Competitive New York House races become a fight to define the middle in final weeks
CNN
In the fight for control of the House this fall, a trio of New York Republican lawmakers are pitching themselves as moderates willing to stand up to their own party as they aim to prove their wins in Democratic-leaning districts two years ago were not a fluke.
In the fight for control of the House this fall, a trio of New York Republican lawmakers are pitching themselves as moderates willing to stand up to their own party as they aim to prove their wins in Democratic-leaning districts two years ago were not a fluke. GOP Reps. Mike Lawler, Marc Molinaro and Anthony D’Esposito framed themselves in recent conversations with CNN as moderate and bipartisan, exposing the metrics with which the new battleground taking shape in the Empire State are measured: a race for the middle. But it’s a tightrope. The three freshmen lawmakers support former President Donald Trump in districts President Joe Biden won in 2020. Their first terms have been defined by a historically unproductive Congress. And they’ve at times embraced the right-wing rhetoric of their party, particularly when it comes to immigration and border security. It’s here in New York, particularly in the suburbs of central New York, the Hudson Valley and Long Island, where the balance of power for the House of Representatives will likely be decided, and it’s through these competitive races where red cracks in the state’s reputation as a blue fortress are becoming more exposed. D’Esposito said of the Democrats, “They must get paid every time they say the term ‘MAGA extremist,’ because it is very clear that I am not an extremist. I have been criticized by the far-right flank of my own party for not being conservative enough.” When asked how he talks about Trump, Lawler told CNN, “You can sit and talk about personality, or you can focus on the substance of the issues.”
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