Politics
In New York, Democrats See Glimmer of Hope After Stinging Midterm Losses
Their congressional candidates have fixed key political missteps. But are voters upset about inflation and the migrant influx ready to take the party back?
Two years after Democrats suffered embarrassing midterm losses in New York that cost them control of the House of Representatives, the state is poised to once again play a pivotal role — this time, the party hopes, in its favor.
From the suburbs of Long Island to central New York, Democrats in a half dozen key races are vastly outspending Republicans in the final days, in some cases by more than two to one. Party leaders have assembled a sophisticated new turnout operation.
And after effectively ceding the policy debate to Republicans last time, Democrats have embraced tougher stances on issues that typically play among conservative and moderate voters, like immigration and crime, while still hammering away on abortion rights.
Those tactical changes have made Democrats cautiously optimistic that they can re-elect their incumbents and pick up seats in the state next week. The two Republicans in most danger are Representatives Brandon Williams in Syracuse and Anthony D’Esposito on Long Island, two first-term congressmen in districts President Biden handily won in 2020.
Laura Gillen, the Democrat facing Mr. D’Esposito in a rematch of 2022, exemplifies the party’s shifting fortunes. She raised $2.5 million in the third quarter, more than her entire previous campaign. The money has allowed her to fund not only a multimillion-dollar TV blitz promising to secure the southern border and abortion rights, but to hire organizers to reach large Black and Latino communities.
“It’s a totally different campaign,” she said in an interview. “I am on offense on the border because my opponent has failed to deliver any kind of relief to New York State, or to address the crisis.”
