Election Day is in less than a month, and in New York's 23rd district, voters will hit the polls in November to choose their congressional representative. Incumbent Republican Congressman Nick Langworthy, who's served since 2023, is running against Democratic challenger Aaron Gies.
Last week, the two faced off during a live one-hour debate hosted by NextStar Media Group's WETM News in Elmira. WSKG Elmira-Corning reporter Natalie Abruzzo spoke with WSKG News Director Phoebe Taylor-Vuolo about some highlights from the debate.
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Phoebe Taylor-Vuolo: Hi, Natalie.
Natalie Abruzzo: Hi, Phoebe.
PTV: So first of all, what do you think were some of the most important or substantive questions the candidates answered during the debate last week?
NA: What stood out to me was that there was a lot of agreement, even though they may not agree on the root cause or solution in some instances.
PTV: What are some of the things they agreed on?
NA: Well, they agreed on affordability. Both Langworthy and Gies said it was the biggest issue for voters in the 23rd Congressional District. Inflation and the war in Iran's impact on inflation are what they agreed on.
Gies says that costs passed on to consumers from the tariffs in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBA) and the war in Iran are creating affordability concerns with rising gas and grocery prices.
GIES: “Gas prices are high in the United States right now. They're about $4.50 in the district today, and diesel is even higher. Diesel's at record highs. And we should be clear about why that is. It's because of President Trump's war in Iran, when President Trump ran on no more wars.”
NA: Langworthy says we've had "very stubborn inflation."
LANGWORTHY: “Unfortunately, we have to grow our way out of this, and that's why I'm very proud that we have provided the tax relief that we have to put more money in people's pockets as they've faced this.”
NA: Though, neither candidate mentioned President Trump's dismissal of affordability earlier this year by calling it a "con job" and “fake word”, “made up by the Democrats.”
PTV: So you mentioned the war in Iran. Tell me a little bit about where both candidates stand on that.
NA: Gies wants Congress to end the war immediately.
GIES: “In my view, on day one, the next Congress should pass a binding war powers resolution that would compel the president to wind up the conflict in a dignified way within 40 days. And then we need to work with our partners to achieve our strategic objectives through negotiation with Iran.”
NA: And here's Langworthy:
LANGWORTHY: “I would like the war in Iran to end at the earliest possible date, but you don't tie the commander in chief's hands. We have one commander in chief at a time. I didn't make a decision to go to war, but we find ourselves in that position now.”
He calls Gies “naive” to suggest that Congress could end the war.
PTV: So what would preclude Congress from ending the war?
NA: Technically nothing, Phoebe. Congress is solely designated to declare war in the Constitution. Congress holds the power of the purse and can designate or withhold funding for the Department of Defense.
PTV: Okay, so what are some of the other things that they found common ground with, Natalie?
NA: Regulating AI. It was interesting that Langworthy agreed because Phoebe, he shares that he's not aligned with the president on this very topic.
LANGWORTHY: “This is an area where I disagree with President Trump. We do not need just a presidential dictate on AI. We shouldn't have the tech billionaires decide their regulation and stifle any innovation that comes from any would-be competitors.”
NA: Here's Gies:
GIES: “I think it's very important that AI be regulated for the common good with human values forward, and I think Congress has the primary responsibility to do that regulating in dialogue with the rest of the world.”
NA: Other things they agreed on, but their solutions may have been different were the American electric grid, redistricting social media accountability, the four-day work week, and federal minimum wage.
PTV: Okay, so they agreed on some things, but they are on the opposite sides of the political spectrum, one's a Republican and one's a Democrat. Surely there was some disagreement?
NA: Yes, definitely, Phoebe. One clear distinction is with the cuts to Medicaid.
A report by the Fiscal Policy Institute states that eight out of 12 hospitals that rely on Medicaid in the 23rd Congressional District are at risk of closure.
Gies stated that the Trump tax bill will cut $63 billion in Medicaid funding to New York.
Langworthy defends the cuts in the tax bill with the $50 billion rural transformation fund as a way to help rural hospitals when the work requirements go into effect on Jan. 1.
LANGWORTHY: “What you have is Medicaid that's been abused by states in particular, and we have put a common sense work requirement on here because that program must be there for the most vulnerable, the disabled, the impoverished, and our elderly people. It's not a lifestyle choice. I'll never apologize for supporting work requirements.”
PTV: So that $50 billion fund, is that for individual states or is it across the country?
NA: It's across the whole country. In reporting from KFF, a health policy organization, New York qualifies for approximately $212 million in the first year, but there's also a catch: the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) could take that funding away from any state at any time.
PTV: Okay, so what else did they disagree on?
NA: Voter ID. Langworthy supports the Save America Act.
LANGWORTHY: “That's the perfect way to get any guesswork out of our elections is to have the voter ID standard be across all 50 states.”
NA: Gies says he doesn't support the Save America Act.
GIES: “When you register to vote at the BOE or the DMV or wherever you do that, you have to show ID, and that should be the standard.”
PTV: Is there anything that surprised you about this debate?
NA: Yes. There were many topics that were not part of the debate questions.
PTV: Like what in particular? Talk to me about that.
NA: Well, the candidates were asked about energy a lot. They're both concerned and frustrated about rising costs.
Langworthy says the recently passed Ratepayer Protection Act addresses some of these concerns, specifically the large tech and data centers that put a strain on our current infrastructure, and was pushing the idea that the US should open more oil refineries to export oil and gas and be less dependent on foreign trade.
Gies says there needs to be a diverse energy mix, and that includes renewable resources such as solar and wind, and not nuclear or liquid natural gas that requires fracking to produce.
But what wasn't discussed in all of this is the environmental impacts such as massive water use and possible contamination from data centers or nuclear power. And I thought that was interesting.
Also, there was no mention of Title IX given the national headlines of the lawsuit alleging gang rape at Cornell University and the Trump administration's rescission of parts of Title IX just one month ago.
And they didn't talk about the added non-disclosure of the full file release of all Epstein files or the Epstein Transparency Act II that was introduced in the House in July.
PTV: So there were a few things that didn't get to make it on air on Tuesday.
NA: It's a long list, Phoebe. Public health wasn't brought up and we're seeing thousands of measles cases across the country and especially in the 23rd Congressional District. No mention of housing, reproductive healthcare, or food insecurity and SNAP benefits either.
There were a lot of state-issue questions, which are out of the jurisdiction of federal oversight, and that took up quite a bit of the debate-stage real estate.
PTV: So do we have any sense of how all of this is going to play out on Nov. 3?
NA: It's hard to tell. Each candidate played to their base.
Langworthy invoked Governor Hochul and attacked her on energy, immigration, and the economy. And Gies consistently referred to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act as the "big ugly bill."
The people I encounter on the campaign trail at Gies events are concerned about taxes, wars, social safety net programs, and the cost of gas, electricity, groceries, and healthcare—that's a big one. The environment is also a big issue, protecting the water, air and soil.
Some of this was discussed during the debate, and I think that will matter to each candidate's supporters.
PTV: Well, thank you so much for talking to me about all of this, Natalie.
NA: Thank you, Phoebe.
PTV: You can find more of Natalie's reporting on this race and lots of other things at wskg.org.
