L-R-Congressman Mike Lawler, Yankee great and Congressional candidate in Texas Mark Teixeira, House Speaker Mike Johnson
By Dan Murphy
Congressman Mike Lawler kicked off a good week when Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and former Yankee great Mark Teixeira came to Westchester to raise funds and campaign in NY-17.
At the fundraiser in Briarcliff, Lawler and Speaker Johnson promoted the Republicans’ national slogan for 2026: Common Sense vs. Crazy, which contrasts what Republicans have done with plans proposed by Democratic candidates across the country.
The three visited Silvio’s Pizzeria in Thornwood for a slice, pictured above. Teixeira is running for Congress in Texas this fall.
Lawler also learned that his Democratic opponent, Cait Conley, had agreed to two debates: one on News 12 on September 28, and the second on WPIX Channel 11 in New York on October 14.
Lawler had proposed six debates, eventually agreeing to four: Meet the Press with Kristen Welker, State of the Union with Dana Bash, News 12 with Tara Rosenblum, and Pix11 with Dan Mannarino. Conley rejected the two debates with popular news sources and the Democratic leaning Meet the Press and CNN.
Shortly after her democratic primary win in June, Conley said on Morning Joe that Lawler was “scared” to debate her, adding that she would “kick (Lawler’s) ass.”
Two years ago, Lawler and Congressman Mondaire Jones participated in three debates.
“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 issues facing the hard-working families, seniors, and small business owners who do.”
Conley also recently accepted the endorsement from the Working Families Party of New York. “Across the Hudson Valley, everyday Americans and middle-class families are struggling to make ends meet. I’m excited to work alongside @NYWFP to make NY-17 more affordable. From the healthcare cuts to the soaring utility bills that Mike Lawler has enabled, it’s more important than ever to come together to fight for the better, more affordable future that our communities need and deserve.”
While the endorsement and Conley’s acceptance of it come as no surprise, it fits into the Commonsense vs Crazy slogan that Lawler and Republicans across the country hope to label Democrats with.
“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.”
Some democrats are split between the far-left ideology of the WFP. 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.”
In the 2024 election in NY-17, the Working Families Party candidate got 2% of the vote.