Voters in New York's 24th congressional district span from Niagara Falls all the way to Watertown. This Election Day they’ll have a choice between a Republican congressional incumbent and a Democrat newcomer.
As Republican Claudia Tenney’s first term representing a new NY-24 comes to a close, she’s looking to hold on to the changing district seat. Tenney previously represented parts of the Southern Tier and Mohawk Valley in Congress and the New York State Assembly. The current NY-24 representative says her record of transparency when it comes to her congressional votes is one of the qualities that represent her as a candidate.
“I try to make sure that the people that I represent understand the importance of self-governance and that their information is important, that they know that they can govern themselves,” Tenney said. “You know, we the people. It's not about having a big government and government doing everything. It's about us governing ourselves.”
Democrat David Wagenhauser is looking to take over. A public interest attorney by trade, he previously served as a Village Trustee in Brockport. Wagenhauser says he’s looking to stop the “nonsense” in Congress and work to create a more effective government.
“I want to work with other people. I want to get things done. I want to help to make people's lives in New York, 24 and in Oswego County a little better. And I think that can be done. We just tone things down. Get to work. Stop with all the nonsense.”
Wagenhauser identifies as a moderate Democrat who was just shy of getting the signatures to run as an independent candidate. He said he’d be open to working across the aisle to get things done.
“Compromise shouldn't be a dirty word. I want to work with anyone, Democrat or Republican, independent, to really help the people here. I'm not an ultra-partisan person. Be honest. I've got issues with Albany and Washington. but I want to make sure that we get things done.”
Tenney said she advocates for conservative Republican values, but keeping the needs of the community first should be the priority.
“There's a lot of places where we overlap,” Tenney says. “And I think what happens is people see the far right or the far left, and they don't see that we actually do in the end, have to work together. I advocate for conservative Republican principles. You know, I come out of the gate that way. And I look for solutions, though, because sometimes, you know, you have to like, look forward to what's going to be best for our community and what's going to be right in the long term. And so, you know, that isn't always so easily pigeonholed.”
For Tenney, border security is one of the items at the top of her list. She said it’s an issue the federal and state governments need to tackle.
“It really is forcing people to spend money they don't have, on people that we shouldn't be spending money on,” Tenney said. “I mean, I have $5 billion this year. An estimated 9 billion over the last three years has been spent just of New York taxpayer dollars on accommodating illegal immigrants. And when you look at a district like mine with 235,000 Medicare recipients, that's 65 plus, out of a district of a little over 700. That's a huge number of people that are, you know, had fixed incomes, are going through the final years of their life, have need health care, you know, need are probably relying a lot on their Social Security and to put them through, even more expenses and making it impossible for them to have a standard of living even a little below what they're used to, I think is really unfair.”
For Wagenhauser, Medicare and Social Security are top priorities.
“We have to protect Medicare and Social Security, which, frankly, are under threat,” Wagenhauser said. “And I'm not just talking about Project 25. There are plans from, for example, the Republican Study Committee that would affect how we get our Medicare and Social Security. I don't want it privatized. I don't want vouchers for Medicare. And these are plans that they're they're floating out there. Now, Miss Tenney has voted to cut Medicare by almost $500 billion over ten years. She voted for that in 2017. And of course, we all know that what they're trying to do with Social Security. So I'm concerned about these things having been a recent recipient. but that's one big concern, that a lot of us are having.”
Both candidates share concerns over the high cost of living and working on generating jobs that keep people living and working in New York state.
New York’s 24th Congressional District was altered with recent redistricting and includes parts of 14 counties from the North Country, through central New York, the Finger Lakes Region, and Western New York.
