenges when it comes to our future, the uncertainty of our future \u2013 not just in terms of whether we have clean air and clean water, but also in terms of a functional democracy and having simple things like autonomy over our bodies.<\/p>\n
So having served in the legislature, I have begun to recognize how important it is for us to have strong representation at the state level. We don\u2019t have that at this particular moment in time. It\u2019s a real hole in (state) Senate District 39. \u2026 And I think somebody with my background as an educator, immigrant, mother, legislator is better equipped to address those challenges as opposed to somebody who has a background in law enforcement \u2013 which is a wonderful, noble service. But we need a much broader approach and orientation to the issues at hand now.<\/p>\n
This district was drawn fairly Democratic in the previous redistricting cycle, but Rolison has won the last two elections. Other Democrats have tried and failed to win this seat. What do you think will make your candidacy successful?<\/p>\n
I have a record of running and winning. When I first ran in 2023, I ran against somebody who was a beloved Republican, very similar to Rolison, and I won with 58% of the vote. And that was sheer hard work in building coalitions. I\u2019ve lived here for over 22 years, and I\u2019ve really built strong coalitions, relationships with people. I\u2019ve been a community activist for a long time, and I think I\u2019m one of the few people who kind of straddles the world of activism and being an elected. I think that really gives me sort of an upper hand, as it were, in terms of just having connections in the district.<\/p>\n
Having a Democratic primary has certainly helped me with name recognition. It certainly helped me get out there and learn this district. I understand that there\u2019s all these winds behind our back, etc. But I’m not relying on those. The people here are independent people. I\u2019ve built a reputation for myself in the legislature (not just) as somebody who gets stuff done, but as somebody who gets stuff done by bringing people along. In my first term in the minority, I was able to get a budget amendment for a waste management issue that had been held up for several years, and the and the way I did that was just sitting down with the Republicans, sitting down with other administrative bodies that needed to be consulted, and figuring out why we couldn’t move ahead. So I think having built that reputation for myself, being seen as somebody who does solve problems (and) wants to move ahead. At the end of the day, I think everybody knows I\u2019m in this to get stuff done for all of us. I\u2019m not a career politician, as it were. I\u2019m running for this seat so much to be a senator, but to do the work that a senator can do, and I think people see that. And that’s why I think we\u2019re going to win this year.<\/p>\n
You said the Democratic primary helped with your name recognition. What was the primary fight like for you, and have you or do you plan to reach out to your opponents to work with or get ideas from them?<\/p>\n
We\u2019re all on the same team. We all want the same things. Our platforms were not that different. We\u2019re all working in the same space. We want the same outcomes. I think the primary was wonderful. I think it\u2019s really good for people to see how even people within the same party can differ, and people can have a chance to choose who they want their candidate to be. It levels the playing field a little bit. The night off the primary onwards it\u2019s been: this is the one team that\u2019s going to go ahead to win this race. If somebody asks me whether there should be primaries or not, I would say primaries are fantastic. They\u2019re really, really good for the candidates, and I think the Democratic Party should have more of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For me, it was a little bit hard during the primary because I have always been endorsed by the Working Families Party, and I wasn\u2019t during the primary. But our issues are completely aligned, and now we\u2019re all on the same side. I think that\u2019s what matters at the end of the day. (It) made me work a little bit harder to show people what they needed to see, to prove to people that I was the viable candidate. These elections, we have to work to win them, and that\u2019s what I did.<\/p>\n
What are your top priorities if you win in November?<\/p>\n
The top priorities are addressing the cost of living. In terms of the cost of living, what I hear from folks are utility bills through the roof, housing that\u2019s impossible and healthcare. Those are sort of the three top priorities. There\u2019s already really good policy in the state that I would be supporting in my area. In terms of utilities, we have a corporate monopoly, Central Hudson, who has been fleecing us. I\u2019m proposing that we replace it with a nonprofit utility, the Hudson Valley Power Authority. \u2026 Nonprofit power authorities do pay less than others, and their rate increases actually are lower than the cost of inflation because they\u2019re able to borrow municipal bonds, which are significantly cheaper, and they\u2019re not guaranteed the rate of return that Central Hudson currently is guaranteed. It\u2019s absolutely unsustainable.<\/p>\n