In a purple district outside New York City, a battle for control of Congress is shaping up
Democrat Cait Conley is challenging sitting Republican Rep. Mike Lawler.
PLEASANTVILLE, New York -- In a suburban congressional district that's home to everyone from former President Bill Clinton to New York City investment bankers to thousands of police officers, the fight over control of Congress is inescapable.
This is New York’s 17th District, one of the purple regions closest to Manhattan. For two terms, Republican Mike Lawler has represented this part of the Hudson Valley in Congress. But this midterm cycle, Democrats are hoping that ongoing issues like the war in Iran and high prices for everyday essentials will motivate voters to flip the seat.
“Everyone is very divided and I think there’s got to be a way to unite people without everyone retreating to their separate party camps,” Alex Levy, a resident of Pleasantville, N.Y., about an hour north of Manhattan, told ABC News.
Levy is supporting Cait Conley, a combat veteran and former military police officer who won the Democratic primary in June.
“Mike Lawler votes one way. Donald Trump’s way. And Mike Lawler looks out for himself and anyone politically convenient for him; in this case, Donald Trump,” Conley told supporters at a recent campaign event in Westchester County. “I firmly believe that we deserve better.”
The 17th Congressional District is a diverse one. It's home to one of the largest Jewish populations of any congressional district in the country, along with villages that have among the highest per capita Haitian American and Hispanic populations in New York State.
Lawler flipped the seat when he first ran in the 2022 midterms and, at a time when Democrats want to regain control of Congress, he's fighting to keep his district red. Over the last several months, he's hosted numerous members of the Trump administration in the district, including President Donald Trump himself and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Last Monday, Lawler stood in Haverstraw, in Rockland County, with members of multiple law enforcement organizations as they endorsed his reelection campaign.
“I know what it means to live in a community where police are part of the neighborhood, where they coach the teams and know the families and show up for people on the worst day of their lives,” Lawler said.
Rockland and Putnam, two of the counties in which New York City police officers are permitted to reside, fall within Lawler’s district. They include a number of communities like West Nyack and Mahopac that are popular with current and retired law enforcement officers who serve places farther downstate, like Upper Manhattan and the Bronx.
Conley has called for term limits for members of Congress, telling ABC News that House representatives and senators should serve a maximum of 12 years while Supreme Court justices should not be allowed to serve beyond 18 years.
“We need elected officials focused on serving the people with the time that they have and not focused on continuous reelection for the next two decades,” Conley said.
Immigration has been a high-profile issue in NY-17. Lawler has said repeatedly that he disagrees with ending temporary protected status for Haitians in the United States, but has been a supporter of U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
"It is time for the State of New York to choose safety over sanctuary. It is time for the State of New York to put public safety and the rights of law-abiding citizens above criminal illegal aliens,” Lawler said last Monday.
Some Democrats around the U.S. have called for abolishing ICE. In response to a question from ABC News last Monday about whether she would support ICE’s abolition, Conley said, “I believe that ICE needs to be reined in and reformed and that immigration enforcement needs to be focusing on violent criminals and not nurses and grandmas.”
Several of the country’s wealthiest towns, such as Chappaqua and Pound Ridge, fall within NY-17, but the district also includes communities with large working-class populations, such as Peekskill and Haverstraw. A number of residents of the district told ABC News last week that grocery prices have been a top concern.
"We’re spending a lot of money but leaving with smaller bags," shopper Aaron Thevenin said while leaving a Rockland County supermarket.
Conley and Lawler are scheduled to have their first debate at the end of September.
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