Being a Republican in deep-blue New York, Mike Lawler is used to being a perennial underdog.
Yet the 36-year-old first-term congressman has churned out a series of wins in largely Democratic districts and ascended quickly through the ranks of local, state and now national politics. In November, he toppled Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Sean Patrick Maloney in what was one of the most shocking upsets of the midterms.
Lawler’s just getting settled in Washington — empty boxes were piled along a wall in the lobby of his Longworth office and the walls were still mostly bare in late January — but he’s already learned one thing. “This is a rough and tumble business in Washington, more so than any state capital,” said the former state assemblyman. “Politics ain’t beanbag.”
