PRIMARY 2026: Beyond culture wars and Internet noise, there is messaging

By MARTIN WILBUR

As the nearly yearlong campaign for the 17th Congressional District’s Democratic primary concludes Tuesday, the winner will move on to oppose two-term Republican Rep. Mike Lawler in November’s general election.

With so much background noise as the campaign neared its end, The Recorder asked the candidates about their priorities, and their positions on major issues.

John Cappello

Since last September, when former Air Force pilot and U.S. Air Force attaché John Cappello was the last candidate to enter the race, the message that has resonated the most has been to clean up the government. That would include campaign finance reform, congressional term limits in the eight- to 12-year range, banning stock trading for sitting members of Congress, instituting a waiting period for former lawmakers to become lobbyists and having a strict code of ethics for the Supreme Court.

“When I share these things, nobody on either side ever disagrees with those things,” said Cappello, who lives in Suffern. “That not only restores balance and accountability, but it matters that in the system, which we see on many levels, and it matters in that the individuals that we send to Washington will not serve themselves but they’ll be there for public service.”

Cappello is one of 110 congressional candidates across the U.S. that is part of a coalition that backs those reforms, he said.

Despite an emphasis on ethics reforms, Cappello is well aware that the cost of living crisis, which includes housing, health care and preserving Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, affects most Americans daily. For housing, he supports strategies such as tax incentives and credits for developers who build affordable housing, supporting construction of multifamily housing, particularly near mass transit, streamlining the review process and converting abandoned commercial properties into housing. Cappello is against speculation and corporate purchase of residential properties.

Cappello said he supports full restoration of the Affordable Care Act funding that ended this year and caps for what people pay as a percentage of income on health care.

“Whatever the plan is going to be, we need to steer more effort, more dollars to primary care, preventative care, mental health to avoid costly ER trips,” he said. 

The country also has to return to its long-held place as leaders on the world stage, he said. That includes ensuring that the nation’s values coincide with its interests. Committing to remaining part of NATO and displaying leadership in the Middle East is urgent, including working toward a two-state solution with Israel and the Palestinians.

“I think there’s opportunity to turn that around and find that solution,” Cappello said. “There needs to be two states for two people. We have to find that. Palestinians deserve to live in peace and dignity; the vast majority of Israelis believe that and we have to find a way forward with that.”

Cait Conley

West Point graduate, combat veteran and special operations leader Cait Conley entered the race last year after being disillusioned at what has been happening in the country, from destructive tariffs to the president punishing his political foes and widespread corruption. For her, the administration and Congress have failed to focus on solving the critical issues of the day, including making life more affordable for struggling families.

“Whether it’s ripping health care away from some of our most vulnerable, whether it’s ripping away funding for programs like SNAP, to making really poor decisions like the war in Iran, which is now jacking up prices at the pump, it’s all at a time when we’re already feeling we’re at the breaking point,” said Conley, an Ossining resident, who grew up in a blue-collar family.

If elected, Conley said she would like to work on reversing some of the damage done by this administration, including restoring the premium tax credit and Medicaid and SNAP funding and ending the unnecessary conflicts, such as the Iran War. Also, lowering gas prices and the cost of prescription drugs is required, she said.

Conley would also like to institute an American Service Home Loan Program for first responders, teachers, nurses and others to reward service workers. It would be similar to the Veterans Administration’s for former military members, she said.

Conley said the federal government must rein in the monopolistic utility providers and forge ahead with renewable energy. She called the administration’s energy strategy “dumb and dangerous.”

“We are losing to China in this race,” Conley said.

Devising a new approach to provide health care coverage is essential as well, she said. Eliminating the for-profit insurance companies and ensuring that health care is a right for all Americans by developing a sustainable public option would encourage competition and lower costs, Conley said.

“The Affordable Care Act was never meant to be the final destination, just an important step forward with more steps to come, and we have failed to make that progress since the ACA was first passed,” Conley said.

