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May 19th Len’s Political Note #727 Josh Riley New York 19
2026 General Election
Like most Congressional Districts, New York 19 is odd looking. Bulbous at either end. The western bulb includes Ithaca, home of Cornell and Ithaca universities. The larger eastern bulb touches the Massachusetts border and extends to Albany and Troy. The long southern border of the main part of the district includes the eastern end of New York’s southern tier of counties along the Pennsylvania border. When the border turns southeast, so does District 19 – roughly as far as New Jersey.
Josh Riley was once a local in what is now New York’s District 19. He was born and raised in Endicott, New York about 10 miles west of Binghamton along Route 17. When Josh Riley was very young, Endicott was bustling. The Endicott – Johnson Shoe factory and the IBM plant kept people employed and relatively prosperous. Until the factories closed.
Josh Riley and his friends and neighbors watched the town’s decline. His parents; his uncle and his grandfather had worked for IBM. His grandmother had worked for Endicott-Johnson. His mom adjusted. She worked as a probation officer. So did his sister. She taught school. Not everyone adjusted. Read Richard Russo’s novels about Upstate New York to learn more about people who did not adjust.
Josh Riley got out of town for college. He went to William & Mary. After graduation, he went to Washington to work for his Democratic New York Congressman, Maurice Hinchey. Next Josh Riley went to Senator Ted Kennedy’s office to work on what turned out to be an unsuccessful effort to raise the minimum wage and then to the Labor Department where he worked on strengthening safety net programs like unemployment insurance. A law degree, especially a law degree from Harvard, would create further opportunities.
Out of Law school, Josh Riley joined Boies, Schiller & Flexner’s (BSF) Miami office. He had come to work on a case, along with the American Academy of Pediatrics, to ensure that children from low-income families could access health care.
After a clerkship with a federal Appeals Court judge, Josh Riley had a kind of central experience. For three years, he worked as Senator Al Franken’s General Counsel. The work for Franken was important. He could get proposals made into laws – protecting survivors of domestic violence from homelessness and providing new funding to deal with the opioid epidemic.
Not all of the work was legislative. He and Senator Franken could oppose cable company mergers that threatened consumers in terms of cost and quality. They could investigate corporate exploitive misconduct.
While working with Senator Franken, not every effort was successful. He and his Senator could not restore elements of the Voting Rights Act or pass a constitutional amendment to prevent corporations from being treated as people as called for in the Citizens United US Supreme Court decision.
Josh Riley returned to private practice, but the work with Senator Franken created a longer term purpose. Josh Riley would welcome an opportunity to serve in the United States Congress. With his wife, a woman of mixed South Asian and South American ancestry, and family, Josh Riley moved close to what had been home, to Ithaca in 2022.
Josh Riley ran for Congress in 2022. The 2020 redistricting was created by a Republican Judge’s appointed master and made the race tougher than expected. Josh Riley lost by 4,495 votes, a 1.6% margin. Another court case gave the Democratic legislature a chance to redistrict again. Mostly, though, the New York legislature passed, leaving districts similar to what they had been in 2022. In 2024, Josh Riley won by 8,357 votes, a 2.3% margin.
Josh Riley took office four months ago. He has a slot on the Agriculture Committee – important for his rural district. He has a slot on the Science, Space, and Technology ‘Committee – important for his district’s future. And he has kept his campaign webpage up because the campaign is on even if there is no sign of an opponent except for a no-hoper pardoned January 6 rioter, Jake Lang, who now appears to be planning to run for the US Senate in Florida instead.
Josh Riley’s top three priorities?
- Equality for all – including such issues as same sex marriage and providing support for people with disabilities.
- Cutting taxes for the middle class – “it is unacceptable that hedge fund managers pay lower tax rates than janitors…”. He would raise taxes for the wealthy and for large corporations in order to reduce deficits and provide necessary services.
- Defending abortion rights – restore Roe v Wade as a federal statutes and work toward a constitutional amendment that would guarantee reproductive rights.
Early money is crucial for discouraging potentially effective opponents. Defending the vulnerable incumbents is crucial for flipping the House of Representatives. And flipping the House of Representatives is crucial for stopping the deprivations for which the current administration is responsible. (See Len’s Letter #78)
Congressional candidates with narrow wins reported on so far:
California 13 Former Assemblyman Adam Gray flipped this seat with a 187 vote win. DONATE. His likely Republican opponent is Javier Lopez, mayor of the small city of Ceres. So far, though, Adam Gray has raised $400,000 and Lopez has not yet announced. See Len’s Political Note #716
California 45 Attorney Derek Tran flipped this seat with a 653 votes win. DONATE. We do not yet know who his Republican opponent will be, though some are urging Michelle Steel to run to get her seat back. She closed the first quarter with nearly a million dollars on hand, double what Derek Tran had. See Len’s Political Note #717
Maine 02 Incumbent Jared Golden retained his seat with a 2,706 win. Former Governor Paul LePage, a kind of pre-Trump figure has announced his candidacy. LePage does not have first quarter fund raising to report while Jared Golden reported about $450,000 available on March 31. DONATE. Keep him in the lead. See Len’s Political Note #719
Ohio 09 Incumbent Marcy Kaptur retained her seat with a 2,832 vote win. We do not yet know who her Republican opponent will be, though some think her 2024 opponent Derek Merrin will run again. Marcy Kaptur raised a modest $250,000+ in the first quarter, but does have $600,000 available to begin the campaign. DONATE to Marcy Kaptur. See Len’s Political Note #718
Texas 34 Incumbent Vicente Gonzalez retained his seat with a 5,237 win. We do not yet know who his Republican opponent will be. Vicente Gonzalez is getting himself ready. He has more than $500,000 cash available. Help him stay ahead. DONATE. See Len’s Political Note #720
North Carolina 01 Incumbent Don Davis retained his seat with a 6,307 win. We do not yet know who his Republican opponent will be though multi-millionaire Sandy Roberson is a possibility. Don Davis had a little more than $500,000 available on March 31. DONATE. See Len’s Political Note #721
California 27. Space travel advocate and corporate and governmental leader George Whitesides flipped a Republican seat with a margin of 7,990 votes. We do not yet know who his opponent will be and early money could discourage strong opponents. He is a formidable fundraiser himself and entered the second quarter of fund raising for 2026 with approximately $850,000. Join up. DONATE. Help increase his resources. See Len’s Political Note #726
GIVE OF YOURSELF AS WELL.
Join peaceful demonstrations. I hope you found a place to march on May 1. Create your own demonstration. Do you collect social security. Consider organizing a demonstration in front of your local social security office (f there still is one). Tell them you want social security to remain as crucial to your life as it is now. Call your Senators and Congress Members. Remind them that social security is a necessity.
