Congressional candidate Cait Conley pledges to ‘rein in monopoly utility companies’

Combat veteran and national security expert Cait Conley is the Democratic nominee challenging Republican Rep. Mike Lawler in November to represent the Hudson Valley’s 17th Congressional District. In a midterm election year favorable to Democrats on paper, this could be the year the party takes out the vulnerable – but formidable – Republican. 

Conley spoke with City & State’s Rebecca C. Lewis, in partnership with AARP New York, about her positions on issues impacting older New Yorkers, including Medicare, civic engagement and affordability. You can read our interview with Lawler here. This interview has been edited for clarity.

What, if elected, would you do to try to address the tariffs? At a recent forum, you took two alternating positions on tariffs, so I would also like to try to nail down specifically where you land on the tariff issue.

Yeah, that's not accurate. I've been consistent with my position on tariffs from the beginning, which is, when you look at effective economic policy, tariffs are intended to be used as a scalpel, but this administration has been using them as a bulldozer, and people are the ones getting plowed over, us, while this administration benefits. This administration and its reckless tariff policy, which has changed more than 50 times, often over tweet, has cost the average household more than $4,200 for the same goods that before the tariffs they were getting. Again, $4,200 more for the same goods that two years ago before these tariffs, they wouldn't have to have paid as much. And so this is a real issue for families in the midst of an affordability crisis, where every dollar matters, and we are watching as these tariffs have driven up costs on just regular household goods, on groceries, on prescriptions. We're in the middle of a housing crisis, and instead of ensuring that we're doing everything possible to lower the cost of building homes we desperately need, this administration is jacking up tariffs on Canada. And the Canadian Chamber of Commerce last year talked about how even the tariffs last year were going to result in average home construction in the United States increasing by $14,000 because of the impacts of American tariffs. And so, this is just dumb policy, policy that Mike Lawler has voted eight times in support of. And because of Mike Lawler’s votes, because of this administration, the average household is paying $4,200 more for the same things. That's wrong. That's harmful to working families, and not the direction our country needs to be going in.

If elected, what would you do to try to reverse the tariff policies? Is there anything that Congress could be doing or should be doing to address this affordability issue?

I believe the tariffs need to be rescinded under this administration. They have been done recklessly, not thoughtfully. They have jacked up prices on literally everything, from groceries to prescriptions to the goods needed to build homes in the middle of a housing crisis. That is not helpful. It is harmful to working people, and I fully support rescinding them. Again, Mike Lawler has voted eight times in support of Trump's tariffs, and working families here in the Hudson Valley are literally paying the price.

Looking broadly, if you are elected, what would you do to strengthen Social Security for older Americans and even younger Americans? Because obviously, younger Americans and your constituents will age into the social social security system at some point in their life, provided it still exists. 

It is inexcusable how this administration has forced our seniors, our working families, to pay for things like tax breaks for billionaires so they can have private jets. H.R. 1, the One Big Ugly Bill, reduced the solvency of Social Security by six months to pay for those tax breaks for billionaires or private jets. And when you look at how this administration is just absolutely exacerbating the financial situation we are in – it's things like the One Big Ugly Bill jacking up our national debt by $5 trillion over the next 10 years to again pay for tax breaks for billionaires. This administration and Mike Lawler, who was the deciding vote on the One Big Ugly Bill, do not actually care about our seniors, do not actually care about the economic stability or security of this country or the future generations. They care about what's politically convenient and advantageous for them. That is how they vote. That's why Mike Lawler's voting record with Donald Trump is 100%, because he is putting his own political ambition ahead of what's good for the Hudson Valley, to include our seniors. 

What would you say would be the main thing that you, your main policy difference with Rep. Lawler that you would do differently if elected, particularly when it comes to supporting the older constituents in your district?

There's a lot of things that Mike Lawler has been failing to do and forcing seniors to pay for. So when we talk about Social Security, Mike Lawler should never have voted in support of the One Big Ugly Bill that reduced solvency by six months to pay for tax breaks for billionaires. Going back to how do we make Social Security more solvent – I believe that we need to implement the Social Security tax for those earning higher than $400,000 to help increase the solvency and ensure the stability of the program. I think that right now, when you've got trillionaires like Elon Musk not paying his fair share, but the nurse working at the VA is, the system is broken. And so we've got to get it back to the American way, which is folks paying their fair share, and that Americans can have confidence that when it comes to their senior years, they will have the economic security that is Social Security and Medicare. And when you look at the other ways in which Mike Lawler has made it harder for seniors in our district to get by, especially seniors on fixed incomes. Just look at things like the healthcare cuts that also came with One Big Ugly Bill, where record-breaking cuts to Medicaid, the rescinding of the premium tax credits that have forced nearly half a million New Yorkers off of healthcare, to include 37,000 right in our district, to include some seniors. And so watching the economic hardships be exacerbated by this administration and by Mike Lawler personally and the votes he is taking.

