Southern Tier Republican Rep. Nick Langworthy has a declared Democratic challenger, as he runs for reelection this November.
According to his campaign website, Democrat Tom Carle is a retired plant manager of food and beverage manufacturing and human resources manager. He is originally from Broome County and now lives in Chautauqua County with his wife and their three young children. He has five children total and six grandchildren.
Carle is going up against a first-term Republican incumbent in New York's 23rd Congressional District, which stretches across the Southern Tier and includes Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, Schuyler and Steuben counties and parts of Erie County.
Republicans have the enrollment advantage over Democrats in the district. There are 198,864 active registered Republicans compared to 157,343 Democrats.
“Even though it's a challenging situation to try to beat an incumbent in a Republican dominated district, I'm not afraid of that, because I've settled strikes before, I've negotiated with a couple of unions for their union contracts,” expressed Carle. “I've negotiated with customers over pricing on millions and millions of dollars of product and work for my plants that I've managed. And I just see this as an extension of something. I haven't done it before, but that doesn't mean I can't do it better than some of the people that I see do it.”
Carle said in order to open up the field for more people to get involved in local politics, he would only seek one to two terms in office.
“What I'd like to do is create a path for Democrats in District 23,” said Carle. “And while I'm running and serving in the office, I would promote diversity and youth getting involved. So that when I hand the torch off, we're a different district.”
In February, Carle spoke at a rural-organizing training event in Corning, sponsored by the Steuben County Democratic Committee.
Carle is currently the only declared candidate for the district running on the Democratic ticket.
The 23rd Congressional District has been represented by a Republican since 2010, when Tom Reed won the seat. In 2022, Reed stepped down amid an ethics probe. The seat is currently held by Republican Nick Langworthy who assumed office last year and is running for reelection.
“Right now, I see a need in Congress for more people who are serious,” explained Carle. “I mean, I have a lot of fun, I have a great family, [I] have lots of super friends. But I'm also serious when it comes down to the times you need to be serious. You [got] to be cooperative, collaborative. You need to find a way to work with people and achieve things and move the ball down the field. Because if you don't, we stagnate or we go backwards.”
Steuben County Democratic Committee Chair Shawn Hogan said it can be a challenge to get the resources necessary to unseat a Republican incumbent, but it is possible.
“This is not an easy task,” said Hogan. “This is almost like a quantum leap. And people- the candidates know when [they] [get] into it. This is an uphill battle. This is not something that's going to be easy. But if you can break through, and you can generate excitement, you can generate enthusiasm for your campaign and specifically articulate the difference between you and your opponent, you have a chance.”
Hogan said it is still early in the election cycle and the committee will decide who to support at a later date.
Ballot designating petitions for U.S. congressional candidates are due to the state Board of Elections by April 4.