BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — Democrats signaled confidence in the final days of the campaign in New York’s 19th Congressional District, with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., seeking to assuage worries about former President’s Donald Trump’s “little secret” with Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. because he expects New York to deliver the Democrats a House majority.
Voters lined up down the block in anticipation of Josh Riley's Binghamton event with Jeffries. Riley had run against Rep. Marc Molinaro, R-NY., in 2022 and lost by just about 4,500 votes in the final tally. This year, the race is just as close and, on November 1, was considered the closest House race in the country in FiveThirtyEight’s forecast.
The race's importance was demonstrated on Friday, as Jeffries and Johnson held dueling events in the district. Johnson was in the district for Molinaro’s “Pasta and Politics” dinner, where tickets ranged from $25 to $3,3000, while Jeffries was there for two get-out-the-vote rallies for Riley, one in Binghamton and one in Ithaca.
While The Daily Gazette reports that about 400 people attended Molinaro’s dinner with Johnson, hundreds of Democrats showed up to the packed event at Binghamton’s American Legion hall on Main Street, with volunteers needing to bring in extra seating to accommodate the crowd.
Outside the event, attendees discussed the closeness of both the district's congressional race and presidential race. Some self-described “dyed in the wool” Democrats suggested that the GOP’s division on Ukraine aid might hurt Molinaro in the Binghamton area, which is home to a significant Ukrainian and Polish American population.
Even more Democrats turned out for the 6 pm rally at Ithaca’s State Theatre, an early 20th-century gothic auditorium in the college town's center. The event was filled past capacity, with all of the venue’s 1,600 seats filled and many standing in the back of the room for the combination bluegrass concert and political rally.
The crowd was fired up, delivering cheers for songwriter Natalie Merchant’s rendition of “Put a Woman in Charge” and boos for billionaire tax cuts in equal measure. The scale and energy of the event surpassed the typical congressional campaign stop and put a fine point on the Democrat’s appeal to optimism this year.
In his speech, Riley focused squarely on reproductive rights and the threat that a Republican majority in the House could pose to popular programs like Medicare and Social Security as well as protections created by the Affordable Care Act.
“He's campaigning with the chief architect of the plan to kill Medicare and Social Security," Riley said. "My opponent has also put out a plan in every single expert that has looked at it, every single one who has looked at it knows that it would kill Medicare and Social Security."
Riley, as he has throughout his campaign, touched on anti-elite and anti-corporate notes, railing against the influence of corporate money in politics and career politicians, a term he frequently uses to describe Molinaro, who entered politics at 19 years old running for mayor of Tivoli, New York.
“After Citizens United, our politics got flooded with a whole bunch of dark and dirty money, and now you've got these politicians who are doing what's best for the bottom line of the special interests instead of what's best for all of you,” Riley said. “So when I get to Congress, one of the first things I'm going to do, and I'm going to fight like hell, to do, is overturn Citizens United.”
In his remarks, Riley also acknowledged that “we're not a swing state in the presidential race” and that “we’re not going to decide who controls the Senate,” but that, in the House “all eyes are on this district.”
“There’s a reason Mike Johnson is in town," he said.
After the event, Riley attacked Molinaro for his record, telling reporters that “he voted to kill investments from the inflation reduction and to build those jobs here, he had two years to do something about the crisis at the border, and instead of solving the problem, he decided to continue the problem so that he has something to campaign on.”
Jeffries expressed confidence in Democrats' chances in the House, saying that “we’re going to eradicate MAGA extremism in the United States House of Representatives” and attacking the outgoing Republican majority.
“You can't point to a single thing that House Republicans have done to make your life better or to make the lives of the American people better during this Congress, not a single thing, nothing but chaos, dysfunction and extremism," he said.
Jeffries outlined legislative priorities for a potential Democratic majority, saying that they would pass the John Roberts Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Women’s Health Protection Act. His closing message, however, was focused on January 6 and the threat that Trump poses to democracy.
“The most important thing that happened that night, which is what is so reflective of you and your strength and your resilience and your commitment to our democracy, is that we came back to the Capitol,” Jeffries said. “We fulfilled our work, we certified the election.”
When asked by Salon whether he was concerned whether Johnson would use his position to attempt to deliver the presidency to Trump, regardless of the election’s results, Jeffries said that “if we do our job and then put it into the hands of the American people, the outcome will be one where we have a Democratic house that will certify the election, and we believe certify the election of Kamala Harris as the 47th President.”
“We're working as hard as we can to make sure that Josh Riley is successful and that we have other successes here in the state of New York and in California and in other parts of the country,” Jeffries said.
