Republican Mike Lawler won reelection in New York’s 17th Congressional District on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press, marking a major victory for the GOP and a setback for Democrats who hoped to win back a crucial swing seat in the Hudson Valley.
Lawler beat Democratic candidate Mondaire Jones by 16 points, protecting his party’s position in an otherwise heavily Democratic state.
“What an absolute ass-kicking,” Lawler said in a victory speech to supporters. “Tonight, the Hudson Valley told Mondaire Jones to beat it.”
Lawler’s comment may have been a sly reference to his diehard fandom of Michael Jackson, which became a campaign issue. In October a photo emerged of Lawler wearing blackface while dressed as the King of Pop at a Halloween college party.
He later told Gothamist he was “ecstatic” about his victory in a district with roughly 80,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans.
Democrats had been eager to win back a slate of House seats from vulnerable New York Republicans, including Lawler, and close in on a Democratic majority that would likely elect Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of Brooklyn as its next speaker.
As Lawler declared victory on Tuesday night, it was unclear whether Democrats would be able to make that a reality.
They had placed their hopes in Jones, a former representative who was first elected in 2020.
The race took on national importance, attracting around $36 million in contributions and SuperPAC spending. At Lawler’s election night party, Connecticut resident Kevin Alan said he was concerned about public safety and the economy and decided to travel to the Hudson Valley to support Lawler on election night.
“This is a really important race, this congressional seat will control the House,” Alan said. “We are right now facing so many challenges that at least having something, at least having Congress is something that we need to make sure we can ensure.”
Dejected Democrats watched as a key contest for control of Congress turned into a Republican blowout.
Rockland County resident Jacob Tanenbaum, a Democrat who volunteered for the Jones campaign, said he was concerned about what he wasn’t hearing from voters, or GOP candidates.
“Very few voters talked about climate change, even though the south got hit with two once-in-a-century storms within a week of each other,” Tanenbaum said at Jones’ election night event. “On the Republican side, I wish I saw less anger and more talk about the issues.”
Lawler has gained a national profile as a moderate Republican, despite declaring his support for former president Donald Trump. He was elected to the state Assembly in 2020, becoming the only Republican that year to defeat a Democratic incumbent in the chamber, before he set his sights on Washington in 2022.
That year, Lawler defeated Sean Patrick Maloney, then the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which parcels out the party’s campaign resources. Lawler’s candidacy was lifted by a redistricting process that disadvantaged Democrats, as well as a Republican attack strategy that painted Democrats as soft on crime. The outcome was considered one of the key upsets that cost Democrats control of the House.
Lawler first campaigned for Congress on local issues like high property taxes and threats to railway access in Rockland County, which he returned to ahead of the 2024 election. He attacked Jones for his previous progressive stances, including the Democrat’s calls to reduce police funding – which Jones reneged on ahead of November.
As a freshman representative, Lawler became one of the most vocal Republicans to criticize the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Unlike many members of his party, he has repeatedly acknowledged that President Joe Biden won the election in 2020 over Trump. He was also a staunch critic of disgraced fellow Republican George Santos, who was expelled from the House after being indicted on fraud charges.
While Lawler has disavowed some of the more extreme stances within his party, including a national ban on abortion, skeptics note his unwillingness to fully distance himself from a Republican Party under Trump. With Trump’s reelection, Lawler will have to balance his moderate constituents’ wishes with his party leader, who prizes loyalty above all else.
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