Cait Conley
Who: Cait Conley
Where: NY-17
Why: With fewer than 100 days until Election Day, it’s crunch time. Donations now to promising downballot candidates in toss-up House races give those campaigns the flexibility they need to hire staff and build an effective grassroots network.
One of those candidates is Cait Conley, who is hoping to flip her Hudson Valley, N.Y. district from red to blue. Conley is a West Point graduate with masters’ degrees from MIT and Harvard. She has served in combat roles in Iraq and Afghanistan and was one of the first women in Special Ops leadership. She was Director for Counterterrorism on the National Security Council during the Biden administration and most recently was a senior advisor at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
She is not afraid to call out President Trump’s corrupt self-dealing and broken promises to lower costs and end “stupid wars.” She is running to fight back against Trump’s unlawful and authoritarian agenda—by reining in ICE, protecting elections, and stopping his attacks on our democracy.
Second-term incumbent Mike Lawler is considered to be one of the most vulnerable members of the GOP conference despite the fact that he has voted with his party 92% of the time, including his recent vote against a war powers resolution to end U.S. military action in Iran. NY-17 is one of the few Republican-held Congressional districts won by Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024, and Trump has campaigned there for Lawler.
Sources: Axios, Ballotpedia, The Hill, NPR
At-a-Glance: November 2026 DITB candidate roster to date
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