Democrat Cait Conley won the right to challenge Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) on Tuesday night, winning a crowded House primary in New York‘s 17th Congressional District.
Conley, an Army veteran, received 51.5% of the vote when the race was called at 9:44 p.m. She was competing against a field of four other candidates, but her biggest competition was Rockland County legislator Beth Davidson, who placed second with 28.9% of the vote.
Effie Phillips-Staley, who ran to the left of both Conley and Davidson, placed third with 15.6%.
Conley’s victory marks a setback for Lawler, who meddled in the primary to elevate Davidson. Conley also survived around $1 million in outside spending by a PAC suspected to be funded by Republicans.
Polling going into the primary showed Conley ahead by double digits, and she was also the top fundraiser of the pack.
The district is one of the top battlegrounds for this fall and one of just three districts that elected a Republican to the House while backing Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, in 2024.
Lawler has fostered his reputation as a centrist by occasionally bucking House leadership and prioritizing GOP-opposed tax breaks that disproportionately help New York. But his race will be fought amid declining approval ratings for President Donald Trump and the headwinds of an Iran war that has fueled rising energy costs.
Democrats must net just a few seats to retake the House majority, and the nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates Lawler’s race as a “tossup.”
In the primary, Conley faced scrutiny over her ties to two tech companies whose contracts with the Department of Homeland Security sparked accusations that she was complicit in Trump’s deportation agenda.
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Conley, in turn, argued her association with the companies was limited to public safety.
Lawler has not shied away from the president, even as Democrats attempt to brand him as a MAGA Republican. He held a May rally with Trump in Rockland County, one of the redder parts of his district.
