Kate Conley wins 17th Congressional District primary
Kate Conley thanks supporters during her victory speech after winning the 17th Congressional District race at Travelers Rest in Millwood on June 23, 2026.
OSSINING, N.Y. — Democrat Kate Conley won New York state’s five-way primary, putting the military veteran in a fall showdown with Republican Rep. Mike Lawler in a battleground suburban House district.
Conley defeated his closest rival, Beth Davidson, in the Hudson Valley’s 17th Congressional District by a wide margin and was declared the winner by The Associated Press and Decision Desk Headquarters around 9:40 p.m. ET. She immediately gave a victory speech to a roaring crowd of supporters at a packed event venue in Westchester County.
“This was never a fight about right and left. It was always about right and wrong,” she told the crowd, to loud applause. “There is no one, and I mean no one, who is more wrong for the Hudson Valley than Mike Lawler.”
Mr. Conley is a 16-year Army veteran who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan and later held national security positions in the Biden administration. Although she had never run for office before, her background as a West Point graduate, special operations commander, and national security official, as well as her ability to raise money, helped propel her campaign.
Three of the four county Democratic leaders in the district supported her.
Conley and Lawler will face off for the key seat in the Nov. 3 midterm elections, after more than a year of Democratic battles in the field, which has up to eight seats. It is sure to be a hard-fought and expensive race to determine which party controls the House of Representatives during the remaining two years of President Donald Trump’s term.
According to results announced by the State Election Commission, Mr. Conley had received 48% of the vote and Mr. Davidson had 34% as of 11:00 p.m. local time during vote counting. Effie Phillips Staley was third with 14%, followed by John Cappello and Mike Sacks each with less than 2%.
Different backgrounds, shades of blue
The campaign focused more on differences in the backgrounds in which the candidates came to the office than on ideological differences between the candidates, who were united in their condemnation of the Trump administration, Lawler and the Republican-controlled Congress.
Mr. Davidson was more immersed in Democratic politics than Mr. Conley, having worked as a political consultant for many years and was elected to the county council in 2023. She argued that her political experience makes her ideal to go head-to-head with Lawler in a difficult-to-win district.
Conley, by contrast, is new to politics and was registered as an independent until he ran for office last year. She has cast her rookie status, along with her military service, as an advantage that will help her win support from independent voters, which will be important in the general election.
After all, she pointed out, both of the Democrats Lawler defeated in his two House races were established politicians.
Phillips Staley, a Tarrytown village trustee and former nonprofit leader, brings a different political hue to the field, running to the left of the two front-runners and building his own support among progressive groups and voters.
Rare friction over Conley’s consulting
One of the few sharp points of friction in the mostly collegial race was Mr. Davidson’s criticism of Mr. Conley, who has done consulting work for two technology companies since leaving Washington last year. She linked these companies to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown through their work with other federal contractors, raising red flags with Democratic voters.
Conley disputed those claims, saying her job focuses on protecting the public and has nothing to do with immigration enforcement. She set her employment as a continuation of a 16-year career in the Army and a four-year national security post in Washington, the background on which her campaign was built.
Conley has faced similar criticism from the other side, with a newly formed super PAC linked to the Republican Party dropping $1.5 million in ads depicting her as complicit in roundups of immigrants by federal agents during the Trump administration. Conley argued that these attacks show she is the roller-coaster candidate that Republicans fear most and hope to block in the primary.
Lawler won a second term in 2024, defeating former Rep. Mondaire Jones by a six-point margin. But his first victory over five-term Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney was so close that Democrats hope to unseat him this time in more favorable circumstances.
He is widely seen as a moderate, but Democrats paint him in bright MAGA red for siding with Trump on most issues.
