Josh Riley is the Democratic and Working Families candidate for New York’s 19th Congressional District. An Endicott native, he has served as a policy analyst at the Department of Labor and worked as an attorney in private practice. Questionnaire responses have been edited for clarity.
What motivated you to run for this position?
My family has been in Broome County for over a century, and our family’s history is intertwined with our region’s history. My family worked at EJs and IBM for generations until corrupt politicians sold out neighborhoods like mine to the special interests and shipped our jobs overseas, leaving behind pollution, an opioid epidemic and a child poverty crisis. In our economy and our politics, the deck has been stacked against everyday people, and it’s been stacked in favor of corporate political action committees and the politicians they pay to do what’s best for their bottom line, not ours.
I’m running for Congress to change that. I don’t take any corporate PAC money because my vote is not for sale, and I’m pushing for term limits because we need fewer career politicians and more new ideas. I’ll work to bring back American manufacturing and rebuild our Middle Class.
How does your background and previous experience make you a strong candidate for this position?
I’m the only candidate in the race who is from this district. Having grown up in the Triple Cities, I know both the challenges we’ve faced in the past and the opportunities we have in the future. I didn’t know any attorneys growing up, but I worked very hard to become one so that I could make a difference in communities like mine. I represented kids in poverty who needed access to health care services, brought Democrats and Republicans together to fight the opioid epidemic and represented small businesses fighting back against the big insurance companies ripping them off.
Why are you an ideal candidate for young voters and students?
I have spent a lot of time engaging with students, including on our college campuses, and I share many of the concerns and priorities I’ve heard from them. I’m the pro-environment candidate in this race, having been endorsed by the Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters, and Natural Resources Defense Council while my opponent takes money from the oil industry and votes to give them subsidies. I’m the pro-choice candidate in this race, having committed to sponsor the Women’s Health Protection Act while my opponent voted 13 times to restrict abortion rights. And I’m the anti-corruption candidate in this race, refusing corporate PAC money while my opponent takes tons of it.
This race is projected to be one of the closest races in the 2024 election. What issues do you plan on addressing to bring undecided voters into your camp?
I want to get the corruption and dirty money out of our politics. That includes overturning Citizens United, the disastrous Supreme Court decision that opened the floodgates to dark money in politics. I’m also the only candidate in this race who has never taken any corporate PAC money. My opponent is bankrolled by nearly $1 million from corporate PACs, and they are getting their money’s worth as he has consistently voted to help their bottom line, not the bottom lines of Upstate New Yorkers.
How would you vote on Proposal No. 1 on the New York State ballot?
Overturning Roe v. Wade was one of the worst Supreme Court decisions ever, and I will support proposals to restore a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions. Over the course of my career, I worked to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.
My opponent, on the other hand, has been an anti-choice politician for all of his 32-year career in public office. He opposed the protections of Roe v. Wade in the New York State Legislature. He supported a national abortion ban, and in his short tenure in Congress, he has voted a total of 13 times to restrict access to abortion.
If elected, one of the first actions I will take in Congress is to sponsor the Women’s Health Protection Act to restore the protections of Roe because I believe women can make their own health care decisions, and politicians should stay the hell out of it.
Many people don’t consider the federal government impactful in their personal lives. What are some of the major issues that voters should care about?
We need to start making stuff in America again after decades of terrible trade deals that shipped jobs and supply chains overseas. There’s nowhere better positioned to do that than the Triple Cities. Binghamton University is home to some of the most important green technology breakthroughs, e.g., lithium ion batteries, and the surrounding region has a dedicated workforce and good manufacturing infrastructure. Federal investments like the CHIPS & Science Act and Inflation Reduction Act will allow us to take those innovations from the lab to the factory floor. Read more about my views on this HERE.