Republican Rep. Mike Lawler and Democratic challenger Cait Conley agree that Hudson Valley residents are struggling with the cost of living.
Their prescriptions for relief reveal sharp differences over health insurance, energy production and the federal government’s role in the economy.
In separate interviews with Halston Media, the candidates for New York’s 17th Congressional District also outlined competing approaches to immigration, energy policy, the war in Iran and artificial intelligence while describing their commitments to Israel and combating antisemitism.
Lawler, seeking a third term, emphasized his legislative record and ability to work across party lines. Conley, a West Point graduate, Army veteran and former national security official, argued that Congress needs a change in direction to address costs she said federal policies have made worse.
The district includes Putnam and Rockland counties and portions of Westchester and Dutchess counties.
Asked what voters should be able to say she delivered after two years in Congress, Conley answered: “Lower costs.”
She described meeting seniors rationing prescriptions to afford groceries and working families unable to pay for housing, health care and utilities. Her agenda includes reversing President Donald Trump’s tariffs and challenging practices she said allow utilities, pharmaceutical companies and insurers to profit at consumers’ expense.
Lawler pointed to tax legislation that increased the federal deduction limit for state and local taxes, known as SALT. Looking ahead, he identified energy permitting, immigration and health care as priorities, along with changing the capital gains tax treatment of home sales.
That issue particularly affects seniors whose homes have appreciated substantially since they purchased them, he said.
According to the IRS, if you have a capital gain from the sale of your main home, you may qualify to exclude up to $250,000 of that gain from your income, or up to $500,000 of that gain if you file a joint return with your spouse.
Conley argued that the SALT agreement fell short because the cap should have been eliminated. The previous cap was scheduled to expire after 2025, she noted, before Congress extended the restriction with a temporarily higher limit.
The 2025 law raised the cap from $10,000 to $40,000 for that year, with income restrictions. The limit is $40,400 for 2026, increases annually through 2029 and is scheduled to return to $10,000 in 2030. Limits are halved for married taxpayers filing separately.
“The SALT deduction cap in its entirety needs to be repealed,” Conley said.
She also proposed a home loan program modeled on veterans’ benefits for people who complete 10 years in public service, including eligible teachers, nurses, first responders and law enforcement officers. She said it would help participants buy homes without a down payment or private mortgage insurance.
Both candidates supported allowing small businesses to pool resources to purchase health insurance. Beyond that point of agreement, their approaches diverged.
“Both parties need to get over their dogma on health care,” Lawler said.
He called for greater competition across state lines, medical malpractice reform and scrutiny of consolidation among insurers, health systems and other providers. He criticized arrangements in which an insurer also owns medical practices and pharmacy benefit managers, which help administer prescription drug benefits.
“The insurance companies should be not-for-profit,” he said.
Lawler opposes making government the sole payer for health care, arguing that public reimbursement rates already strain hospitals. He also advocated expanding the health care workforce through community colleges, certification programs and opportunities for foreign-born physicians educated in the United States to remain here.
Conley favors a public insurance option that would let people buy into Medicare regardless of age, employment or marital status. She argues this would promote competition while lowering private insurance premiums.
She also supports expanding Medicare’s ability to negotiate prescription drug prices and barring brand-name drug companies from paying generic competitors to delay entering the market.
The candidates differed sharply on changes to Medicaid included in the 2025 federal tax and spending law.
Lawler defended more frequent eligibility reviews, citizenship verification and work requirements. He said he and other lawmakers blocked more sweeping proposals and argued that spending growth needed to slow in order to save the program.
“We cut the rate of growth so that we can actually sustain the program for the long term,” he said.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected that the law’s Medicaid provisions would reduce federal spending by approximately $915 billion over 2025–2034 compared with its January 2025 baseline and increase the number of uninsured people by 7.5 million in 2034. Those are reductions relative to projected spending, rather than a claim that spending falls every year.
Conley called for reversing Medicaid reductions and restoring enhanced health insurance premium tax credits. She said families are losing coverage or struggling to arrange care for disabled relatives.
Both candidates supported increasing energy production, including nuclear power. They split over whether a reopened Indian Point should be part of the solution.
Lawler is for rebuilding and reopening the plant. Based on discussions with its owner, Holtec, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, he estimated that bringing it back would take about five years and cost approximately $10 billion.
He said the shutdown harms the local economy and contributes to higher electricity costs. He also argues for faster permitting for renewable energy, nuclear power, oil and natural gas, as well as additional transmission lines and pipelines.
Conley supports nuclear energy generally but opposes reopening Indian Point, citing the facility’s age, seismic concerns and proximity to New York City.
“I just do not believe reopening Indian Point is smart,” she said.
She advocated expanding solar, wind and geothermal energy and restoring incentives for clean energy and electric vehicles. She also called for changing utility profit incentives and preventing companies from passing unnecessary corporate expenses to customers.
Conley linked rising fuel costs to the Iran war and said higher gasoline and heating oil prices were putting more pressure on families.
For Northern Westchester communities, Conley identified water, sewer and energy infrastructure as major federal priorities, saying towns should not have to shoulder those investments alone.
Data center development produced another clear disagreement, although both candidates said artificial intelligence requires federal oversight.
Conley supports a moratorium on data centers until protections are established. She said projects should proceed only with local agreement and a demonstrated benefit to the host community, and called for protections against passing utility costs on to residents.
Lawler opposed a moratorium and said decisions should remain with local governments.
“I fundamentally believe in local control of zoning,” he said.
He distinguished existing financial industry data centers in Rockland County from large facilities supporting AI, arguing that they serve different purposes and have different power demands. He said large AI data centers should help pay for the electricity generation they require. He also disputed opponents’ claims that he was involved in approving data centers in Rockland County.
