NYSUT, AFT, Rep. Pat Ryan rally for Cait Conley to kick off early voting
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On the first day of early voting, NYSUT President Melinda Person, AFT President Randi Weingarten, and U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan fired up local officials and volunteers at a get-out-the-vote rally for Cait Conley in Peekskill.
The Saturday morning rally kicked off a weekend of canvassing as early voting opened across the region for the June 23 primary.
Conley, a fourth-generation Hudson Valley native, a 16-year Army combat veteran, and a former national security official, is running to represent New York’s 17th Congressional District against Republican incumbent Rep. Mike Lawler.
To cheers of “Edu-Cait! Edu-Cait!” Conley promised the crowd, “We will prevail! We will win back New York 17! We will win back the House and we will take our country back!”
“I am so incredibly proud to be kicking off early voting with NYSUT and Congressman Ryan,” Conley said. “I will stand with labor today and every day to fight for working people in this district and champion our public schools. In 2022, only 16% of Democrats turned out in the Democratic Congressional Primary Election. We have to do better in 2026! These are not normal times and these are not normal stakes. Failure in November is not an option. So let’s get out and vote in June to make sure we can win in November!”
NYSUT President Melinda Person said: “It is not often that NYSUT steps boldly into a contested primary. But I am standing here on behalf of 700,000 members — including 32,000 who live right here in Congressional District 17 — to say without hesitation: Cait Conley is our candidate.
We have to protect our public schools from every effort to privatize and segregate them. We have to defend the safety nets that keep our most vulnerable neighbors afloat. And we have to create more pathways to the middle class. Cait will fight for every single one of those things. Because she is not running to be somebody. She is running because she cannot watch everything she loves — this country, these communities, these kids — lose without giving everything she has to stop it.”
AFT President Randi Weingarten said: “American families want a life they can afford. They want decency over division, democracy over authoritarianism and, above all, an economy that works for everyone, not just the ultra-rich. The 2026 midterm elections are a turning point for our country and we must elect candidates — like Cait Conley — who will tackle the kitchen-table issues that families across NY-17 and beyond face every day —from education to soaring housing and healthcare costs to the price of groceries, child care and college.
Cait believes in labor and in our fight for opportunity, good public schools, affordable colleges and universities, a health care system that works for all, safe neighborhoods and a life that working people can afford. Americans want and deserve leaders like Cait who will work on behalf of their constituents, not themselves.”
U.S. Rep Pat Ryan said: “There’s a prayer that we learn at West Point. It’s called the Cadet Prayer. The most important line that I always come back to is to choose the harder right over the easier wrong.
Over and over, Mike Lawler, for his own craven political advantage, has done the easier wrong. Over and over, Cait has chosen the harder right in every step of her life. That’s who we need as representatives. In those tough moments when you’re under pressure, who’s going to choose the right thing for this community — not for themselves, not for their ambition — but for this community.”
