Trump-endorsed candidate for New York’s 18th Congressional District is a retired deputy inspector for the New York City Police Department. Alison Esposito, who served with the department for 25 years, was a commanding officer of the 70th Precinct. Pat Ryan is the Democratic candidate on the ballot.
With Lee Zeldin at the top of the ticket, Esposito ran as the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor in 2022. The two came up seven percent short of defeating governor Kathy Hochul and lieutenant governor Antonio Delgado.
Zeldin and Esposito captured nearly 42 percent of the 78,069 votes cast in the gubernatorial contest in Ulster County. The Democratic ticket won the county by 11,000 votes.
The redrawn congressional district seat now consists of all Orange County, all but the southeastern part of Dutchess County, and eastern and central portions of Ulster County. In 2022, Ryan did well in his home county of Ulster, eked out a narrow margin in Dutchess, and ran well behind Republican challenger Colin Schmitt in the latter’s home county of Orange. Ryan narrowly overcame his Republican opponent by less than 4000 votes out of 266,898 votes cast.
The congressional district is in play as a “battleground district,” with both national parties, as well as nationally funded Super PACs, spending millions of dollars in advertising on behalf of their preferred candidates.
Following the release of the 2020 census information, five new election maps have come and gone, with a sixth offering only certified this year. The final map has expanded northwestward in Ulster County to add some Ulster municipalities and to remove others.
As of June 30, campaign disclosures from both campaigns showed Ryan with a four-to-one fundraising advantage over Esposito. $5,180,123 to $1,283,504.
The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity and brevity.
Rokosz Most: In 2022, Pat Ryan won by less than 4000 votes, but that was before the most recent redistricting. Are you concerned about the new district map?
Alison Esposito: I mean, look, we knew that they were going to play games. I think that the maps that were drawn in ’22 after we won the lawsuit were fair, and they were done properly. But as we’re seeing, even with the shenanigans at the top of the ticket, the Democrats will stop at nothing to gain the advantage, even if it’s unfair. So they brought about yet another redistricting on a technicality.
If you look at the map, if you’re looking at 2022, Lee Zeldin and I won the original map by three points, you know, so we beat the district. We won the seat. If you look at the newly drawn maps, it didn’t help us, but it didn’t destroy us, either. And as Democrats, they outraise us.
And [Pat Ryan] is a Soros-backed Democrat. You know, that’s always going to prove to be on paper somewhat insurmountable.
RM: It looks like Pat Ryan’s largest contributions are coming from AIPAC? I guess I should ask you what your position is on Gaza. Because I would have thought they’d be supporting a Republican over a Democrat.
AE: I would say they should be. AIPAC, before I was in the race, was supportive of Ryan, and I think it had more to do with incumbent versus challenger, more than with Democrat versus Republican.
As he struggled with voting for aid for Israel a couple of times, I’m sure they are rethinking their position. Funnily enough, I do see a lot of comments on Twitter and in the paper that, you know, oh, she’s just an AIPAC puppet. Well, I’m not the one endorsed by AIPAC. But I am 100 percent supportive of the fact that Israel needs to defend itself.
I was in Israel three weeks before these horrific terrorist attacks. And I will call out Hamas at any point, at any time that I can, where my opponent has called for a ceasefire, and has refused to speak out against the anti-Semitism and the violence that is happening on our college campuses, which I have stood at college campuses speaking out about it.
And what’s happening on our college campuses is not only the protests against Gaza. You see activism, and you see Antifa, and you see paid anarchists that are there. And Pat Ryan hasn’t spoken out about it. This kind of rhetoric needs to be condemned. College students should be able to go to school free of fear.
RM: I saw one of your goals was to drive down the cost of living for your constituents. I’m curious how you will do that for the constituents in the district.
AE: It’s about becoming energy-independent. It’s about lowering inflation. It’s about lowering prices for our people. You see, in New York State we sit atop of the Marcellus and Utica shales. We can be safely extracting our natural resources and bringing jobs back to New York State. We could be energy-independent and exporting energy.
Kathy Hochul has applied a ban on natural-gas hookups and new construction. All of this, these attacks on energy, this Green New Deal stuff which Pat is on board with, is driving our prices up. It’s not sustainable. We should be diversifying our energy. We should be trying to utilize any and all energy and giving Americans the choice they need to be able to pick which car they want, which plow they want.
