Guest Editorial: The Hudson Valley Raised Me. I’m Here to Keep Fighting for It.

The author is a Democratic Party candidate for Congress in New York's 17th Congressional District.

by Cait Conley

Editor’s Note: The Chronicle has asked all five remaining Democratic Party candidates in the 17th Congressional District race to submit Guest Editorials directed at our community. Four of the five candidates have accepted our invitation, and we are publishing the pieces in the order received. John Cappello’s campaign has not responded to repeated contact attempts.

When I came home from my first deployment to Iraq, I remember landing at Westchester County Airport and seeing my family gathered with signs welcoming me home. After more than a year away, that moment hit me in a way I didn’t expect. I felt clarity of purpose with my service to my country and to my community here in the Hudson Valley.

I do not come from a military family, but for the last four generations, my family has helped build and serve this district. My great-grandfather and grandfather worked in the Montrose brickyard. My father was a construction worker from Hopewell Junction. My mother, born in Peekskill, spent 48 years working for the US Postal Service serving communities up and down the Hudson River. My family instilled in me the importance of service and of showing up for your community each and every day. They taught me the values of hard work, courage, and fighting for what is right.

I was a junior in high school when 9/11 happened. That was the day I felt the call to serve. I went home and told my mom I was applying to West Point. It was Congressman Maurice Hinchey who gave me my congressional nomination for West Point. Four years later, I proudly became a member of the Long Gray Line, finishing at the top of my class and becoming the first in my family to graduate from college.

I spent sixteen years in the U.S. Army, deploying six times overseas, leading America’s sons and daughters to keep our families and our country safe. I broke barriers, becoming one of the first women in special operations leadership and earning three bronze stars. I was then asked to serve at the White House as the Director for Counterterrorism on the National Security Council during the Biden Administration, and then served as a senior executive at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), where I worked with state and local governments to help ensure the security of our critical infrastructure, everything from the water we drink to the energy grid powering our lives. I also led the federal government’s 2024 election infrastructure security mission, where I fought back against Trump’s big lie that the 2020 election was stolen and ensured the security and integrity of our democratic process.

After a lifetime of service, from combat zones to the White House Situation Room, I never imagined I would feel like the greatest threat to America, to our future, would be coming from within our own borders.

But that’s exactly where we are.

And our congressman, Mike Lawler, has been complicit at every turn. While families here struggle, he has advanced an agenda defined by chaos and corruption that puts political ambition and greed above the people of the Hudson Valley.

Since Mike Lawler was elected in 2022, the cost of living in this district has skyrocketed. He has voted for policies that cut $20 million in federal nutrition funding in Rockland County, cost Westchester hospitals more than $103 million in lost revenue, kicked 37,000 people in the district off their healthcare, and driven up utility bills by hundreds of dollars a year. Families here are having to make impossible choices between groceries, prescriptions, and keeping the lights on.

Mike Lawler is the embodiment of how career politicians and political operatives have continued to put themselves above the American people, above the Hudson Valley. I will not stand by and let him destroy our home.

I am running for Congress because the Hudson Valley deserves a representative who will deliver for working families.

I am running not because I ever planned to, but because, for my entire life, whenever I have seen a tough problem, I have always stepped up.

And I am running to build a future where America actually works for working people again.

That starts with bringing down the cost of living. I’ll fight to reverse these reckless tariffs that are driving up prices for families already stretched thin and hold utility companies accountable for jacking up bills. I’ll crack down on corporate landlords and Wall Street hedge funds buying up properties and pricing families out of the Hudson Valley, and I’ll increase affordable housing stock by cutting through the outdated bureaucracy that blocks development, while still protecting the environment. I’ll champion new solutions like instituting a Public Service Loan Program that parallels the Veteran Affairs Loan Program I benefited from. In this program, public servants like our teachers, nurses, and first responders, after a decade of service, would qualify for private mortgages at competitive interest rates without a 20% downpayment requirement.

I’ll also fight to make sure affordable, quality healthcare is a right for all people, not just the wealthy few. I’ll reverse the Medicaid cuts and gutting of our hospitals and restore the healthcare protections that Mike Lawler stripped away. I’ll fight to introduce a public option where anyone can choose to opt-in to a Medicare-like insurance program regardless of their age or marital or job status.

I’ll also fight to rebuild economic opportunity here at home by investing in workforce training through BOCES and our community colleges so that young people in this district have real pathways to the middle class that don’t require a lifetime of student debt and also meet the moment. For those who do pursue college, I’ll fight to implement a cap on interest rates for federal student loans.

And I will be an unrelenting check on the Administration’s weaponization of the executive branch against the American people. I will rein in ICE and other out-of-control agencies that are terrorizing our communities. I will protect our democracy and election systems to ensure the people have their voices heard. I will stop this reckless and dangerous war in Iran. And I will institute guardrails on corruption to ensure no president can weaponize our government against our own communities again.

The Hudson Valley is my home. It gave me a shot at the American Dream. I was the first in my family to graduate from college, and I got to go off and earn degrees from West Point, Harvard, and MIT, and work at the White House, all before I turned 40. I’m running to be your next representative because that shot should still exist for every family in this district.

And right now, it doesn’t.

Our country, and the Hudson Valley, is at a crossroads. I am running for NY-17 to bring a new generation of Democratic leadership to the Hudson Valley and to get our country back on track before it’s too late. I’m running to make sure that the communities that raised me and where I will raise my family still have their best days ahead of us. It’s time for new leaders and new approaches.

I’m ready for this fight. I would be honored to earn your vote in the Democratic Primary on June 23rd.

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