Thirteen American service members were murdered by an ISIS-K suicide bomber at Kabul airport on August 26, 2021, while Cait Conley was serving as a director for counterterrorism on President Biden’s National Security Council staff. Yesterday, as the White House proclaimed a national day of commemoration and the country honored the fallen, Conley said nothing. Five years on, she has never publicly addressed the Biden administration’s handling of the withdrawal. 

Pearl River, NY — August 27, 2026 — Yesterday, Americans marked five years since the terrorist attack at Abbey Gate, where an ISIS-K suicide bomber murdered 13 American service members and approximately 170 Afghan civilians during the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. The White House proclaimed August 26, 2026, a day of commemoration and named each of the fallen: Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, Staff Sgt. Darin Hoover, Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, Sgt. Nicole Gee, Cpl. Hunter Lopez, Cpl. Daegan Page, Cpl. Humberto Sanchez, Lance Cpl. David Espinoza, Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola, Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, and Petty Officer 3rd Class Maxton Soviak. In a district Mike Lawler calls a district of heroes, where more than half of households include a veteran, service member, law enforcement officer, or first responder, many across the Hudson Valley joined in that remembrance.

Cait Conley, who reportedly played a crucial role on President Biden’s NSC staff as Director of Counterterrorism, said nothing. As of today, Conley still has not posted a remembrance of the 13 fallen on her watch nor issued a statement on the anniversary, on any campaign account or on her campaign website. On the anniversary itself, Townhall reported that Conley “has never commented publicly about the Biden administration’s handling of the withdrawal effort.”

Conley was on active duty at the White House during the first two years of the Biden administration, serving, in her own words, as “a director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council staff.” That is also the credential cited frequently when she appears on national television. This places her directly in the Biden White House’s room of decision-makers on the deadliest day for American forces in Afghanistan in a decade, an attack carried out by the terrorist group ISIS-K.

In May, Fox News reported that Conley has been “largely silent” on the evacuation, that her exact responsibilities during the withdrawal “remain undisclosed,” and that her position “would have likely landed her in meetings about the planning and execution of the evacuation.” Her campaign did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee indicates that the National Security Council “played an outsized role in the decision-making process leading up to the withdrawal.”

“Yesterday, most of the country stopped to honor 13 heroes who gave their lives at Abbey Gate. The White House proclaimed it a day of remembrance. Their families miss them every single day. Yet Cait Conley, who was Director of Counterterrorism at NSC in the Biden White House on the day an ISIS-K bomber killed them, could not muster a single word in remembrance,” said Lawler for Congress spokesman Ciro Riccardi. “She brings up her White House credentials on the campaign trail and in interviews all the time. But five years after one of the deadliest days for American troops in Afghanistan, Cait still will not tell voters what she did, what she knew, or what she thinks went wrong.”

Cait Conley owes Hudson Valley voters honest answers on the following:

1. Why did she offer no public remembrance of the 13 Americans killed at Abbey Gate on the fifth anniversary of the attack, a day the White House proclaimed a national commemoration?
2. What was her role, as a director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council staff, in the planning and execution of the August 2021 withdrawal?
3. Does she believe the withdrawal was handled competently, and if not, who in the administration she served should be held accountable?

“Cait Conley tells voters her national security record is a reason to vote for her, but she refuses to defend her decision-making when it comes to one of the deadliest days for American troops since the turn of the millennium,” Riccardi concluded. “Not only is Cait too chicken to debate, but she’s also too chicken to answer for her failures in the Biden White House.”


 

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NOTUS reports that Cait Conley pledged not to accept corporate PAC money, yet nearly half of the contributions she received from federal PACs came from committees that took corporate PAC money. Conley’s campaign did not respond to the outlet’s request for comment.

Pearl River, NY — August 26, 2026 — NOTUS reported this morning that Cait Conley is “one of the candidates who pledged not to accept corporate PAC money,” and that she has benefited from a workaround the outlet says “is enabling the flow of money from business interests into the campaign accounts of many Democrats who otherwise reject cash from corporate PACs.”