RM: Regarding retired seniors and the costs they face in keeping their homes, would you be supportive of any kind of property-tax break for retired seniors?
AE: We are ridiculously overtaxed in New York State. We’re the highest-taxed state in the union. So I’m on board with property tax and tax slashes across the board.
As far as our seniors, I don’t believe there should be any tax on Social Security. They worked their lives to pay into Social Security with their money. It’s not an entitlement. It was promised to them. And I don’t think that there should be any cuts or any taxes on Social Security.
As far as the property taxes, I think they should be lowered anyway. But if we’re talking, and that’s more of a state issue, but if I had a bully pulpit to push it, I think that we should be figuring out an age where seniors are no longer paying for school tax.
RM: You think that school taxes are too high?
AE: We can be doing better by our students. Some of the schooling, our public schools, it’s $30,000 per kid to go, and we’re not reading at grade level.
Meanwhile, my teacher friends that are public-school teachers are buying their own supplies. Where is this money going? You know, we need to understand that there’s wasteful spending in almost every area that can be cut, and we have to make sure that we know where the money is going and it’s going to the proper places.
RM: Do you see a distinction between the state Republican Party and the national Republican Party?
AE: No, actually, I really don’t. I think it’s common sense on all levels. Now, you can go from state to state and say that maybe the representative Republican in this state is more conservative or farther right than in another state. But as a whole, I think under Donald Trump, he’s really applying that common sense middle of the road, even when it comes to abortion. You know, he’s not calling for a federal abortion ban. He’s leaving it to the state. He’s leaving it to local electeds. And I’m a big fan of local control over national control.
RM: You have singled out progressives for their failed leadership. I was curious what specifically you take issue with?
AE: Well, progressive is really regressive. You’re talking about progressive anti-Israel, pro-regulation, pro-tax, anti-prosperity, anti-energy. They’re about overtaxing, they’re overspending. This is the far left calling for no charter schools, no school choice. Far left extremes, that is.
They’re talking about abortion at any time, on demand, into the ninth month. It’s the way the progressives are thinking, and it’s about just giving money to everybody.
What happens when you eventually run out of other people’s money that you’re spending and the taxpayers are feeling it? We have seniors that are struggling. We have homeless on the streets. We have people that are living paycheck to paycheck, and you have these progressives that want open borders, attacks on police.
RM: I actually got something from the Pat Ryan campaign a few hours before this interview. Ryan has received an endorsement from the New York City Deputy Sheriff’s Association …. Aren’t you mostly getting the police endorsements?
AE: That’s the first I’m hearing about it. You can always get a one-off like that. I mean, you saw AIPAC, you know? We are being endorsed by the New York City Sergeants Benevolent Association, Lieutenants Benevolent Association, the Captain’s Endowment Association, the Detective’s Association, the Lieutenant’s Association. We’re going to be getting the endorsement of Shield. We’re endorsed by our county sheriffs. We’re getting all of the law-enforcement endorsements.
At the end of the day, people play games, they make deals, they do whatever. To be honest with you, to me it has nothing to do with the endorsements. It has to do with the policy and how you’re going to apply it. And I am a back-the-blue, pro-law enforcement type of a candidate who believes that government’s number-one job is to protect its people and then, frankly, get out of their lives. And Pat Ryan has proven that that is not his mentality, so I don’t know what he told the sheriffs. But I’d love to know.
Who’s in which district?
In 2022, New York’s congressional district maps changed based on the results of the U.S. Census. In 2024, some towns will switch districts between NY18 and NY19.
This November 5, voters in all Ulster County municipalities will elect a candidate to represent them beginning in 2025.
In the 18th Congressional District, Pat Ryan is the Democratic candidate on the ballot and Alison Esposito is the Republican candidate. The district includes the following Ulster County municipalities: City of Kingston, Town of Esopus. Town of Gardiner election districts two through four, Town of Kingston, Town of Lloyd, Town of Marlborough, Town of New Paltz, Town of Plattekill, Town of Saugerties, Town of Ulster and Town of Woodstock.
In the 19th Congressional District, Marc Molinaro is the Republican candidate and Josh Riley is the Democratic candidate on the ballot. The district includes the following Ulster County municipalities: Town of Denning, Town of Gardiner election district one, Town of Hardenburgh, Town of Hurley, Town of Marbletown, Town of Olive, Town of Rochester, Town of Rosendale, Town of Shandaken, Town of Shawangunk and Town of Wawarsing.
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