Beyond the Ballot: Reflections on My Race Against Elise Stefanik

Nearly two decades ago, I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution. My fidelity to that oath led me to warzones, to the White House, and ultimately to the 2022 campaign to challenge Congresswoman Elise Stefanik and the ongoing threat she and her extremist allies pose to our country and NY-21.

Along the way, over the course of a year and half, our mission evolved. It morphed from protecting our democracy to fighting for what so many folks deserve and are thirsting for—a chance to be heard, a chance to belong, a chance to come together, a chance to solve problems.

While we came up short in a difficult cycle for Democrats in New York, we built a strong coalition grounded in hope for a better future for our community and our country.

I poured my heart and soul into the 2022 campaign. And while the mission endures, I have decided not to run in 2024.

As I pass the baton, I’d like to share some reflections from the 2022 race in the hopes that they will be helpful to future candidates.

Showing up matters

For aspiring elected officials to truly become the representatives we deserve, they need to show up in the community and listen. To give constituents an opportunity to share their concerns, needs, and hopes for the future and then synthesize that input into a common voice of the community, not the singular voice of the candidate.

This was no easy task in a massive Congressional district like NY-21—whose landmass represents about a third of New York State—but a necessary one because the incumbent “representative” only shows her face behind closed door meetings with her strongest supporters and opts for scripted telephone town halls.

That’s why I hopped in my truck and logged nearly 65,000 miles across listening tours, open town halls in every county, and roundtables. I showed up to listen and treat all voters with dignity. In giving folks an opportunity to be heard, I often earned their respect regardless of their vote. In one example that stands out, a strong and very vocal Stefanik supporter approached me after a town hall to express his gratitude and appreciation for showing up and taking his questions.

It’s in showing up where the seeds of conversion can begin to bloom.  

Get the word out however you can

At a certain point in the campaign, it seemed like we were issuing daily press releases but rarely did they make the news. Resource constraints and the consolidation of media markets have led to the unfortunate reality that local press is dying across America. Its demise carries the rising challenge of maintaining the well-informed electorate our democracy requires.

The advantage of incumbency becomes that much greater when the institutions of the free press we rely on to provide a check on power are too under-resourced or afraid to do so. For the few outlets in NY-21 that are interested and able to take this responsibility seriously, “Stefanik Fatigue” certainly hinders the persistence necessary to fact-check every lie, spin, and false claim of credit her communications machine churns out each day. 

For her part, Stefanik has mastered strategic avoidance of accountability. Her refusal to debate in 2022 was unprecedented and cowardly but adds to a long pattern of dodging press and crowds that aren’t guaranteed to be friendly.

I could not rely on an independent local press to consistently get our message out and hold Stefanik accountable. So I leveraged the enormous power of social media to speak directly to voters and supporters across the country, leaning into video content that ranged from viral rants to burger bites to life on the campaign trail. In addition to getting our voice out there, it also served as a differentiator to our inaccessible, inauthentic, and unrelatable opponent. 

This is the way: Moderates

The 2022 election made it clear, NY Democrats have a branding problem. Despite efforts by President Biden and other moderates to distance themselves from the "defund the police" movement, the failure of NY Democrats to correct the flaws of the 2019 bail reform legislation only reinforced the perception that the party is soft on crime. This perception, whether supported by data or not, was masterfully exploited by the coordinated GOP messaging machine to create the only "red wave" in the country—costing Democrats control of the House.

The top responsibility of government is the security of its citizens. This was one of the driving forces behind my creation of the Moderate Party of New York, which emphasized safety and security issues and differentiated my candidacy from the far-left wing of the Democratic party. 

Our Moderate Democrat brand resonated. Despite zero political experience and name recognition, I outperformed most statewide Democrats on the ballot in NY-21—including Governor Kathy Hochul. In a cycle that saw an 11+ point average shift to the right from 2020 Presidential results in Congressional districts across New York, the shift in NY-21 was the smallest. It’s easy to imagine a closer race if not for the terrible environment for Democrats in NY that mobilized Republican voters at Presidential election levels. 

While the nearly 3800 votes I collected on the Moderate Party line through fusion voting might not sound like a lot, consider that Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, then chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) lost his race in NY-17 by fewer than 2000 votes.

NY Democrats can no longer afford the self-inflicted damage of ceding leadership on the importance of public safety, especially as the extreme far right turns to the familiar fascist playbook of making people afraid of X and promising to keep them safe from it.

There is a great moderate majority in our electorate yearning for common-sense, “team normal” candidates and moderates represent the best chance for coalitions that can win and govern effectively. They don’t need to be former CIA counterterrorism officers, but Democrats would do well to recruit more veterans, cops, and corrections officers who share Democratic values and can speak to voters across the partisan divide on issues of public safety.

