This November, Democrats must take control of Congress. To do that, we must elect a Democrat in New York’s 17th Congressional District, which includes Northern Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and part of Dutchess County. Cait Conley is the best candidate for the job and will accomplish this critical mission. I’ve had the opportunity to get to know Conley over the past 16 months and have watched her in a variety of settings and in multiple candidate forums. At age 41, she can be our future.
This is the case for Cait Conley for NY-17
Conley has a super-impressive academic resume, graduating from West Point in the top 2% of her class and then earning degrees from Harvard University (master’s in public policy, Kennedy School of Government) and from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MBA, Sloan School of Management). That said, Conley is more than those degrees, more than her 16 years of active duty in the U.S. Army, including the Special Operations Command. It’s her actual real-world experience in Washington during the Biden administration that uniquely prepares her for Congress in this dangerous time.
Over the next two years leading up to the 2028 elections, we really, really need Conley’s national security and election security experience in Congress providing oversight of the Trump administration. Conley spent two years — 2021 to 2023 — as the director for counterterrorism on the National Security Council, leading on policies to counter Middle East terrorism, non-state actor threats and emerging domestic threats. From March 2023 until January 2025, she was the senior executive at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency overseeing election security for the 2024 election cycle supporting state and local election offices in all 50 states. In Congress, Conley will vote for the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, oppose the SAVE Act and to restore CISA’s election security mission.
Conley’s policy outlook is formed by her experiences growing up in a working-class family in Pine Bush, New York, in the lower Hudson Valley; for 48 years, her mother worked for the postal service and her dad was a construction worker. She is acutely aware of the affordability crisis in our country and how the increasing costs of gasoline, healthcare and utilities affect all of us. She will be a champion of expanding Medicare to cover vision, dental and hearing care and she supports a public insurance option, regardless of age, to provide health insurance to more Americans. She will fight corruption in government and supports banning members of Congress from trading stocks while in office.
Conley’s experience in the military also informs her position on gun control. If this is your issue, know that in March former Rep. Gabby Giffords of the Gifford Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence traveled to Peekskill to endorse Conley for Congress because she knows that Conley is a staunch advocacy for legislation that will reduce gun violence. In April, Conley was awarded the Moms Demand Action Gun Sense Candidate distinction. To keep our communities safe, Conley will rein in and unmask ICE and will vote to revoke 287(g) “voluntary partnership” agreements between ICE and local law enforcement so that local police can focus on protecting our communities.
Conley is a Democrat with Democratic values. As an LGBT+ woman, she knows there is only one party that will fight to protect her identity and her freedoms. Conley is a strong supporter of women’s reproductive rights and when she gets to Congress, she will vote to restore funding to Planned Parenthood, to codify Roe v. Wade and to lift abortion restrictions on military women.
Often, I am asked how we can engage younger voters. Well, Conley is a millennial, born in 1985, and can speak candidly to a new generation that faces new challenges that require new thinking. Her professional work in using technology to keep our communities safe and her familiarity with the challenges that artificial intelligence poses to the nation will allow her to knowledgably lead us. She supports investments in clean energy and expanding federal investments in solar, wind and geothermal projects, and unlike Mike Lawler, she opposes re-opening Indian Point here in Westchester County. As a Westchester resident — she lives in Ossining Post Office in the town of New Castle — Conley will ensure all four NY-17 counties get their fair share of any available federal funds.
In April, the Westchester County Democratic Committee Executive Committee voted not to make an endorsement in the primary. Since then, a majority of the 13 town/city Democratic committees in NY-17 Westchester have endorsed Conley (Cortlandt, Lewisboro, Mt. Kisco, North Castle, Ossining, Peekskill and Pound Ridge), together with many Westchester elected officials, including mayors Vivian Mckenzie, Brian Pugh and Rika Levin, supervisors Richard Becker, Kevin Hansan and Joe Rende, and Legislator Emiljana Ulaj, to name a few. She has endorsements in the other three counties in the district too, including the County Democratic Committees in Dutchess and Putnam, and Pete Reilly, Chair, Stony Point Democrats. Rep. Pat Ryan, the Democrat who represents New York’s 18th Congressional District, and elected officials in neighboring counties have thrown their support behind Conley. And labor, too — NYS United Teachers endorsed Conley and will work hard to get her elected. Conley has a lot of national support too — from political action committees like Equality PAC, Defend the Vote, End Citizens United and Future Forum — all of whom are real people who will work hard to get her elected. Conley has no corporate PAC financing, unlike what some detractors have claimed.
These examples of experience and validation recommend Conley, on paper. Being a member of Congress also means connecting and engaging with voters. I first met Conley on Jan. 21, 2025 — one day after the second inauguration of Donald Trump. Conley had just left her job in the Biden administration and she came to meet me at a local diner. As she was waiting for me to finish a prior meeting, she struck up conversations with the regulars at the counter. You could immediately observe the connection she made with those older gentlemen. She is a powerful presence in person and on the podium. Voters in NY-17 need that kind of genuine concern to help find solutions to our challenges.
It’s time to retire Lawler
We know that the Republican incumbent is closely aligned with Trump. Trump came all the way to Monsey in Rockland County to stump for Rep. Mike Lawler on May 22 because Lawler’s votes in Congress have enabled Trump to cut funds from Medicaid, safety net hospitals and women’s health care, stall funds needed by Ukraine and other allies, cut SNAP, all the while spending billions on an illegal war in Iran, and trying to spend billions on a ballroom and for what looks like a slush fund for his private militia.
Democrats must win Congress in 2026. Conley is that Democrat. Please take a look at Cait Conley and then cast your vote for her in the June 23 primary so we can retire Lawler in November. In-person early voting begins June 13; mail ballots can be requested now.
Suzanne Berger is the chair of the Westchester County Democratic Committee, elected in 2020 to that role.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Democrats must vote Cait Conley to flip NY’s District 17 | Opinion
Reporting by Suzanne M. Berger, Special to the USA TODAY Network / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
