Friday, January 31, 2025

Dem Congress hopeful Dylan Hewitt stresses SGF roots; ‘I’m a fighter for our communities’

By Cathy DeDe & Mark Frost, Chronicle Managing Editor & Editor

South Glens Falls and University of Pennsylvania grad Dylan Hewitt, 32, confirmed in an interview Tuesday at The Chronicle office that he is seeking the Democratic nomination in the expected special election for New York’s 21st District Congressional seat that Elise Stefanik will resign after her presumed Senate approval as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

“I’m South Glens Falls born and raised. My family has been in upstate New York for seven generations,” Mr. Hewitt said.

As one of four finalists for the Democratic Congressional nomination, he said he told the 15 county chairs who will make the decision:

“I’m a new generation of leadership. I am born and battle tested here in the North Country. I’m the only candidate in this race I know of that already has a union endorsement, the South Glens Falls Faculty Association.

“I’m the only person I know of that has been in the highest levels of public service that is eligible already for top secret security clearance. I am ready to lead, and I hope that the chairs agree.”

Mr. Hewitt said he most recently was Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative at the White House and that previously he was a senior advisor at the Economic Security Project, a nonprofit advocating for expanded child tax credits and the Earned Income Tax Credit.

“I am fighting for North Country families, our workers and our farmers,” he says. “I have waged fights in my career to lower costs for parents to put money back in people’s pockets, to defend American jobs and our farmers and our manufacturing investments to strengthen our national security.”

Of this roots, Mr. Hewitt said, “My dad was elementary school principal at Greenfield Center for 21 years. My mom was a social worker who helped people through their toughest times, and they taught me a really simple lesson, that we achieve the most when we look out for each other. I know that that defines the North Country in the smallest of towns and our villages.

“For me, that was the South High Marathon Dance. At 17, I chaired the Marathon Dance. I saw what it meant to stand shoulder to shoulder with your neighbors.

“I called up a family, at 17, to tell them that we [the Marathon Dance] would pay for a lifesaving surgery for their newborn. That has stayed with me for my entire life.”

“I am a fighter for our communities. I have gone from the pews of St Michael’s to the highest levels of public service to serve my country, and every step of the way it has been about the North Country.”

Mr. Hewitt said he is “a policy wonk.”

He said he is “focused on four things in this race.

“Protecting Social Security and Medicare. One in three residents, nearly one in three, rely on Social Security, and those other two and three pay into it. Right now, the tax code is written that billionaires in this country stop paying into Social Security after their first $176,000 in earnings. A lot of the burden of the tax code falls on hard working families.

“That leads me to my second priority, to lower costs by expanding tax credits for millions of parents and working families, to actually help parents afford the cost of child care or groceries utilities.

“I’m also laser-focused on defending our public schools. I come from a public school family. I know that the Department of Education is on the chopping block, that federal grants have just been paused, which will affect individualized Education Programs, our Head Start programs, vocational trainings that are so important to our district all the way from here to Saranac to St. Lawrence.

“And finally, I worked on trade issues. I was part of teams that raised and finalized tariffs against China to protect manufacturing investments, to open up markets for dairy producers. I want to protect American jobs that stay in this district, and I want to strengthen our manufacturing investments in industries in this district to make sure that people don’t have to work more than one job to just afford the cost of living.”

Lynne Boecher: Democratic chairs will be unanimous

Chronicle Managing Editor Cathy DeDe writes: Lynne Boecher, the Warren County Democratic chair, is heading the process by which the 15 Democratic county chairs in NY-21 will nominate their candidate in the special election to fill the seat Elise Stefanik will resign once confirmed as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

Ms. Boecher said they narrowed the field from 13 to four, and she expects they’ll be unanimous in choosing one.

She said they interviewed the finalists at the Fort William Henry.

“We have done the hard work. We have four very formidable people…We are looking for a candidate who is the voice of the district. That doesn’t mean the Democratic or Republican voice. It means the district voice that will speak to all the voices in the district.”

Ms. Boecher declined to identify the 4 finalists, but The Chronicle confirmed three are South Glens Falls grad Dylan Hewitt, Stefanik 2024 challenger Paula Collins and St. Lawrence County dairy farmer Blake Gendebien.

We hear the fourth is Chatham native Mary Anito, who has a NY-21 political website. Her Facebook appears to indicate she lives in Washington state.

Says Stefanik will get OK

Ms. Boecher said she watched last week’s hearing on Rep. Stefanik’s United Nationals nomination.

“She will most assuredly be affirmed. She’s a very intelligent woman who answered predictably to her party, but…there was nothing in her response that was alarming to me.

“She comported herself in a proper manner, and I don’t see any reason that she would not get confirmed.”

Knut Sauer, not Dem finalist: ‘They want to appease liberal’ wing

Knut Sauer, the Town of Jay council member in Essex County, who declared his interest early in the Democratic nomination for the NY-21 Congressional seat, says, “I was not chosen as a finalist.

He said Democratic Party Chairs told him, “Our challenge has been to select a candidate who reflects the values of our party in concert with the collective values of this district.”

Mr. Sauer wrote, “I am not sure what that means, and can only interpret it that they want to appease their traditional more liberal constituents at the risk of losing this election and forego a great opportunity to flip this seat.

“It was very disappointing to learn that the Democratic County chairs in NY-21 failed in considering strategy by nominating a candidate, like myself, who is moderate and appeals to independents and center-leaning Republicans and actually can win this election.”

Blake Gendebien, seeking Democratic Congress nod, has ‘raised over $500K’

The campaign of “Dairy famer and small business owner” Blake Gendebien of Lisbon, N.Y., issued a press release Monday saying, “In less than than 50 days since launching his campaign on December 11th…his campaign has raised over $500k.”

The release said, “The incredible haul shows strong grassroots enthusiasm for Gendebien’s campaign platform focused on lowering costs and securing our border, with over 16,000 individual donors chipping in an average contribution of $24 since December.”

His short biography says, “Born and raised on a farm in the North Country, Blake and his wife Carmen have raised their three sons on Twin Mill Farms in Lisbon, growing the farm to 500 head of cattle and over 1,000 acres. Blake and Carmen also started the The Jules of Life Foundation, which provides resources and support to North Country families battling pediatric cancer. For the past decade, Blake has served on the board of the Cooperative Board of Agri-Mark, including the last two as Vice Chair. He is a former member of the Lisbon Central School Board, and was a longtime junior varsity basketball coach.”

Paula Collins vies to run again in NY21

Paula Collins, the cannabis attorney and special education teacher who lost her 2024 challenge to Elise Stefanik, seeks the seat again.

“I think what I bring to the table is that I’m the only candidate who knows the geography, and nobody else knows the data as well as I do, My prior campaign, I got more votes than any Democrat has ever gotten in that race, 132,447 votes.

“Of course, that was overshadowed by the margin. We had a 2% drop, largely due to the fact that the lines of New York 21 had changed. The biggest changes were in the Oneida County area where, we had just a huge infusion of red voters.

“I’m running on a platform that is really pitched to those voters that told me it’s the economy, and I was a little bit insensitive to that before, and I said, Oh, Kamala Harris is going to give you tax breaks, but really, what the average everyday person wants is to be able to put food on the table, gas in the car, and keep a roof overhead. I want to be a part of a Congress that makes that happen.

“We’ve already seen that the Trump administration has rolled back or rescinded the cap on prescription drug prices. We want to get those restored.”

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