According to the report, “nearly half of the contributions that Conley received from federal PACs came from committees that took corporate PAC money.” Conley received tens of thousands of dollars from PACs that get contributions from corporations, including defense companies Honeywell International and Lockheed Martin.

The report describes a broader arrangement in which committees established by Democratic leaders, including Jeffries, House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, and House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, “have donated to ‘no corporate PAC money’ candidates while receiving donations from corporations such as banking giant Barclays, pharmacy chain CVS and insurance company UnitedHealthcare this year.”

“Cait Conley made a show of swearing off corporate PAC money, and this morning the whole country learned that her words continue to mean nothing. She’s received tens of thousands of dollars from Washington committees chockful of corporate cash, including money from defense contractors like Lockheed Martin and Honeywell,” said Lawler for Congress spokesman Ciro Riccardi. “Corporate money still reached her campaign; it simply made a stop at a leadership PAC on the way, so the pledge could stay on her website.”

Cait Conley owes Hudson Valley voters direct answers to basic questions:

1. Will she return the tens of thousands of dollars she’s received from leadership PACs funded by corporate money?
2. Will she commit, for the rest of this campaign, to refusing contributions from any committee that accepts corporate PAC money?
3. Will she remove the references to not taking corporate money from her website?
4. Why did her campaign have nothing to say when NOTUS asked for comment?

“Cait Conley has spent this campaign lecturing the Hudson Valley about corruption and getting money out of politics, and it turns out that she’s been funneling corporate dollars into her campaign through the side door,” Riccardi concluded. “She should be honest with voters about her pledge meaning nothing, or immediately return all money she’s received from Leadership PACs that take corporate dollars.”

 

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In a thirty-second spot released Wednesday, Cait Conley announced she is running to ban congressional stock trading, enact term limits, and end corruption. Congressman Lawler co-sponsored the stock trading ban and voted to pass it four weeks ago, has backed a term limits amendment and pledged to enact term limits since 2022, and voted to expel a corrupt member of his own party from Congress.

Pearl River, NY – 8/19/2026… The Lawler campaign today offered its sincere thanks to Democrat Cait Conley and her stellar team of well-paid media consultants, whose new ad promotes three reforms Congressman Mike Lawler has backed, voted for, or both.

“I’m running to ban congressional and White House stock trading, enact term limits, and end corruption,” Conley wrote in the post launching the spot. The Lawler campaign agrees these are excellent priorities. It knows this because Mike Lawler got there first.

“We want to thank Cait Conley for the endorsement,” said Lawler for Congress spokesman Ciro Riccardi. “She had thirty seconds of airtime and spent most of them listing things Mike Lawler has already done. She even mentioned him by name in her post, which was thoughtful. Next time we can simply send her our talking points and save her production team the research, since she seems to love copy-pasting Mike’s positions so much!”

For the convenience of the Conley campaign’s research department, a summary:

• Banning congressional stock trading. The House passed the Stop Insider Trading Act on July 22, four weeks before Conley’s ad. The bill bars members of Congress, their spouses and their dependent children from buying individual stocks while in office. Lawler was an original co-sponsor and voted yes.
• Term limits. Lawler is a co-sponsor of House Joint Resolution 12, the constitutional amendment limiting service to three terms in the House and two in the Senate. He signed on in February 2025, eighteen months before Cait’s ad went up. He has also signed the U.S. Term Limits pledge.
• Ending corruption. Lawler co-sponsored the resolution to expel George Santos, a corrupt member of his own party, and was one of 105 Republicans who voted to remove him from Congress. Mike Lawler has helped give corrupt lawmakers the boot.

Lawler’s support for a stock trading ban did not start when he decided to run for Congress, unlike Cait. “Stock trading by members of Congress or their spouses should be banned,” he tweeted in May 2025. “The appearance of impropriety, or worse, is too great.” When the ban passed the House, he put it plainly: “If you serve the public, you serve only the public. You don’t get to play the market with one hand while writing the rules with the other.”

