New York’s 23rd congressional district seat is up for election in 2026.
Two Democratic candidates are vying for a chance to challenge incumbent Southern Tier Rep. Nick Langworthy in the midterms.
The two Democratic challengers recently declared campaigns to unseat Langworthy. Langworthy represents Tioga and Chemung counties and parts of Schuyler and Steuben counties.
Kevin Stocker is an attorney in Erie County. He said he is running for the district seat because: “We're in a fight against millionaires and billionaires that control our government through campaign donations and are betraying our way of life. Whether it's Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, food stamps, the rights of women, attacks on the media, attacks on our universities, health care.”
Stocker said he declared his run for the seat in June.
He was a registered Republican until 2016, when he switched parties due to what he said was “Trumpism and the betrayal of hardworking families.”
Stocker ran for several state office seats as a Republican, beginning in 2010. He ran for state assembly in 2020 in the Democratic primary and lost to William Conrad.
Aaron Gies, a professor in Cattaraugus County, said he is running for the seat because he believes “government only works when its leaders serve the people they represent.”
“I am acutely concerned that Nick Langworthy doesn't represent the interests of his constituents because of his votes, because of his reluctance to meet with them face to face and to listen to their concerns about the administration's agenda,” Gies said.
Gies announced his candidacy on Tuesday. This is his first political run.
Stocker and Geis are meeting constituents throughout the district.
Geis will be at the Tioga County courthouse Thursday for a Good Trouble Lives On event at 5 p.m.
He will be in Corning on Saturday, July 19 for a Good Trouble Lives On rally honoring the legacy of the late congressman, John Lewis. The event is organized by Citizens for a Better Southern Tier and Indivisible Corning-Elmira. Gies is a featured speaker. The event is from noon to 1 p.m.
Stocker will be at the VFW Post in Mayville in Chautauqua County on Sunday, July 20 for a local town hall.
Langworthy praises rescission package as House set to vote
Langworthy and his fellow congressional representatives will soon vote on whether to approve the Trump administration’s pending rescission package.
The rescission package will strip $7.9 billion from USAID and $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). WSKG receives approximately $1.3 million from CPB.
WSKG reached out to Langworthy’s office and has not heard back. However, Langworthy praised the proposal on social media Thursday.
“Great to see the Senate pass President Trump’s $9 billion claw-back of wasteful spending - slashing taxpayer dollars for woke foreign aid, leftist propaganda like NPR, & other extreme ideological programs that don’t serve the American people,” Langworthy wrote.
“These cuts are a big step toward putting common sense back in our government. Let’s get it signed into law!”
Both Gies and Stocker expressed concerns about the threats to independent, public media in the rescission package and criticized Republican lawmakers for passing the package.
“I think we need to rely on our media to be independent and to tell the truth and educate citizens on important issues and what's going on with government corruption,” Stoker said. “We are living in a world currently that I don't recognize.”
Stocker said the Republican party “gutted services for the poor and impoverished around the world” to give tax breaks to the wealthiest in the U.S.
Geis shared similar thoughts on funding cuts.
“The fact that this administration would play politics with really one of the best sources that we have for deeply informed, bipartisan, independent media is a shame,” Gies said. “And I think the senators that voted for it should be ashamed, and I'm sure that some of them are.”
The rescission proposal narrowly passed the U.S. Senate early Thursday morning (51-48) and is now in the House of Representatives for a vote before a July 18 deadline.