The administration is also in the process of rolling out changes to Medicaid, enacting work requirements. Specifically in New York there are changes that could require the state to revert to the basic health plan, ending subsidies. How do you think those changes will impact the constituents in the 17th Congressional District – and more recently as well, the decision to end the Medicare Part D subsidies that were enacted under President Biden?

The reality is that all this administration and Mike Lawler are trying to do is find ways to cut programs, cut the safety net from Americans who deserve it, like our hardworking seniors who are relying on these programs in their senior years to fund tax breaks for billionaires. You know what else was in the The One Big Beautiful Bill? We saw how the lessening of restrictions on things like AI at the state level were being proposed. How we saw $70 billion in tax breaks for data center companies were being implemented. We saw where they were willing to spend money for their billionaire backers while ripping away essential care like healthcare from people right here in the district. So I've got a real issue with how this administration and Mike Lawler has put the interests of their own political ambition, their donors and corporate backers ahead of our seniors and our working folks here in the district. They have done nothing to rein in the rising costs of healthcare. They're not holding Big Pharma accountable. They're not holding health insurance companies that are making record-breaking profits while denying life-saving care for people accountable. In fact, the exact opposite. Mike Lawler voted to reduce Medicare's ability to negotiate on prescription prices, forcing our seniors and others and taxpayers to pick up the bill for an $8.8 billion windfall for Big Pharma. So all of the smoke screen about whatever that Mike Lawler is trying to put out there is nothing more than a show, where what he's really trying to do is just ensure he's 100% aligned with Donald Trump, fighting for his billionaire backers, while families here in the Hudson Valley pay the cost to include in healthcare.

High utility costs are also a major concern, and there's been a lot of discussion about that here in New York, especially whether its debate about green energy, pipelines and electric power lines to bring energy from different parts of the country or different parts of the continent. What would you do in Congress to help lower utility costs for New Yorkers and for NY-17 constituents?

We absolutely must rein in monopoly utility companies. That means tying profits to performance. That means ending unnecessary pass-through costs for things like private jets and corporate retreats and lobbyist fees, which Mike Lawler has benefited from as a former utility lobbyist. What we are seeing is corruption in Washington that is getting politicians to fight for these monopoly utility companies and their corporate interests over the interests of working people. On Mike Lawler's watch, we have watched five data centers get built in Rockland County, his home county alone, with another three on the way, things I am fighting against because they're exploiting our local communities to include forcing local communities to absorb increased utility pricing. We also see how Mike Lawler has been blindly supporting Donald Trump in all of his pursuits… whether again it's the tariffs, it's the One Big Ugly Bill, it's also the war in Iran, which Mike Lawler voted for five times. So when we talk about utility costs, this is also a broader energy discussion. And Mike Lawler has voted five times to support Donald Trump's reckless war in Iran, despite this administration bungling the entire conflict, losing control or allowing control of the Strait of Hormuz to be assumed by Iran, which has resulted in a global gas crisis, where we have families now already struggling to pay the bills and make ends meet, now struggling to fill up their gas tanks to even get to work, or having to make trade-offs between buying gas or groceries. So we just continue to see how Mike Lawler has sold out working people, people here in the Hudson Valley, families here in the Hudson Valley, for Donald Trump's agenda, and that's how he's voting to include at the expense and at the harm of the Hudson Valley.

Congressman Lawler has been supportive of the Trump administration's investigation into the state's administration of Medicaid and especially the changes to the state CDPAP program. There has been a lot of controversy around that particular program in terms of how much money it was spending, how the state went about enacting a change. There are Democrats and Republicans who have been critical of the CDPAP changes under Gov. Kathy Hochul, is that something that, if you were elected, that you would support? Would you support continued investigation into the CDPAP transition here in New York?