Conley’s ad also leaves out a key detail. When the stock trading ban came to the floor, it passed 232 to 198, and just 13 Democrats voted yes. The bill is now before the Senate. If Conley is serious about the cause she has adopted, the Lawler campaign suggests she begin by persuading her own party to stop voting against it, and tell voters whether she would have joined the other 13 Democrats who voted to ban members of Congress from trading stocks.

“If Cait Conley would like to learn about the rest of Mike Lawler’s agenda, he has accepted four televised debates and will happily walk her through it on any of those stages,” Riccardi concluded. “She has had the invitations since June. Until then, we encourage her to keep cutting ads about Mike Lawler’s stellar record. This one was our favorite so far.”

As for Cait Conley’s concern about “partisanship in Washington,” Lawler earned a 99.2 out of 100 in the latest nonpartisan Bridge Grades report card on bipartisanship, the best score in New York’s congressional delegation.

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Conley, who touts herself as a “moderate,” is joining forces with a party that wants to defund the police, abolish ICE, end military aid to Israel, and spent millions helping elect the Socialist Mayor of New York City – Zohran Mamdani.

Pearl River, NY — 8/17/2026… Cait Conley accepted the endorsement of the New York Working Families Party today, saying she is “excited to be working alongside” the party to make NY-17 “more affordable for us all.” The rollout, announced in Politico’s New York Playbook by New York Working Families Party director Jasmine Gripper, aligns the Democratic nominee in NY-17 with a party whose national and New York leaders have spent years campaigning to cut police budgets, abolish ICE, raise taxes by tens of billions of dollars, and end military aid to Israel.

“The same party that spent seven figures electing socialist Zohran Mamdani just claimed Cait Conley as one of its own, and she says she’s ‘excited’ about it. Hudson Valley voters won’t be,” stated Lawler for Congress spokesman Ciro Riccardi.

The Working Families Party has a very radical and extensive record. The party’s official account posted “Defund the police.” on May 31, 2020, and national director Maurice Mitchell used the party’s blog that same week to urge supporters to call the mayor of Minneapolis and “tell him to cut the police budget.” Weeks later, the party launched a national PAC to elect local candidates committed to moving money out of police budgets, and the “People’s Charter” platform it helped unveil that fall calls to “shift resources away from ‘policing, jails and detention centers.” The party’s New York chapter has defended the state’s 2019 cashless bail law, which ended cash bail for most offenses, and opposed efforts to roll it back.

On immigration, the party’s own website hosts a petition to abolish ICE that calls it “a rogue agency.” In 2024, the party urged Democrats to kill the bipartisan Senate border compromise, calling its revival of Trump-era immigration restrictions “a profound betrayal.”

The party has been just as clear about Israel. Weeks after October 7, it urged Congress to vote no on $14 billion in military aid to Israel, calling the package “a green light and a blank check.” It demanded the Biden administration halt shipments of offensive weapons to Israel, it accused Israel of “perpetrating a mass starvation campaign,” and Mitchell called what is happening in Gaza a “genocide” in a 2024 interview. In 2024, Gripper and her co-director urged New York Democrats to leave their presidential primary ballots blank, demanding that President Biden “correct course on the war on Gaza.”

Conley says she wants to make the district more affordable. The party she took backing from has one answer for affordability: MORE TAXES. In New York, the chapter’s legislative agenda called for six new state taxes, and Gripper personally testified in Albany in support of a slate of tax increases totaling roughly $64 billion in their first year. This year the chapter even declined to endorse Governor Hochul in the Democratic primary while its leaders declared that Albany “must raise revenue by taxing the rich,” but they’ve had no problem endorsing Cait Conley.

