Rep. Mike Lawler and challenger Cait Conley sparred for the second time in a televised debate that stirred up familiar topics in their race such as data centers and the Iran war and also set off fresh sparks on some new issues.
The hour-long faceoff took place on PIX11 News on Wednesday, Oct. 14, just 10 days before early voting is set to begin in the battle for New York's 17th Congressional District. The second-term Republican incumbent and his Democratic opponent are waging a high-profile competition for a seat that will decide which party wins control of the House in the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
It was mostly a controlled encounter — with sporadic clashes and cross-talk —as the two stood side by side and fielded questions from moderator Dan
Mannarino on subjects ranging from immigration reform to military aid to Israel and taming high living costs. Each had opened with their campaign pitches: for Lawler, his bipartisan work in Congress and legislative deeds; for Conley, her 16-year Army career with deployments to Middle East combat zones.
The showdown bore echoes of their first debate and covered some new ground as well in their heated race. Here are five takeways from the second Lawler-Conley bout:
Different paths to affordability
The all-important topic of high living costs and how to lower them came up in several ways in the debate, eliciting answers that formed one of the main contrasts between the two candidates.
Conley stressed that much of the pain people are feeling at gas pumps and in grocery stores now are the results of the Iran war and tariffs — actions that President Donald Trump took and that Lawler has supported. Her solution was to undo what she described as harmful policies.
"Instead of taking votes to lower costs for working families in the Hudson Valley, my opponent, time and time again, supports Trump's agenda and votes not for the Hudson Valley, but for Donald Trump," she said. "And we are stuck literally paying the price."
Lawler, for his part, talked about legislation he helped pass that already lowered or will lower costs, including last year's tax cuts and a package of housing measures that he said will increase the supply of new homes and lower prices as a result. And he touted a pending measure in Congress that will speed permits for new energy production, which he described as an economic linchpin.
"Energy impacts transportation, which impacts manufacturing and it impacts groceries," he said. "Energy is vital if we are going to be able to bring down the prices of everything."
Cornell case sets off most surprising clash
A discussion starting with the explosive controversy of rape allegations involving a Cornell University fraternity spiraled off into an unexpected direction, producing one of the sharpest exchanges of the night. It came during a question about what some view as a loophole in New York's sexual assault laws.
Conley, in her answer, brought up the domestic abuse allegations against Ohio Rep. Max Miller, and rebuked Lawler for defending his Republican colleague in a news interview. Lawler, in his response, denied Conley's claim that he had blamed Miller's wife, and pivoted to chastising Conley for taking campaign donations from former Gov. Eliot Spitzer in spite of his sex scandal. Spitzer resigned in 2008 after he was caught patronizing a prostitute (but never charged).
"You're the one who took money from Eliot Spitzer, who trafficked young women across state lines for the purpose of sexually abusing them," Lawler said. "And you refuse to return those funds. You refuse to denounce him in any way."
Conley responded with fury.
"I'm sorry, I do not need you to mansplain to me about domestic abuse and sexual assault against women and what is the appropriate response," she told Lawler. "Don't start. Sit over there. I do not need you to mansplain to me, Mike."
ICE posed another fault line
Each took different views when asked about the recent incident in which agents from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement shot a man in his car in New York City. The officers, who were trying to arrest the man, fired seven shots and later learned his 5-year-old son was inside the vehicle at the time.
Conley answered that ICE performs a valuable service by keeping violent criminals, drug cartels and others out of communities, but that the "conduct of ICE is posing a safety hazard."
"I'll tell you, as a law enforcement officer, you're not permitted to do that kind of stuff, not putting civilians at risk in that way," she said. "And this is where we need to rein in the conduct, where it's putting people at risk."
Lawler responded that the father who was shot was a "gangbanger who came into this country illegally, who committed armed robbery and held somebody at gunpoint, who pulled a machete on a neighbor, and who was arrested for drug dealing."
Lawler turned to a campaign theme he recently hammered home at a press conference, repeating his condemnation of sanctuary policies that limit when local police may cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.
"Yes, ICE needs reforms," he said. "I've said repeatedly, body cameras, no masks, identifiable uniforms. But you know what? Sanctuary policies need to go."
Trump, Hochul used as political foils
Lawler and Conley each had their respective political villains whom they invoked as the culprits for bad policies. For Lawler, it was Gov. Kathy Hochul, the Democrat he considered running against this year before opting to seek another House term instead. She was namechecked for blame as he talked about sanctuary policies, skyrocketing home prices, and high utility costs.
Conley's foil was Trump, whether for tariffs, the Iran war or last year's "big, ugly bill" — the Republican package of tax and spending cuts. She and Lawler renewed their clash over how often he voted in alignment with Trump, which was calculated as 100% in a measure she cites and 94% in another that Lawler cites in defense of his independence among House Republicans.
How they put distance from Trump, Mamdani
Lawler listed several instances in which he disagreed with and contested Trump policies, including the cancellation of temporary protected status for Haitian immigrants. That sudden threat of deportation to a dangerous country has put at risk his Haitian constituents in Rockland County and the large Haitian contingent in industries like New York's home health aide and nursing home workforces.
Conley, meanwhile, was asked about Lawler's linking her to left-wing Democrats such as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and where she would disagree with them. Lawler later sharpened the question by asking if she condemned Mamdani's remarks in recognition of the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, which some Jews angrily condemned as insensitive to the horrors of that day.
Conley did.
"Yes, I do denounce Mamdani's statement on Oct. 7, a day that we should be honoring and mourning the loss of life, the greatest loss of life to our Jewish community since the Holocaust," she said.
Chris McKenna covers government and politics for The Journal News and USA TODAY Network. Reach him at CMcKenna@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: 5 takeaways from final Lawler and Conley debate in NY-17 House race