One thing I’d do different

My mom is a life-long Republican, so when I often remarked on the campaign trail that I love Republicans, I meant it. But she and many others do not feel they have a home in today’s Republican party as they watch extreme MAGA leaders like Stefanik flirt with facism and seek to rebrand the New York GOP in Trump’s image. If there was one thing I would have done differently, it would have been to more forcefully exploit this fissure, especially after redistricting drew NY-21 to lean even more Republican.

I appeared on conservative talk radio throughout NY-21 more than any other Democrat had before, but I should have spoken there even more frequently. I showed up in nearly every community, but I should have requested a direct audience with each of the Republican county committees.

I would have also shed a light on the cognitive dissonance of some Republicans who mistakenly believe they can oppose Trump but somehow support Stefanik without enabling the former. I might have called into question the courage of those local GOP leaders who privately shared they could no longer support Stefanik and were voting for Castelli, but could never say so publicly. 

Each time I had the opportunity to speak directly to voters, I knew I had a chance to win them over. At one stop, a paid spy from the Stefanik campaign was so shocked to learn that I was a genuine moderate that he revealed he was sent there to secretly record me, hoping to capture something during the primary they could use against me in the general. After hearing me speak to a more progressive crowd and hold firm to my moderate values, he pledged his support to our campaign. I just needed thousands more like that.   

The biggest challenge in appealing more directly to Republicans wary of Stefanik and the extremism in their own party was the Democratic primary itself. The fear of losing the nomination held us back from doing the bold things I knew could help us win in the general. Matt Putorti’s nearly $1M campaign and the two month extension of the primary from NY’s redistricting chaos cost us our most precious commodity—time. Left with only two months to run a general election, we were forced into the impossible choice of trying to win over Republicans or mobilizing Democrats and Independents. Fearing this, I bought Putorti a beer in June and invited him to join forces behind our campaign. He declined. 

The Cost is Worth It

Running for office is not easy. The schedule was grueling. The lies and vitriol from the opponent were constant. I risked personal financial hardship. I wasn’t able to be the attentive friend and family member I expect myself to be. 

These aren’t complaints but they are some of the practical consequences of what Teddy Roosevelt described as the face marred by “dust and sweat and blood” from stepping into the arena and daring greatly.

In the few days following the November election, as I took stock of the heavy personal toll of the prior year and half, I received a note from an 8th grader I met along the campaign trail:

“You have shown me what leadership looks like in the face of adversity. Because of you I know what it looks like to build a foundation of hope and know that even if I lose, I still win because I lead with dignity and principles. You have shown me how to stand up for myself and how to be a leader. Please know that you may not be the Congressional Leader for NY 21, but you have become the greatest example of what a leader is for me and I cannot wait to follow in your footsteps.”

I stepped into the arena and gave every ounce of myself to the race. And in this one message from an impressive and empathetic young person, I knew that it was all worth it.  

“We fight the fights that need fighting”

This line from the film, “The American President” became a mantra for our campaign. In the movie, it comes as a swift rebuke to the notion that we should only focus on those fights we think are winnable.

Outside of a few stellar exceptions like Reps. Pat Ryan, Abigail Spanberger, Paul Tonko, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, and local county committees—the DCCC and Democratic party establishment failed to show up in NY-21. They didn’t have any polling or unique insight. Just a hunch that they didn’t think we could win against a powerful and well-resourced incumbent.

It strikes me that if the United States applied that same standard to support for Ukraine in 2022, we might very well be contending with the resurgence of a belligerent Soviet Union. Acquiescence only emboldens powerful bullies.

In 2022, 23 Republicans ran for Congress unopposed by a Democratic opponent. Hundreds of other Democrats went without the funding, staffing, and other resources necessary to mount a serious challenge to their opponents and over 170 election deniers were subsequently elected to Congress and key statewide offices. 

The DNC, DCCC, and other political action committees have every right to determine how best to allocate their resources most effectively. But if Democrats want to win consistently, they have to abandon the all-or-nothing approach that turns underdog campaigns into self-fulfilling prophecies and instead do battle on every front by developing a measured approach to support for every campaign. The stakes are just too high not to.

We fight the fights that need fighting.

Our democracy is worth fighting for.

Basic rights and freedoms are worth fighting for.

Young people looking for positive examples of leadership to emulate are worth fighting for.

NY-21 is worth fighting for.

I am proud of what we built last year and humbled by the outpouring of support our campaign received. But I’m not special. I’m just a guy that was so moved by the assault on our democracy on January 6th and the rising threat of extremism from the far right that he decided to do something about it. 

I look forward to supporting candidates with fresh legs to continue the fight.