The candidates the party elevates tell the same story. The New York chapter ranked Zohran Mamdani first on its mayoral slate, the party’s independent expenditure arm spent seven figures electing him, and the new mayor is a Democratic Socialist who called the NYPD “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety,” promised city-owned grocery stores, supports boycotting Israel, and accuses it of genocide. In May, the national party endorsed Abdul El-Sayed, who says, “When I’m in the U.S. Senate, I intend to lead the effort to abolish ICE,” and pals around with Hasan Piker, a radical extremist who thinks America deserved 9/11. In Pennsylvania, the party endorsed State Rep. Chris Rabb for Congress and, with its allies, spent roughly $1.5 million to support him, a candidate who cast the lone committee vote, 25 to 1, against a bill making infant trafficking a first-degree felony. In 2022, the party endorsed the entire Squad, including Ilhan Omar, who called for dismantling the Minneapolis Police Department.

Even Democrats have warned against this alliance. New York State Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs said of the party’s ballot line in 2024, “It doesn’t make sense for a Democrat to take the line and defend their positions.” The Working Families Party itself passed over Conley in the June primary, endorsing Tarrytown Trustee Effie Phillips-Staley, who finished third with the party’s backing. Conley, despite all of the baggage, welcomed the party’s support anyway, saying “I’m excited to be working alongside the New York Working Families Party.”

“Cait Conley spent the primary telling Hudson Valley voters she was a moderate and normal, and certainly not radical, and she has spent the weeks since being unable to crack 50% of the vote collecting public praise from AOC and now the endorsement of the party of defund the police, abolish ICE, and tax everything that moves,” said Lawler for Congress spokesman Ciro Riccardi. “The Working Families Party has decided Cait Conley is one of their own, and Cait responded by saying she’s ‘excited to be working alongside’ them.”

“This is a party that has advocated for defunding the police, abolishing ICE, stripping Israel of its right to defend itself, and much, much more. The WFP has also backed candidates who think infant trafficking shouldn’t be a felony, who won’t condemn the notion that America deserved 9/11, believe we should increase federal taxes by trillions of dollars, and increase taxes on New Yorkers by tens of billions of dollars,” concluded Riccardi. “Cait Conley, the self-proclaimed ‘moderate Democrat,’ looked at all of those stances and said, I’m in. No one should believe a word she says, and every voter in the Hudson Valley will understand Cait will be just another rubber stamp for the radical left.”

Lawler represents one of just eight 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.
 
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Presidents and officers representing law enforcement across the Hudson Valley, New York City, and New York State stood with Lawler in Rockland County to formally announce their support.

Haverstraw, NY — August 17, 2026… Congressman Mike Lawler (NY-17) was joined Monday morning in Rockland County by presidents and leaders of police unions from across the Hudson Valley, New York City, and New York State, as eleven law enforcement organizations announced their endorsement of his campaign for reelection, representing over 80,000 law enforcement officers statewide, including:

• Rockland County PBA – President Sean O’Connor
• Police Conference of New York – President Mike O’Mara
• Port Authority PBA – President Frank Conti, First Vice President Michael Mollahan, and Financial Secretary Brian Ahern
• Port Authority Sergeants Benevolent Association – Second Vice President Andrew Caruso
• Haverstraw PBA – First Vice President Michael Lupo and Sergeant Pete Connolly
• Carmel PBA – President Vincent Serio
• Carmel LBA – President Mike Bodo
• Westchester County Correction Superior Officers Association – President Peter DiChiara
• New York State Supreme Court Officers Association – President Patrick Cullen
• Sergeants Benevolent Association of New York City – Treasurer Ed Geary
• New York State Fraternal Order of Police – Zone One Vice President Enrique Pabon

“I grew up here in Rockland County. I know what it means to live in a community where the police are part of the neighborhood, where they coach the teams, know the families, and show up for people on the worst day of their lives. These are the men and women who run toward danger when everyone else runs away, and they are the reason Rockland, Putnam, Westchester, and Dutchess counties remain among the safest places in America to live and raise a family. That happens because of the people standing behind me,” said Congressman Mike Lawler.

“On behalf of the Rockland County PBA, it is my honor to offer our full support and endorsement of your campaign to Congress in New York’s 17th District. We proudly give Congressman Lawler our endorsement, not because of the party he represents, but because of what he has done for police officers, both in office and in his professional life. When it comes to policing and public safety, our decisions are not driven by party affiliation. They are based on the individual, their record, and their commitment to those who serve and protect Rockland County,” said Rockland County PBA President Sean O’Connor.

