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Seven weeks after Congressman Mike Lawler challenged Cait Conley to six televised debates, he has accepted four of them, from NBC, CNN, News 12, and Pix11. Two more are waiting on her. Conley has agreed to nothing, and voters begin casting ballots in seventy-three days.

Pearl River, NY – August 12, 2026… Congressman Mike Lawler has accepted invitations to four televised debates in New York’s 17th Congressional District and is prepared to accept two more as soon as they are scheduled. Democratic nominee Cait Conley has not publicly agreed to a single one.

The four Lawler has accepted:

• 8/30 – State of the Union on CNN, with Dana Bash
• 9/6 – Meet the Press on NBC, moderated by Kristen Welker
• 9/28 – News 12, with Tara Rosenblum
• 10/14 – Pix11, with Dan Mannarino

Two more are in the works. CBS2, which hosted a 2024 general election debate in this district, and The Journal News, one of the daily newspapers covering Westchester, Rockland and Putnam, are both working toward dates. The Lawler campaign has told each they are interested, but neither can be finalized until the Conley campaign actually engages.

Together, the six match the number Lawler proposed the night Conley won her primary.

“Mike Lawler has accepted four debates, and he will accept two more. Cait Conley has accepted not one thus far and has actively avoided the outreach from some of the top journalists in the country in the process,” said Lawler for Congress spokesman Ciro Riccardi. “Seven weeks of silence on debates tells Hudson Valley voters exactly what they need to know. Cait Conley is happy to talk about Mike Lawler ad-nauseum using her scripted talking points on friendly podcasts, but she’s scared to stand across from him on the debate stage.”

Lawler first challenged Conley to six debates on June 23, in the immediate aftermath of the Democratic primary, saying, “the people of the Hudson Valley don’t vote for resumes, they vote for results.” He renewed the challenge in a letter on July 7, proposing that the first debate be organized that month. On July 10, he repeated it on NBC’s Meet the Press NOW, telling Kristen Welker, “I challenge her again to six televised debates,” and inviting her to host one immediately. On July 15, the campaign publicly called on her to stop stalling. She still hasn’t answered.

Election Day is November 3, and early voting in New York begins October 24, seventy-three days from today. Absentee and Early Voting By Mail ballots will begin arriving in voters’ mailboxes after September 15. Cait Conley is denying voters in one of the top swing districts in the country the opportunity to hear her argument for serving them in a healthy debate. It’s highly unusual for a challenger in one of the premier seats in the country to duck and dodge debates, and it speaks volumes to Conley’s ineffective campaign thus far.

Congressman Lawler, on the other hand, has no such issues with debating. In 2024, his campaign announced a slate of four debates in August, and he went on to face former Congressman Mondaire Jones on News 12, CBS2, and PIX11. 

“We are asking the Conley campaign to stop stalling and sit down this week to pick dates so we can lock in all six,” Riccardi continued. “Every day that Cait tries to run out the clock is a day Hudson Valley voters lose their chance to get what they deserve – a healthy exchange of ideas between two candidates vying for one of the most important seats in Congress.”

The Journal News’ editor has even weighed in on Cait’s inability to accept debates, saying, “In late June, Conley told MSNOW’s Morning Joe that Lawler was afraid to square off with her. That’s ringing a little hollow now. Conley promised to “Kick Lawler’s **s!” in a primary candidate forum at Manhattanville College in April. Her recalcitrance in accepting Lawler’s challenge, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, to engage in a face-to-face debate is perplexing.”

“The fact that Conley has been avoiding debates is a disservice to the Hudson Valley,” concluded Riccardi. “So which is it, Cait? Are you too chicken to debate Mike or are your DC consultants too scared to let you try?”

Lawler represents one of just a handful of Republican-held districts in the country carried by Kamala Harris in 2024 and won reelection by more than six points. In the latest nonpartisan Bridge Grades report card, he earned a 99.2 out of 100 for bipartisanship, the best score in New York’s congressional delegation, and in the 118th Congress he was ranked 4th-most bipartisan by the nonpartisan Lugar Center.

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