WSKG reporters are interviewing candidates in some of the biggest local races heading into the November election.
This week, we look at the candidates running for New York’s 23rd Congressional District. The district is made up of eight counties in the Southern Tier including Tioga, Chemung, Schuyler and Steuben counties.
First-term Republican Rep. Nick Langworthy is running for reelection. His Democratic challenger is retired businessman, Tom Carle.
In an interview with WSKG, Carle discussed why he is running to represent the district. We will air a profile on Langworthy Thursday.
Tom Carle grew up on a dairy farm in the town of Conklin in Broome County and now lives with his wife and children in Fredonia. He is a father of five and a grandfather of six.
Carle said his reason for getting into the 23rd Congressional District race is in part because of his family.
“What will the future hold for them if I don't do anything?” Carle asked. “If I just stay here and I don't try? If I try I might change some conversations, I might change some viewpoints. And even better yet, if I get involved, maybe we can really make some notable [changes] for the good.”
While Carle is a Democrat, he said he is independent-minded and an aggressive centrist who “tracks a little bit to the right of center on most issues.”
He is a gun owner, a hunter and ran several small and family businesses. He worked with big budgets in large manufacturing companies and said he increased efficiencies and reduced wasteful spending during his career. He believes in ending taxes on Social Security benefits and tips for service workers, which the Republican candidate for president, Donald Trump, is pledging to do as well.
Carle said the ineffectiveness in Congress also pushed him onto the campaign trail.
“The chaos in Congress currently, maybe possibly the worst Congress that we've ever had, really motivated me to say to my wife, ‘you know, I could probably, if I got involved, make that better.’“
Republicans have the advantage in the 23rd District. They outnumber Democrats by more than 41,000 active voters. However, more than 30 percent of voters in the district are not affiliated with either of the two major parties.
Although Carle has not held an elected position, this is not the first time he has run for elected office. He ran as an unaffiliated candidate in 2022 for this same congressional seat. He contracted COVID-19 and was not able to secure enough signatures to get on the ballot. So, he decided to suspend his campaign.
During the 2024 election cycle, Carle has been outspent by the incumbent, Republican Congressman Nick Langworthy, by wide margins.
Langworthy’s campaign has raised $1.8 million according to the Federal Election Commission.
Carle’s campaign has raised just $31,000, which includes his own personal contributions as well as private donations.
In a call with WSKG last month, Carle said his past work experience is why he is confident in his ability to understand hundred-million-dollar budgets and negotiate and build consensus in Congress.
“Most of my career, I've been someone who was resolving problems, fixing problems, working hard for people, whether it was negotiating a union contract or going into a factory that had efficiency or waste problems or a budgetary problem, and correcting that,” Carle said.
New York’s congressional district maps were redrawn in 2022 and shifted the district slightly by adding Tioga County, while removing parts of Steuben and Schuyler counties. The latter are now part of the 24th Congressional District.
Carle considers himself a “business-oriented environmentalist,” as well. He believes manufacturers have the responsibility to help clean up the environment and eliminate harmful chemicals, such as PFAS, from production.
“Almost everything we do, you [got] to think about what that cost is on the planet, in the climate, in our environment and our water and our air,” Carle said.”We can't be irresponsible industrialists anymore.“
If elected, one of Carle’s top priorities is making sure women’s reproductive health care is guaranteed universally.
“After 50 years of Roe v. Wade coverage, and an understanding that it's a right of privacy for a woman to be able to have that kind of care, it just seems ridiculous that we've gone backwards. As far as the size and timing of a family and a woman to make decisions about her own body, I'm 100% on the side of women in this one.“
Carle wants to maintain programs like benefits for military veterans within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Social Security, Medicaid and food assistance such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
He said homelessness is also a concern. Carle attributed this issue to unaffordable rents, a lack of new housing construction, along with job loss and poverty.
He said mental health and substance abuse issues are at the center of homelessness and he will look at the Southern border to help remove the flow of drugs into the country.
“The war on drugs has been pretty much a complete failure. So, we have to look at it a little bit differently and whether it’s seizing at the border or the people bringing it in, we need to eliminate that. I get back to the root cause analytics again. Let’s make sure we’re putting our resources where we need to.”
He is also concerned about defending democracy and moving the country away from Trump.
“Really it starts with stopping Donald Trump and the MAGA movement, because they are not about democracy.“
Carle said democracy is always going to be a little messy with multiple sides and opinions but defending it starts with sharing ideas with one another.
“Hopefully, we'll return to a time when a good idea doesn't die in the halls of the House of Representatives and can be discussed by both sides constructively and then put forth in a way that everybody can agree to and we can actually make some progress.“
Early in-person voting in New York is happening now through Sunday, Nov. 3. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 5.