Making sure more the wealthy pay their fair share in taxes would also help fund Medicare and Medicaid while demonstrating basic fairness, she said.

The bungling of the Iran War has hurt the country economically, Conley said. She said the goal of preventing Iran from ever getting a nuclear weapon can be achieved by removing the political will for them to pursue it. For Israel, a two-state solution with the Palestinians is needed to increase the safety and security of everyone in the Middle East.

Comprehensive immigration reform should include a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and other immigrants who have been contributing members of their communities for years, Conley stated.

The direction of the country, with anti-democratic policies and corruption, has alarmed Conley.

“I’m in this fight because I believe the future of our democracy is truly at risk and I believe we need to make some major changes,” she said.

Beth Davidson

Rockland County Legislator Beth Davidson, a 20-year resident of the county, said the top priority in her campaign is how life has become too expensive for families in the district and around the country. A former Nyack Board of Education member, Davidson said the current administration’s values are out of step with most Americans.

“I always said as a school board member, show me your budget and I’ll show you your priorities, and Donald Trump’s budget shows that his priorities are completely out of whack, and he has said he doesn’t think about the average American,” Davidson said. “It’s time to stop the career of Mike Lawler who never stands up to Donald Trump, and certainly didn’t when (Trump) said that about struggling families in the Hudson Valley.”

She said she hopes to be part of a Democratic Congress to fight for the end of the president’s tariffs, which first raised costs before the Iran War, restoration of the full SALT deduction, capping out-of-pocket prescription drugs and supporting child care, elder care and parental leave legislation.

Davidson also skewered the administration for proposing a $1.5 trillion defense budget to fight wars most Americans opposed, while SNAP and Medicaid see cuts or more stringent requirement guidelines and health care costs spiral. She supports a public option to allow anyone to buy into Medicare.

“It’s about reorganizing this budget and investing in programs that people depend on to live dignified lives that they can afford,” Davidson said. 

Davidson said the initial reports of the tentative agreement with Iran doesn’t seem to be much different than the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal negotiated by President Barack Obama. Any peace deal depends on the U.S. being a trustworthy partner, something that the country’s allies haven’t seen with the current administration’s erratic strategy and statements, she said.

Davidson said she isn’t shy about calling out Israel for their abuses in Gaza, but it also needs to defend itself against forces that started the latest conflict on Oct. 7, 2023. She noted that Trump has failed in starting the Iran War with Israel without a plan.

“I’ve said from the beginning that Donald Trump has failed in this important moment, being too weak to stand up to Bibi Netanyahu, who is tremendously unpopular in his own country,” Davidson said.

However, the United States must not desert one of its most critical allies in Israel. It must exercise diplomacy so that the Palestinian people have a path to self-determination, which should include a two-state solution, she said.

The candidate said immigration reform must provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, updating the asylum process and cracking down on fentanyl and human trafficking. She also wants to pass legislation that requires federal agents to display identification and prohibit the use of masks.

Effie Phillips-Staley

Whatever the outcome of this primary on Tuesday evening, Tarrytown Village Trustee Effie Phillips-Staley will harbor no regrets. From speaking her mind on a range of issues to having dedicated volunteers enthusiastically getting her message out, there are seemingly no misgivings. Despite having relatively little money compared to Conley and Davidson, there are also advantages to that, she said.

“I remain hopeful and proud of this campaign because we are beholden to no one and only the needs and the issues that people define for us, and that’s really why we’ve had a large surge despite all of the work done by the establishment to crown someone early,” Phillips-Staley said.

The rising cost of living and the pulling of funds from critical programs that help lower-income families is among the most critical of issues for Phillips-Staley. To combat that and to fund food assistance, Medicare for All and her goal of building five million new homes in the U.S. over the next 10 years to address the housing crisis, she would impose a 3% wealth tax on those with assets over $50 million and a 6% tax for those with more than $1 billion. Plugging tax loopholes that are used to shelter wealth from taxation is vital.