On AI regulation, Lawler described work with Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey on standards for autonomous AI agents and mandatory testing of advanced models. He cited risks to financial markets and national security, including threats from China.
Conley pointed to her experience at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and called for safeguards against AI helping people develop biological, chemical or nuclear weapons. She said protecting the public and maintaining American technological leadership are compatible goals.
“We can beat China and regulate AI,” she said. "We can do both.”
Both candidates said they reject so-called sanctuary policies and support coordination among law enforcement agencies. They differed on the legal status available to longtime undocumented residents and on current federal enforcement practices.
Lawler, a cosponsor of the bipartisan Dignity Act, described the legislation as a framework combining border security, changes to the visa system and legal status for qualifying longtime residents.
Under the approach he outlined, people here more than five years who work, pay taxes, have not committed crimes and do not collect government benefits could pay a fine and qualify to remain. This approach would lead to legal status but not citizenship.
Meanwhile, Conley supports a pathway to citizenship for longtime law-abiding residents who have paid taxes and raised families.
Both candidates were asked about the Gorman family of Yorktown, whose daughter, Sheridan, was fatally shot in Chicago, allegedly by a Venezuelan man who federal authorities say was in the country illegally.
Asked about online criticism that he was using the Gormans as a campaign tool, Lawler said the family had chosen to speak publicly and advocate for policy changes, and that his role was to support those efforts.
“I am not going to relent in my support of their family because some people find it inconvenient politically,” he said.
Lawler called for ending sanctuary policies nationwide and said standing alongside the Gormans is part of his responsibility to represent his constituents. He said his role has been to support their efforts to prevent other families from suffering a similar tragedy.
“They fundamentally want their daughter’s story and voice heard,” he said.
Conley also opposed sanctuary policies, breaking with members of her own party, and emphasized the importance of cooperation among local, state and federal law enforcement agencies on criminal matters. She described border security as part of national security.
“The government absolutely failed Sheridan Gorman,” Conley said. “And we need to make sure that never happens again.”
While Conley emphasized that the government needed to prevent criminals, drug cartels and terrorists from coming into the country, she described ICE’s conduct as “reckless” and said “unqualified, untrained” agents posed a threat to public safety, criticizing “federal agents on American streets wearing the same equipment that I wore in war zones.”
Conley and Lawler both have said that ICE agents should be required to wear body cameras, show visible identification and work without masks.
Conley has publicly called the U.S. conflict with Iran a “war of choice” and, in her interview with Halston Media, linked higher fuel prices to Americans’ dependence on fossil fuels. She said Americans are paying “50 percent more than we were before the war” and accused Lawler of having “voted for” the conflict six times.
Lawler defended using military force against Iran, citing its nuclear ambitions and support for armed proxy groups, saying those threats outweigh domestic political concerns.
Lawler described the U.S.-Israel relationship as essential to security and stability in the Middle East. He said criticism of Israel’s government is legitimate, but criticism rooted in opposition to its existence as a Jewish state is antisemitic. Any two-state solution, he argued, requires a Palestinian state that does not seek Israel’s destruction.
Breaking with many members of her own party, Conley rejected the allegation that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.
She affirmed Israel’s right to exist and America’s responsibility to help protect Israelis but defended her willingness to criticize Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. She advocated a two-state solution with equal safety, security and sovereignty.
Conley, who described herself as a member of the LGBTQ community, recalled serving under “don’t ask, don’t tell” and credited Jewish advocates with helping fight for equal rights. She said that history reinforces her commitment to standing against antisemitism.
(“Don’t ask, don’t tell” emerged in 1993 as a compromise after President Bill Clinton’s effort to end the military’s ban on gay service members met opposition: officials could not ask about sexual orientation, but personnel could still be discharged for disclosing it or engaging in same-sex conduct. Its repeal took effect in 2011, allowing gay, lesbian and bisexual service members to serve openly without facing discharge solely because of their sexual orientation.)
Asked how she would address antisemitism while representing one of the largest Jewish congressional districts in the U.S., she called for federal resources to protect synagogues and other threatened institutions, adding that she supports civil rights investigations on college campuses where Jewish students have been targeted.
Lawler has led bipartisan legislative efforts to address campus antisemitism, sponsoring the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which passed the House 320–91 in 2024 and which he reintroduced in 2025. The measure would require the Education Department to consider the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism when investigating discrimination in federally funded education programs. He also joined Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres in introducing legislation to authorize independent antisemitism monitors at federally funded colleges, and met with Jewish students at Columbia University alongside Torres and Democratic Rep. Josh Gottheimer to discuss campus safety and protections against antisemitism.
Asked how he would be able to serve the district should Democrats retake control of Congress, Lawler argued that relationships across party lines and legislative experience would allow him to remain effective. He cited his work with Gottheimer and other Democrats and said compromise requires concentrating on areas of agreement.
“When I agree, I say it, and when I disagree, I say it,” he said, adding that he is willing to push back against his own party.
Lawler said he opposes the Trump administration’s recent decision to temporarily lift sanctions on Russian diesel, noting that doing so helps Russia pay for its war against Ukraine. He said he understood Trump’s desire to bring down prices but disagreed with that approach.
He also advocated for term limits, a ban on congressional stock trading and changes to redistricting. He argued that banning gerrymandering would make lawmakers compete for a broader electorate and encourage cooperation toward the political center.
While Conley said she would support Hakeem Jeffries for speaker if Democrats take control, she also said she would be willing to push back against her own party. Asked about impeaching Trump, she did not rule it out if an impeachable offense occurred but said it should not be Congress’ focus in 2027.
She pointed to border security, support for law enforcement and opposition to congestion pricing in New York City as examples of positions that can put her at odds with fellow Democrats.
Miranda Ferrante and Tom Walogorsky contributed to this report.
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