With about two weeks to go until Election Day, next year's race for a central New York congressional seat could shape up to be a fierce one.
With campaigns for the 2024 election already underway, Hamilton College Professor of Government Phil Klinkner says the race for NY-22 is likely to be contentious. He said the district is unique because it’s one of the few districts where a majority of voters went for President Biden in the 2020 election but elected a Republican member of Congress. This makes the district one that both sides of the aisle are pretty interested in.
“For Democrats, these are the easiest ones to pick up and for Republicans, they are definitely ones that they will want to hold on to,” Klinkner said. “So that’s why we’ve seen such intense races in the past and will continue to see in 2024.”
Candidates are already making national headlines. In late September a Fox News story was published about a comment made by Democrat Senator John Mannion, who is running for NY-22. The comments were referring to issues over asylum seekers being potentially bussed to upstate communities and were given during a Zoom call with local Democratic candidates. Here's what Mannion said in a clip posted on Fox News dot com:
"It will be weaponized, it is effective," Mannion said. "I represent those very Republican areas, as I said. When you go into those rooms, you know, they are fearful that buses of migrants are going to come into where they live and change their community. It is just unbelievable to me, but I'm not surprised at the ignorance."
Republican Congressman Brandon Williams, who is campaigning to keep his seat, was quick to call out the comments. He said central New Yorkers don’t want to see hypocrisy in their representatives.
“I think the American people, and people particularly in central New York are tired of politicians talking out of both sides of their mouth,” Williams said.
Mannion said it was not given its proper context.
“My statement, which was a private statement, was taken out of context,” Mannion said. “And that is unfortunate. It actually speaks to what I was actually talking about in that conversation is that issues that really should be dealt with prudently and collectively are being unfortunately politicized.”
Even though Klinkner said it is still way too early for any sort of race prediction, voters can expect to see much more from the candidates moving forward.
“I would say just get ready for a lot more television ads,” Klinkner said.
