In Hudson Valley race, Lawler and Conley are fighting Middle East wars

Rep. Mike Lawler and Cait Conley are locked in a tight battle in a lower Hudson Valley Congressional race of  national importance – but they’re blaming each other for issues of international importance. 

Lawler has accused Conley of personally screwing up the military’s pullout from Afghanistan when she was the director of counterterrorism for the National Security Council under President Joe Biden. While Conley pointed the finger at Lawler and his fellow Republicans for bungling President Donald Trump’s “war of choice” in Iran. 

Lawler and Conley are contending for the 17th Congressional District as the Republicans try to keep their narrow hold on the House. Conley, the first-time Democratic challenger, is a West Point graduate who served as active-duty army officer for 16 years tallying six tours overseas before working on the National Security Council and as an adviser in the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. 

During her time on the NSC, “we did things like the operation that killed the leader of the Islamic State in 2022,” she said. “That is service I'm very proud of, and was a continuation of my prior service where I was part of the teams and forces actively going out and hunting these terror groups around the world who posed a threat to the safety and security of Americans at home and abroad.”

But Lawler and Republicans have tried to flip Conley’s stacked résumé into a liability. In May, before she even won the contentious Democratic primary, Lawler first tied Conley to the messy August 2021 pullout from Afghanistan in a Fox News story reporting her NSC role “would have likely landed her in meetings about the planning and execution of the evacuation.”

“Cait Conley is trying to run on her national security experience, but she won’t answer for her role with the Biden Administration during the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal,” Lawler said in a May Instagram post. 

The party kept hitting her for it, as the Republican National Committee tied Conley to the “botched withdrawal” in its statement on her primary win, and pushed another story on Wednesday, the fifth anniversary of the Abbey Gate suicide bombing that killed 13 American soldiers during the withdrawal – noting that Conley had never answered questions about her role. Lawler also posted on X Thursday, adding Conley “said nothing” about the anniversary.

But in an interview with City & State, Conley did talk about her role – or lack of one. Conley freely admitted the operation was “botched,” but she asserted that, despite her title as director of counterterrorism for the NSC, she had nothing to do with it.

“I had absolutely no role in planning the Afghanistan withdrawal,” Conley said, instead saying she was more focused on countering the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. 

And Conley thought the blame should be shared by both the Biden administration and the Trump administration before it.

“The Trump administration is the one who dictated the conditions of the Doha Agreement, which constrained the U.S. military, which constrained our options for withdrawal and our future force posture,” Conley said, referring to the 2020 peace deal with the Taliban. “It was terrible, constrained, going into the actual withdrawal itself. And I believe the Biden administration botched the withdrawal. They should have allowed the U.S. military to maintain control and leadership over the withdrawal and not give that control to the State Department. They should have ensured that General Scott Miller, who was there leading the multinational coalition and American forces, stayed and led the withdrawal through its end, instead of sending him home early.” 

Given her military and national security experience, Conley argued she is uniquely positioned to discuss the impact of the war in Iran on the American people. And she was ready to flip the attacks on Lawler, arguing that his record of supporting Trump’s policies and voting in favor of the Iran war each time has hurt both service members and constituents at home in the district.

“They got us into this war in Iran without giving our forward-deployed service members the adequate protections that they deserve,” Conley said. “ And we see this as they continue to allow logistical failures, where we have soldiers living in sewage and not having access to basic things like food and water, which are all avoidable and preventable.”

“This winter, as families struggle to heat their homes, we're going to see rising oil prices that are going to make it even worse,” Conley added. “This administration clearly does not care about working people, about Hudson Valley families, and neither does Mike Lawler. Because Mike Lawler, instead of holding this administration accountable, instead of demanding more, has given it a blank check on this war in Iran, voting to support the war five times.”

Conley said she believes the U.S. cannot let Iran get a nuclear weapon, but that the strategy of the Trump administration has been unsuccessful.

“What we have seen with this administration, with this botched war in Iran, a war of choice that they did not plan for, did not have clear military objectives or an exit strategy defined for, did not have the support of the American people for, has sadly left America less safe,” Conley said.

Conley emphasized the “unfit,” leadership of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, has led to the departure of talented service members. “I cannot think of a bigger disgrace than Pete Hegseth when it comes to the incredible honor and responsibility he has to serve the young men and women protecting our country,” she said.

Lawler’s campaign said Conley was trying to have it both ways, after initially showing support for 2025 military strikes against Iran in Operation Midnight Hammer.

“Cait Conley can’t seem to keep her stories straight regarding Iran,” Lawler spokesperson Ciro Riccardi said in a statement. “First, she strongly supported military strikes against Iran and said they could never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon. Now, she’s flip-flopping to oppose military action because her DC handlers told her to. Which is it, Cait? Congressman Lawler has been consistent during both the Biden and Trump administrations regarding Iran.”

Conley, meanwhile, cited Lawler’s loyalty to Trump and tendency to “bend the knee,” as his biggest weakness. No progress can be made until Americans elect politicians, “Who are going to put country above party and not more party-first politicians like Mike Lawler,” she said. “As a political consultant and then utility lobbyist and now as a politician, all he has ever known is how to profit off of democracy, while I was out there defending it.”