It sounds like this is a state issue. I do believe, as a matter of principle, though, that elected officials have responsibility to ensure every single taxpayer dollar is used to the absolute fullest utility, and that we need to be incredibly, incredibly judicious and sensitive to how and when we are spending taxpayer dollars, right? People are working hard to bring home money, and we should not take lightly that we are using taxpayer dollars.

So would you be supportive of the DOJ and CMS continuing its investigation into the state's Medicaid administration, or is that something that you would try to fight against? Some have accused the federal government of going after New York because it's a blue state, but there are certainly, as I said, Democrats who have many issues of their own with how the CDPAP transition that many older New Yorkers rely on ultimately went down.

Under this administration, we have seen a weaponization of the executive branch that is unprecedented, and it is very clear that Donald Trump has been using the executive branch to punish blue states like New York. And again, I believe that we should be incredibly frugal with every taxpayer dollar, and that if there is any waste or abuse, it needs to be rooted out, right? But what we are seeing with this administration is not that; it is the use of the executive branch to go after political opposition and we've seen that. 

I mean, here is one issue that is a great example: the SALT cap. In 2017, Donald Trump implemented America's first ever SALT cap. For 104 years, we did not have one. And in 2017, in the Trump tax bill to punish blue states, they implemented the first ever SALT cap. That cap was ending in 2025, literally expiring, going away. Republicans reinstated the SALT cap in the One Big Ugly Bill and made it permanent, and that is what Mike Lawler voted for – a permanent tax on blue states, specifically on New York, to fund billionaire tax breaks for private jets. We continue to see how Donald Trump will use the executive branch to attack Democratic states. We see him trying to use the executive branch to interfere with the Democratic process, literally trying to rig votes instead of earn them. When you look at things with him trying to interfere with mail-in voting, like the weaponization of the executive branch is sickening and it's un-American.

Shifting gears a little bit, where do you see opportunities to increase civic engagement and voter registration, especially among older New Yorkers? And how do you see the ongoing national debate about the Save Act impacting civic engagement in New York and in NY-17?

Yeah, the SAVE Act is just another voter suppression tool. I say this as an election security expert, where non-citizen voting in federal elections is already a crime. What we're talking about is, again, this Trump administration using every tool possible to try to avoid losing in November because there are failures to deliver for the American people. And the American people are going to hold them accountable in November by voting them out. And so instead of trying to earn votes, they're trying to suppress them. That's what the SAVE Act is about. When you talk about where we have opportunities to get civic engagement, it is really about meeting voters where they are, right? To be present in community events and to show people that their voice matters. And I think it is really what we are doing on this campaign – we are going where the voters are, where people are. So if they're not registered voters, hopefully, they become registered voters, and reassuring them that look, your voice really does make a difference. And I will tell you, over the last 16 months on this trail, I have seen how much people absolutely care about this November, because of the harm that has been inflicted on them and their families by the reckless policies of the Trump administration and Mike Lawler.

What would be your plan to help caregivers to save money so that they can continue to give the care to their family members, loved ones, older New Yorkers, and not be footing the complete bill? And what is your top priority to address affordability and to make New York more affordable, so that people like caregivers can continue to give care to their loved ones?

Most broadly, right now it is about rescinding the tariffs because that is impacting every single family. And again, the average household is paying $4,200 more for the same goods as before the tariffs. That is really hurting people, and when you're talking about the struggle of working families right now, every single dollar matters when they're just struggling to make ends meet. And so we have to do that. We have to lower utility rates. We got to rein in the monopoly utility companies. We've got to lower healthcare costs. And I will tell you when you talk about the importance of supporting family home care, a lot of families got negatively impacted by the Medicaid cuts that Mike Lawler voted for in the One Big Ugly Bill. 37,000 people here in our district lost coverage because of the Medicaid cuts and the rescinding of the premium tax credits, and so all of this has an impact, right? Rising costs overall are impacting people's ability to take care of their families, to take care of their loved ones. I do think we should be doing more to support family care, and I think that's where things like creating a family caregiver tax credit, where folks can help write off some of the costs of home care … help working families in a significant way.

Final question that I wanted to ask about the tariffs again: Do you think that there is a way to reform them? I think you said that they're broad. They change on a dime from this administration. Is there a way to make them more targeted, or do you think that they just need to be done away with entirely from this administration?

Yeah, these tariffs are dumb. These tariffs have no logic, and they are just inflicting harm. So no, I don't think there's a way to salvage the terribleness of the Trump tariffs.