“The Police Conference of New York represents police officers from the tip of Long Island to Buffalo and up to the Canadian border, including New York City, and at our May meeting we unanimously endorsed Mike Lawler in his reelection campaign for Congress. We’ve known Mike since he was an Assemblyman. He spoke up for us, he called out hypocrisy, and he used common sense. I’m also a constituent, and I appreciate that he puts my family before felons. He always, always, always stands with our police officers, and we will do anything in our power to help him get back into Congress to represent not only the members of his district, but police officers statewide,” said Police Conference of New York President Mike O’Mara.

The endorsements come eight days before cooperation agreements between a dozen New York law enforcement agencies and federal immigration authorities are set to be torn up under Albany’s new sanctuary law.

“Cait Conley just accepted the endorsement of the Working Families Party, the party that has called for defunding the police and abolishing ICE, and she said she was ‘excited’ to be working alongside them. Meanwhile, Albany Democrats passed the so-called Local Cops, Local Crimes Act, which bars local police from cooperating with federal immigration authorities and threatens to strip state law enforcement funding from any department that refuses to comply. On August 25, cooperation agreements at a dozen law enforcement agencies across ten counties will be torn up under that law,” continued Lawler. “I have a simple question for Cait Conley: will you call on Albany to repeal its sanctuary law, yes or no? The men and women on this stage deserve an answer, and so does every family in this district.”

“This election is a choice. You can stand with the people who protect our communities, or you can stand with a party that wants to defund them. I made my choice a long time ago, and I will never apologize for backing the blue,” concluded Lawler. “I want to thank the men and women of law enforcement for this endorsement, and I will work every day to keep your support and your respect.”

Video of the press conference is available HERE.

Photos of the press conference are available HERE.

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After telling a national cable audience that Mike Lawler was “scared” to face her, and that she would “kick [Lawler’s] ass”, Conley ducked Meet the Press and State of the Union, and stalled for 52 days to agree to just two debates, fewer than this district got in 2024 and none before September 28. Lawler has accepted four and is ready for all six. The candidates’ first forum is on Wednesday morning in Poughkeepsie and is open to the press. 

Pearl River, NY — August 14, 2026… After telling a national cable audience that Mike Lawler was “scared” to face her, and that she would “kick [Lawler’s] ass”, Conley ducked Meet the Press and State of the Union, refused CBS2, and stalled for 52 days before agreeing to just two debates, fewer than this district got in 2024 and none before September 28 – after early voter are already being cast. Lawler has accepted four and is ready for all six. The candidates’ first forum of the cycle is on Wednesday morning in Poughkeepsie and is open to the press.

Lawler challenged Conley to six televised debates on June 23, the night her primary was called. He renewed the challenge in a letter on July 7 and proposed holding the first debate that month. He repeated it on NBC’s Meet the Press NOW on July 10, and five days later publicly called on her to stop stalling and accept the six debates plus the Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce candidate forum. On August 11, he accepted four debates: Meet the Press with Kristen Welker, State of the Union with Dana Bash, News 12 with Tara Rosenblum, and Pix11 with Dan Mannarino. Conley’s answer took 52 days and rejected two of them. Under her schedule, the first debate of this race comes 97 days after Mike Lawler first asked for one.

Lawler accepted both debates Conley named before she even considered them. The two she killed are the two with the biggest audiences. The National Republican Congressional Committee reported this week that her campaign’s explanation for turning down the networks is that she “doesn’t want to do network debates.” 
 

Two years ago, voters in this district got three televised debates. News 12 hosted Lawler and Mondaire Jones, CBS News New York held a debate between them, and PIX11 hosted the final debate. Conley’s schedule keeps News 12 and PIX11 and drops CBS2. Under her plan, NY-17 voters will have fewer debates in 2026 than in 2024, in a race the entire country is watching – and 1 of only 3 where a Republican won a district also won by Kamala Harris in 2024.