Many of the wealthiest have made their fortunes in the U.S. and should be willing to give something back, Phillips-Staley said.

“The middle class and the working class carry a disproportionate burden in terms of what we pay in taxes,” she said. “We want the people who have made the most and pay the least percentage-wise, to reinvest in our nation.”

Phillips-Staley vowed to champion micro-grids and community solar projects to combat the prohibitively expensive rates of utility companies.

She is equally outspoken when discussing the Middle East conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Phillips-Staley is unapologetic for saying that violence, whoever perpetrates it, must be renounced, and that the millions of innocent people on each side have a right to safety and security. She is also supportive of a two-state solution.

“I understand when some people push back on me around the perception that being supportive of Palestinians, of innocent Palestinian lives is equivalent to not being supportive of innocent Israeli lives,” Phillips-Staley said. “But that is not the case. Human rights are universal and we have to call it out every single time.”

She is also cautious about the announced cessation of hostilities with Iran. Phillips-Staley pointed to the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal that took robust negotiations over a long time, something that appeared to be absent this time.

“The real work is yet to come and I don’t have an enormous amount of faith in this administration because it seems to think that things can be done easily,” Phillips-Staley said.

Mike Sacks

Sacks, an attorney and former law and political correspondent for Fox 5 News, looks at the 2026 mid-term elections as a likely watershed moment in the nation’s history, comparing it with the public’s reaction to the Great Depression in the 1932 elections, which ushered in the New Deal, and in the 1960s that helped spawn President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society legislation.

He derided Republicans who respond to today’s challenges with more tax cuts that benefit mainly the wealthy, which has helped drive the country’s inequality. Life has been made far more difficult for most as health care, housing, food and gas prices continue to spiral, at least partially due to the Iran War.

But with the growing unpopularity of Republicans, and in particular President Donald Trump, Sacks said a majority of voters will be thirsting for significant change this fall, which would set the stage for the 2028 presidential election.

“We’ve now been, I’d say, for at least 10 years, in this era of zombie Reaganism, which was once understood as necessary, or at least politically desirable back in 1980 and 1984,” said Sacks, a Croton-on-Hudson resident. “Republicans have been keeping it in a state of suspended animation, when it’s no longer politically desirable, by rigging our political structures so they don’t have to adapt to a new political reality.”

Critical changes must be made starting with a new Congress next year to invest in programs that would improve people’s lives. Sacks is a supporter of the Medicare for All Act, restoring funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Medicaid. That can be achieved by cutting back on what he characterized as a bloated defense budget and stopping “stupid, unjustified and illegal wars.” 

Sacks also pledged to support reproductive freedom by fighting to pass the Women’s Health Protection Act and to require all earned income to be subject to the Social Security takeout, not just the first $184,500, which is the cap in 2026. There should be a wealth tax imposed on those earning more than $1 million in investment income in a year and a small tax on fortunes exceeding $50 million, he said.

Immigration reform would include a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocumented people in the country, focusing on stopping human traffickers and illegal drugs and the abolishment of ICE, Sacks said.

In the Middle East, Sacks said he is a proponent of a two-state solution and that the U.S. must be a leader in promoting safety and security for Israelis and Palestinians and an end to Israeli occupation.

“I see no other way than to seek a two-state solution, even though it may seem out of vogue in the progressive vanguard and naïve to right-wing interests that back the expansionist, messianic and anti-democratic Israeli regime,” Sacks said.

Regardless of the outcome of an apparent agreement with Iran, the next Congress is going to have to deal with the upheavals that have been caused amid the changing landscape.

“I’m running for office because my background in the media and attention economy and my deep understanding of the country and our history made me want to help deliver us from the anti-democratic movement and turn the rage into a new era where we have a government, a federal government dedicated to help people and make all their lives better,” Sacks said.