Congresswoman Elise M. Stefanik is lending her voice and support to her colleague Congressman Mark Molinaro in a very close race in the Southern District and Capitol area.
At a rally Saturday at a golf course in suburban Rensselaer County, Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, asked voters in New York’s 19th District to endorse Molinaro (R-Tivoli) in his rematch against Democrat Josh Riley. He appealed.
fight for the majority
The stakes are high – Mr. Molinaro will beat Mr. Reilly by about 2 percentage points, or just under 4,500 votes, in 2022, and Republicans will retain and retain at least some of the New York battlegrounds they took from Democrats in 2022. I hope so. Their majority in the House of Commons.
“I think this is a very important thing to remember,” Stefanik told the crowd at the rally. “Renssseler County, you will decide the outcome of the House majority, because the House majority runs through the state of New York.”
border control policy
Stefanik told friendly Republican supporters that she had repeatedly mentioned former President Donald J. Trump and said she planned to attend his rally in Manhattan later this month, encouraging voters. appealed to voters to choose Trump as their frontrunner. But Molinaro, who has traditionally run a moderate campaign, only mentioned Trump by name once, in reference to the former president’s border policies.
Molinaro told reporters before the event that he fully supports Trump, but his focus was on immigration and his opponent’s position on the issue.
“The Trump administration will definitely protect the safety of the American people, not just border security,” he said.
Both Mr. Stefanik and Mr. Molinaro spoke at length about Mr. Riley, closely linking him to the issues worst in the Democratic polls — the border chief among them.
“Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, they surrendered our southern border, dismantled border security, and while doing so, 10.5 million people entered this country illegally,” Molinaro said. “But do you know who came up with that argument? Josh Riley, who spent 20 years at a law firm in Washington, D.C., and served in the U.S. Senate, wrote a legal argument to dismantle President Trump’s border security policies. led.”
Lawmakers also tried to link Riley to Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who has extremely low approval ratings among Republicans.
“He supports and is an architect of wide-open border policies. He supports Kathy Hochul and her failed bail reform,” Stefanik said of Riley, a Democrat from his own party. He spoke in a very similar way to how he speaks about his opponents. “Josh Riley is hiding from voters because he wants to spend $30 million to persuade the opposition.”
“Border Security Law”
With such an emphasis on the border in the NY-19 campaign, and indeed in most of this year’s congressional races, Republicans have been forced to take action on the highly conservative immigration bill passed by the Republican-led House last year, “Securing the Border.” We are united in support of “. Act” was identified as House Resolution 2 of this Congress. The bill, which passed without Democratic support, would make major changes to America’s immigration system.
That would require restarting construction on the southern border wall and expanding the controversial Stone Garden grant program. The grant program provides grants to local police departments to engage in border enforcement operations, including completing immigration pre-processing, limiting legal asylum protection, and ensuring that U.S. officials hold undocumented immigrants in their custody. It would force deportation to countries with no prior records, expand the number of crimes that make immigrants of all types deportable, and require the creation of a citizenship verification system that employers would require for all employees and new hires. Dew. .
bipartisan border bill
This is very different from the so-called “bipartisan border bill” that the U.S. Senate called for a vote earlier this year. The measure failed to pass the filibuster, but was developed with bipartisan input from 2023 to early 2024, expanding the Department of Homeland Security’s authority to remove illegal immigrants and increasing the number of immigrants. A number of changes were also planned to be made to the immigration system, including restrictions on immigration. Fileable asylum claims will speed up the removal process for immigrants scheduled for deportation, while also establishing a path for Afghan nationals who have supported U.S. troops to pursue legal status in the United States.
The bill was initially supported by a bipartisan group of Republicans and Democrats, including DHS and Customs and Border Protection officials and President Joseph R. It was denied in February on the grounds that he did not want to express his opinion. The immediate challenge is to win on an issue that has proven to be a highly effective issue for Republicans.
Stefanik and Molinaro opposed the bipartisan bill shortly after it was announced. Molinaro said the bill included several provisions he supported, such as increased funding for law enforcement, but stopped short of effectively closing the border. Stefanik, who chairs the House Republican Conference and is the House Republican leader, has universally supported the Republican-led bill since it was introduced.
In late May, when the Senate took up the bipartisan bill, he said, “If Senate Democrats were actually serious about solving the problem and ending the border catastrophe, they would bring up HR2 and pass it this week.” spoke.
Stefanik said the bipartisan bill includes “amnesty” for people who entered the U.S. illegally, but the bill’s language does not provide amnesty for immigrants currently in the U.S., but would rather seek asylum proceedings. It said it would be stricter and provide for additional deportation for those who entered the country illegally. Does not meet updated requirements.
Once again Stefanik tied the issue to Molinaro’s opponent.
“We passed (HR 2) long before the Senate debated the pardon bill. We passed it with unanimous Republican support, with Josh Riley voting against it,” Stefanik said Saturday.
According to HR2’s roll call vote, the bill was not unanimous among Republicans. Two people voted against the bill: Rep. Thomas H. Massie (R-Kentucky); John S. Duarte, Republican, California
Stefanique’s influence
With about two weeks left until Election Day, Molinaro continues touring the district on what he calls his “Hometown Priorities Tour,” while Stefanik is attending numerous events across NY-21 in the North. I plan to participate.
“I’m going to Washington County right after this,” she said. “stay tuned.”
Among those attending Saturday’s event were 10-year-old Annie Agnew and her father, Jim. Wearing a Trump hat with buttons from the 1960s Nixon Agnew ticket, she said she thought Stefanik was “amazing.”
Jim said he is excited to see young Republicans in positions of power representing upstate New York in Washington. He said Stefanik represents a conservative heartland in upstate New York that has become increasingly conservative over the past decade since being elected in 2014.
“I was in the U.S. Army, and when I mentioned New York to the veterans I served with, they thought it was a deep blue, liberal state, and that’s not the case,” he said. “Most of New York is geographically red (conservative) and she represents that, and she represents the diversity of the party.”
Joan Schweigert, a member of the Republican Club near Schodack, said she had questioned the congressman and, in particular, the presidents of MIT, Harvard University, and the University of Pennsylvania regarding their campuses’ responses to anti-Semitic reports in December 2023. He said he was impressed. In a heated exchange between Stefanik and the three administrators, Stefanik asked the presidents whether calls for the genocide of Jews by students and staff violated campus policy, and each president asked the presidents if the calls for genocide against Jews by students and staff violated campus policy, and each president said the main issue was answered that it depends on the context of the situation.
“As far as I know, she didn’t let them go. She nailed them to the wall. And they all resigned,” Schweigert said. “I thought that was great, really great.”
Ms. Schweigert visited Schodack with her Republican club because most of Rensselaer County was included in Mr. Stefanik’s district until the map was revised this year in New York’s long-running redistricting battle. He said he saw Stefanik there regularly.
“She’s been down a few times, and when she’s down, she’s really great,” Schweigert said. “She’s not someone who just comes in and cleans a little bit. She goes back into the kitchen and talks to the people who cook and spends time with all of us. She’s a great person.”