“Cait Conley went on national television in June and told the country Mike Lawler was scared to face her. Shortly thereafter, NBC and CNN offered her a national stage with Mike Lawler, and she chickened out of both,” said Lawler for Congress spokesman Ciro Riccardi. “If Mike Lawler is the one who’s ‘scared,’ why did Cait Conley just run away from two of the debates on the table? We know the answer: It’s because Conley hasn’t lived in this district, doesn’t pay taxes or own a home here, and is embarrassingly unprepared to talk about the issue facing the hard working families, seniors, and small business owners who do.”

Conley’s statement leans on “multiple forums between now and Election Day.” The first one is five days away. On Wednesday morning, August 19, the Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce hosts the general election’s first candidate forum at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Poughkeepsie, and it is open to the press.

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This morning, the Lawler campaign announced four accepted debates and called on Cait Conley to stop playing chicken. Conley’s response?  Refusing to debate on NBC’s Meet the Press and CNN’s State of the Union, two of the biggest stages in this race.

Pearl River, NY — August 12, 2026…   This morning, the Lawler for Congress campaign announced that Congressman Mike Lawler had accepted four televised debates and called on Democratic nominee Cait Conley to stop playing chicken and pick dates. By later this morning, the two debates with national outlets were dead. Conley’s campaign formally refused both the August 30 State of the Union debate with Dana Bash on CNN and the September 6 Meet the Press debate with Kristen Welker on NBC.

“Cait Conley hasn’t lived in the Hudson Valley; doesn’t pay taxes here; and doesn’t understand the issues here. That is why today she turned down two national TV debates on CNN State of the Union and Meet the Press.  Let’s be frank: The only reason a challenger would turn those opportunities down is because her DC handlers know that Cait is grossly unprepared to debate the issues that matter to Hudson Valley residents and would be exposed as such in front of a large audience,” said Lawler for Congress spokesman Ciro Riccardi.

Meet the Press is one of the longest-running programs in the history of American television. State of the Union is CNN’s flagship Sunday show. Two of the biggest platforms in American politics offered the Hudson Valley a nationally televised debate, moderated by two of the top journalists in the country. Mike Lawler said yes to both. Cait Conley said no to both.

In late June, Conley went on Morning Joe and claimed Mike Lawler was afraid to square off with her. In April, she promised a primary forum at Manhattanville College that she would “Kick Lawler’s **s!” Offered the opportunity to do exactly that in front of a national audience, she ran.

Lawler first challenged Conley to six debates on June 23, put it in writing on July 7, and publicly called on her to stop stalling on July 15. Seven weeks later, the answer is in: no to the two biggest debates on the table. If Conley reverses course and tells NBC and CNN she will show up, the Lawler campaign will make any date work. She has also yet to accept News 12 on September 28 or Pix11 on October 14, and the CBS2 and Journal News debates cannot be finalized until her campaign actually engages. Mail ballots begin arriving in voters’ mailboxes after September 15 – thirty-four days from today.

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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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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The opening ad, “Solutions,” shows Hudson Valley voters describing what Lawler’s tax work has meant for their households. It goes up with Republicans holding a better-than-20-to-1 advantage over Cait Conley in reserved fall airtime, and Lawler leading independents by 15 points.

Pearl River, NY — 8/11/2026… Yesterday, Lawler for Congress launched the first $5 million of its 2026 media campaign, opening the general election in what is expected to be one of the most expensive House races in the country. Axios first reported the buy on July 31. It runs across broadcast, cable, streaming, and digital in the New York market.

The first ad of the campaign is a 30-second spot titled “Solutions.” It opens with Congressman Mike Lawler saying, “If you’re going to fight for the Hudson Valley, you’ve got to know who you’re fighting for,” and then showcases Hudson Valley voters who have benefited from his tax wins for the district. Bill and Mary Jane, retirees whose federal tax bill went to zero under the new deduction for seniors. The Foxes, who received a $4,000 tax cut after the SALT cap was raised. Joanne and Ralph, who are keeping more of their tips and overtime pay. “Mike Lawler will never let us down,” Ralph says.

