GOP Rep. Mike Lawler on reelection battle vs. Democrat Cait Conley

All right, here we go. New York's 17th congressional district, which covers parts of the lower Hudson Valley, could help decide which party controls Congress in January. A lot of pressure. Incumbent Republican Representative Mike Lawler vying for his third term in office, and he's running against Democratic political newcomer, Army veteran Kate Connolly. They faced off in a debate just over a week ago. Kate Connolly was here a few days ago. Now, we have Representative Mike Lawler back on Good Day. Nice to have you here. Thanks for having me. What do you want this third term? Look, I am proud of the record that I've been able to accumulate during my four years. I've consistently been rated among the most bipartisan and effective members of Congress. I've passed over two dozen bills. Seventeen have been signed into law. SKOC, how many bills she's had signed into law? How many? Zero. The fact is, I've done the job. And we've delivered real results. I'm the one that fought for and lifted the cap on salt, putting more money back in the pockets of hardworking New Yorkers. We delivered the largest tax cut in American history, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security. In addition, I led the housing bill, the largest bipartisan housing bill to pass Congress in 36 years to increase supply and bring down prices, cut red tape, increase access to capital. We're fighting to finalize a permitting reform bill to increase domestic supply of energy. Everybody in New York knows utilities are up 58 percent under Kathy Hochul. We pay 80 percent more than the national average. It's absurd. We need to rebuild and reopen Indian Point nuclear power plant. We need to extract natural gas out of the ground in the southern tier, and we need to build pipelines. You want to bring down energy costs in New York? You actually need to increase supply. We are working on these issues. more issues like immigration, health care, education that I am focused on. At the end of the day, Rosanna, I'm the only sitting member of Congress to be endorsed by a sitting member of the opposite party. Jared Golden, a Democrat from Maine, has endorsed me for reelection precisely because I do work across the aisle and I get things done. OK, so, you know, Kate, she was here last week and she accused you of like voting 100 percent with Donald Trump. Yeah. You accuse her of being a carpetbagger. Mm hmm. And do you think that that matters to voters that she doesn't own here and she owns somewhere else? So two things. One, it's provably false that I vote 100 percent of the time with the president. I have stood up to the president on numerous issues, not the least of which was lifting the cap on salt. But the ACA enhanced premium tax credit, Haitian TPS, collective bargaining rights for public employees, support for Ukraine. the list goes on but you have to be able to work with the president and get things done for the country and i've done that as far as my opponent goes she is not from the district she's never lived she was born here she was born in ulster county but she hasn't lived in the in the state in over 20 years and i thank her for her service but you don't get to just move here to run for congress all right she secured herself a no-show job with two ai companies to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars and a month later moves to chappaqua to go run for congress she doesn't know anybody here she doesn't own a home here she doesn't pay taxes here she owns a home in virginia and pays taxes in virginia uh so the fact is voters should know that and frankly they don't take kindly to it when you're talking about raising taxes by four trillion dollars she said i should let the tax bill expire she said i should not have negotiated on salt that would have resulted in a four trillion dollar tax increase on the american people and the average new yorker would have paid over four thousand dollars more so it's rich to come from somebody like her that she wants to increase everybody's taxes but doesn't pay her own here in new york so congressman you've laid out a solid case for yourself you've been sent to congress twice by voters there they voted for Kamala Harris in the last election. Now you're seen as an underdog. So what's changed? Look, it's a district with 80,000 more Democrats than Republicans. I was an underdog when I took on Sean Patrick Maloney, the chair of the DCCC. I was an underdog two years ago when I defeated Mondaire Jones in a presidential election that you just pointed out. Kamala Harris won my district. I've always been an underdog and it's always been a tough race, but I live for that. Affordability, obviously, is a big issue. You mentioned the SALT deductions that you fought for. But your opponent might say, but you've been in support of these tariffs that President Trump has put, which are, by a lot of estimates, leading to some of the concerns that we're seeing in the economy. Now, how do you balance that? Look, we've seen over 40 years really bad trade policy, cost Americans jobs, decimate communities here in New York. Look at the upstate New York I-90 corridor. all these communities that lost manufacturing jobs that went overseas. We have seen, for instance, prescription drug prices come down by over 3%, the largest decline in 60 years. Why? Because we went after European price controls on prescription drugs. American manufacturers' automobiles going back into Japan. Why? Because we put pressure on them. Tariffs are a mixed bag. I don't think they should be a long-term policy, but used as a short-term negotiating tool to renegotiate trade, it can be effective. Look, we live in New York. It's the highest taxed state in America, the worst business climate. We lead the nation in out-migration. Kathy Hochul and Democrats control everything in Albany and New York City, and yet we pay through the nose on housing, on health care, on groceries, on energy, utilities up 58 percent. I know Kathy Hochul's answer to every question is Donald Trump, but the fact is Kathy Hochul and Zoran Mamdani are increasing state and city spending at such an obscene level that New Yorkers are paying through the nose. We have to rein in the excess here in New York. We need to cut taxes. We need to cut spending. How is it that New York City, a city of 8 million people, now spends more than the state of Florida, 23 million people? Congressman, I have to leave it there. I want to give equal time to both the candidates who've been on. So we thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you so much, Congressman.