2 years ago
ALBANY, N.Y. — Rep. Elise Stefanik represents a region on the opposite side of the state from New York’s new 23rd congressional district. Yet she went to great lengths to affect the outcome of the Republican primary there on Tuesday — and failed.
Stefanik not only endorsed Carl Paladino, a Buffalo developer and one of the most controversial figures in modern New York politics. She also dispatched her trusted aides to the district in Western New York, where they personally advised the candidate.
It helped that former President Donald Trump told Stefanik to get behind Paladino, according to a Republican familiar with their discussions. It certainly helped too that Paladino had supported some of Stefanik’s past races — even before she became the third-ranking member of the House GOP. “Loyalty,” the Republican said, “is everything to Elise.”
But what also appears to have driven her was a running feud with the man who ultimately won the primary: Nick Langworthy, the chair of the state GOP. And local leaders took notice. Some said on Wednesday that Stefanik’s backing of Paladino over Langworthy was clear evidence of long-held grudges, not a political strategy for the good of the party.
“She was trying to get back at Nick for things that had nothing to do with this race — personal reasons,” said Rodney Strange, a Chemung County legislator and former county GOP chair who backed Langworthy.
Stefanik’s failure to do so might not hurt her standing in Washington, where she’s become an influential far-right figure deeply loyal to Trump. In New York, where Langworthy has clout and a more moderate wing of the party behind him, it might give her a diminished role, especially when it comes to the selection of a new leader for the state party.
It’s not the only blow she took on Tuesday: Stefanik also stumped heavily for Republican Marc Molinaro, who lost a special election to fill the remainder of a Hudson Valley congressional seat.
In the 23rd district, which covers Buffalo’s suburbs and stretches across much of New York’s Southern Tier border with Pennsylvania, some local leaders were left unhappy by Stefanik’s involvement in the race. Some said it might have backfired with voters ahead of the general election — exposing them to one of the most extreme members of their party.
"I was highly disappointed about her position on the race," Dwight “Mike” Healy, the chair of the Allegany County GOP, said. "It wasn’t in the best interest of our district, for sure."
One Republican who has been involved in multiple local Republican races said Langworthy’s win was a “black eye” on Stefanik’s leadership because she chose to back a candidate that few of her colleagues in Washington viewed as a stable addition to the delegation. (Paladino once called Adolf Hitler “the kind of leader we need.”)
Stefanik senior adviser Alex deGrasse, in a statement, pointed to the congresswoman's yearslong ties with Paladino and affirmed her strong support for him “in this very close race.” But he emphasized her priority now is taking back control of the House.
“As the highest ranking NY Republican in Congress (and will be the longest serving in the next Congress), she looks forward to working with the entire NY Republican delegation including Nick Langworthy in the next Congress,” deGrasse said in a statement. “She is focused on picking up as many seats for Republicans in NY and across the country to earn a historic Republican Majority.“
Langworthy declared victory in the early hours Wednesday morning as he slowly took the lead over Paladino. After initially refusing to concede, Paladino later on Wednesday issued a statement thanking voters, Stefanik and his other backers “for their friendship and support” and said, “it is time to move onto the next chapter of my life.”
Now Langworthy is a favorite in a November matchup against Democrat Max Della Pia in a district where Trump received 59 percent of the vote in 2020.
Langworthy has promised to relinquish his role as state Republican chair, which he’s had since 2019, if and when he is sworn into the House of Representatives. He spent his tenure prioritizing a GOP win in this year’s gubernatorial election and has spent over a year working to get his party’s nod for Rep. Lee Zeldin, who won the primary in June. His early backing of Zeldin was one thing that had inflamed his relationship with Stefanik, who was said to be weighing her own potential run at Albany.
New York Republicans have not won a statewide race since 2002. Zeldin faces a tough battle against Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul in November, and Langworthy’s earned some criticism for setting his sights on Congress instead of the multiple state and local battleground races in New York.
But he said on Wednesday in an interview on NewsRadio WHAM 1180 that he believes his mission is nearly complete. He was “brought in as brawler to take on Andrew Cuomo and Kathy Hochul,” he said.
“My hope is that we have a brand new governor in Lee Zeldin that will be able to select a chair of the party of his choice to help move his agenda forward,” Langworthy told host Bob Lonsberry, who also supported his candidacy.
Langworthy acknowledged that Tuesday’s elections — though an outlier as the second of New York’s bifurcated primaries this year — do give the GOP reason for pause. Democrat Pat Ryan's victory over Molinaro in the Hudson Valley swing district, for example, was a contest many see as a bellwether for November. Anyone who foresees a “total red wave” doesn’t understand that Republicans have a lot of work to do, he said.
“Democrats have more wind in their sails here the last several months — they are organizing, raising a lot of funds after the Roe decision was overturned,” he said. “Republicans have to be prepared.”
In the 23rd district race, the election seemed to split GOP voters, with Langworthy up about 4 percentage points — 52.1 percent to 47.9 percent — with most of the vote tallied.
Paladino, who has gained notoriety for unashamed inflammatory rhetoric over more than a decade in and out of New York politics, won in the Buffalo suburbs where he has widespread recognition as a diehard Trump defender. Stefanik hosted a get out the vote tele-rally for him the day before the polls opened.
“Carl Paladino was going to be another Marjorie Taylor Greene if elected, and sure enough, two days before the election, she endorses him,” Strange, the Chemung County legislator, said. “We don’t need that. We need someone who is going to go to Washington and fight for us and use common sense and get the job done. It would have been a disaster if Carl Paladino would have been the nominee.”
The Paladino campaign did not immediately return request for comment.
Langworthy — though largely considered the underdog during his short campaign — focused his efforts on the state’s Southern Tier, along its border with Pennsylvania, and the six rural counties in the district. All went overwhelmingly for him.
"Carl didn’t give us the time of day," Schuyler County GOP chair Larry Jaynes said Wednesday, explaining that only a cadre of Paladino advisers met with him. "Nick has been here many, many times, and I never got a call from Carl asking for time or anything else for Schuyler County."
Joe Spector contributed to this report
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