Lawler has run on the cost of living in the Hudson Valley since he got to Washington. He called restoring the state and local tax deduction his “number one focus in Washington from Day One,” and the cap quadrupled from $10,000 to $40,000, a change Mike Lawler won for Hudson Valley voters. The same law created a new $6,000 deduction for taxpayers 65 and older and new deductions for tip income and overtime pay.

The gap in reserved airtime is wider still. Republican groups and the Lawler campaign have roughly $9.8 million in television booked from now through Election Day in NY-17, according to ad reservation data. Democrats have booked $270,000 behind Conley, all of it airing this month, and have not reserved a single dollar of television after Labor Day. That is a better-than-35-to-1 advantage in committed airtime, with Election Day less than three months out. Democratic candidates and their outside groups have already spent close to $7 million in this district just getting through their June primary, and the national party is in no position to bail Conley out: per June 30 FEC reports, the DCCC trailed the NRCC in cash on hand, $79 million to $92.7 million, and the DNC reported more debt than money in the bank.

“Republicans have reserved more than thirty-five times what Democrats have put behind Cait Conley in this district, and anybody in politics can read a media buy,” said Lawler for Congress spokesman Ciro Riccardi. “Mike Lawler will be on television making his case from now until Election Day. Conley is going to spend the fall hoping Washington bails her out at the cost of other Democrats in key races across the country.”

Lawler leads Conley 50 to 45 in the most recent public survey of the district, a poll of 1,292 likely general election voters conducted by co/efficient on July 23 and not sponsored by any candidate or candidates’ committee. Among unaffiliated and third-party voters, he leads by 15 points, 54 to 39, and draws 23 percent of registered Democrats.

“Independent and unaffiliated voters decide elections in the Hudson Valley, and they are with Mike Lawler by fifteen points,” Riccardi concluded. “They know who fought to quadruple the SALT deduction and who is actually delivering on the cost of living. Cait Conley is losing this key voting bloc 54 to 39, and there is no version of this race where she can overcome that.”

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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The nonpartisan report card gave Lawler a score of 99.2, grading him an “A” for the 119th Congress, placing him in the top 10 among House members graded. Lawler also scored the highest among any in New York’s Congressional delegation.

Pearl River, NY — August 04, 2026…  Congressman Mike Lawler (NY-17) earned a Bridge Score of 99.2 out of 100 and an “A” grade in the latest Bridge Grades report card on the 119th Congress, one of the highest marks in either chamber. Bridge Grades, a nonpartisan project of the Mediators Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, grades every member of Congress on whether they govern collaboratively or divisively, drawing on objective third-party data about what members do and what they say.

Only five of the 424 House members graded higher than Lawler in the current update, which covers the 119th Congress through June 30, 2026. His 99.2 is the best score in New York’s congressional delegation.

The grading places more weight on legislative actions than on words. Co-leading a bill with a member of the opposing party carries three times the weight of a bipartisan public statement, and cosponsoring a bill authored by a member of the other party carries twice that weight.

This rating extends a pattern that goes back to Lawler’s first term. Bridge Grades’ April 2026 report card, covering the first 15 months of this Congress, ranked him seventh in the House. In the 118th Congress, the Bipartisan Index published by the Lugar Center and Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy ranked him the fourth-most bipartisan member of the House, and the Center for Effective Lawmaking named him the most effective freshman lawmaker of the 118th Congress after seven of his bills passed the House, with one signed into law as a standalone measure and five more enacted as part of larger packages.

“Mike Lawler has earned top marks for bipartisanship in the 118th and 119th Congress because he does the work, introducing legislation with Democrats and Republicans while delivering tangible results for the Hudson Valley,” said Lawler for Congress campaign manager Ciro Riccardi. “Cait Conley has offered voters nothing except opposition to any idea that doesn’t fit her and AOC’s worldview. There isn’t a nonpartisan report card in America that rewards that. This November, the choice is between a proven bipartisan leader and a rubber stamp for the far left.”


 

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