The candidates are lawyer-turned-television reporter Mike Sacks, Rockland County Legislator Beth Davidson, West Point graduate Cait Conley, Tarrytown Village Trustee Effie Phillips-Stanley and former Air Force Officer John Cappello. The 17th District consists of all of Rockland and Putnam counties, as well as part of Westchester and Dutchess County. 

Sacks, an alumni from Georgetown Law School, left law in 2011 to work for the Huffington Post. He became known as a journalist by camping out in front of the Supreme Court to be in line for major cases to write about in his blog First One @ One First. In 2009 Sacks was the first in line in front of the Supreme Court to witness the re-argument for the Supreme Court Case Citizens United v. FEC, a case debating whether the government can stop a corporation from spending money to support or attack a candidate. 

He said, “Inside the courtroom, I saw a majority of Supreme Court justices who were eager to let corporate cash flood into our elections and distort our democracy. From that eye-opening experience came a drive to record how our politics and our democracy were affected, not only by that decision, but by other anti-democratic decisions that the [Chief Justice John] Roberts Court pursued.”

Sacks said he watched the oral arguments in the landmark challenge to the Affordable Care Act, watched when the Supreme Court protected same-sex marriage and saw when Jeffrey Epstein was indicted and arraigned. He won an Emmy for his broadcast coverage of the George Floyd protests in 2020 for WNYW-TV. 

As part of his campaign, Sacks strongly condemns Lawler’s leadership and policies. 

“Everything we stand for is in stark opposition to Mike Lawler’s complicity and enabling complicity with and enabling the Trump regime. [Lawler is] slashing Medicaid and putting thousands of jobs at risk and making thousands of lives and livelihoods worse in this district while I’m running on not only restoring the funds that he slashed for Medicaid, but also moving forward towards Medicare for all so that no one in this district or this country has to choose between a heating bill and their health care.” 

Davidson, a mother of two children and a two-time cancer survivor, has years of experience serving her community. As Rockland County Legislator, she won her seat in a competitive district, with only 48% democratic registration. She and candidates in other districts won the first super majority of Democrats in the legislature in Rockland County history in 2023. 

Davidson’s campaign emphasizes multiple priorities, such as immigration reform, defending civil rights and fixing housing affordability. However, Davidson is also concerned with reproductive healthcare and abortion rights. 

“As a two-time cancer survivor, I did have to fight with my insurance company, sometimes hours a day, and they left me on hold forever. I mean, it was just an endless cycle that added to the stress of finding out what kind of cancer I had, or if my cancer had returned when I had a second recurrence.” She continued, “And the emotional as well as financial strain that it takes on families is excruciating, [which is] why I support a public option to add to the Affordable Care Act so that people who want Medicare-type coverage can buy into it, but those who need –– for whatever reason –– to hold on to their private insurance, can also do so.”

She continued, “I had to depend on Planned Parenthood in my 20s for my health care, off and on when I was working on campaigns, especially. And so the idea that Planned Parenthood has been defunded by this administration is outrageous to me. I know that will have a negative impact on access for women, particularly in low income areas, rural areas, areas where [people] just can’t afford private reproductive health care.”

After struggling with insurance companies while fighting cancer, Davidson also dealt with infertility, leading her and her husband to go through invitro fertilization, for which she had to pay out-of-pocket. She said her struggles as an IVF mom has led her to support families who need fertility treatments and need those treatments to be covered under their insurance. 

Conley, who graduated at the top 2% of her class at West Point and served for 16 years as an active-duty Army officer, is focused on protecting American democracy and solving economic issues. 

As former director of counterterrorism for the National Security Council, Conley said solving difficult national problems surpasses political conflicts. 

“You’re doing it out of patriotism and service to this country, and I think that is a really important thing to remember. To do hard things as a nation, we have to take the top talent and bring it together and focus it on the bigger mission, the greater good. National security is not a partisan issue; it should transcend politics,” she said. 

Through traveling on her campaign, Conley said she has spoken with many families who are struggling with the cost of living. Conley said that when her parents were growing up, the age of the average homebuyer was 21; now it is 40 years old. One of her priorities is lowering the costs for Hudson Valley families.

She has also seen many people concerned about the overreach of the executive branch and the federal government targeting political opposition. 

“We have seen this Congress, enabled by members of Congress like our current representative, Mike Lawler, [not] looking out for America’s future and what to do to make sure America’s best days are still ahead of us. Instead, they have been looking out for themselves, fueled by corruption and greed, and we are literally paying the price.”

Although district 17 is a competitive district between Republicans and Democrats, Conley says that if elected, she will be representing both political parties as congresswoman. 

She said, “When I went off to West Point and joined the army after 9/11, I wasn’t serving a person or a political party; I was serving my community, my country, my constitution. I believe that is what elected leaders should do. You don’t represent one side of a political spectrum, you represent all people in your district, and I believe part of what has derailed America in general has been the hyper partisanship. We’ve watched as these partisan polarizing tactics have torn families apart, and that’s got to stop.”

She continued, “Before we’re a Republican or Democrat, we’re a neighbor or a member of a community. We’re an American.”