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Mike Lawler and Mondaire Jones face off in NY-17’s first congressional debate

Mike Lawler and Mondaire Jones face off in NY-17’s first congressional debate

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Rep. Mike Lawler and former Rep. Mondaire Jones argued for an hour Wednesday over their House records and opposing views in a televised showdown in one of the country’s most hotly contested House races.

In a heated News 12 debate less than three weeks before the Nov. 5 election, the first-term Republican and Democratic challengers highlighted stark differences on issues like abortion and gun restrictions, while repeatedly arguing about the veracity of the president’s claims each other. It was the first of three planned TV duels in the fight for the seat in New York’s 17th congressional district in the Hudson Valley.

Their encounter moved briskly through topics ranging from crime to housing costs to climate change and was peppered with barbs, such as when Lawler branded Jones an “avowed socialist” and Jones called his opponent a “failed congressman.”

Lawler, a Republican from Rockland County, narrowly defeated another Democrat – then-Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney – to win the seat in 2022, and Jones had previously represented a different version of the district for two years until the New York House of Representatives boundaries were redrawn in 2022. The 17th District now includes all of Rockland and Putnam counties and parts of Westchester and Dutchess.

An Emerson College poll conducted this month showed the race was all but dead: Lawler led by one point, 7% of voters were undecided and a third-party candidate received 3% of the vote.

Here are three takeaways from Wednesday’s Lawler-Jones debate:

Sharp divide between Lawler and Jones on abortion and border laws

Jones, who has made restoring abortion rights a key campaign issue, lashed out at Lawler for opposing abortion and supporting the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade repealed and placed abortion rules in the hands of the states. He accused that decision of endangering women who face problematic pregnancies in states with bans or strict restrictions.

“Mike Lawler is not pro-life when it comes to women, because across America women are bleeding to death and dying in hospitals where doctors are afraid of criminal liability and therefore do not provide the abortion care these women deserve,” said Jones.

Lawler, who has said he opposes abortion except for rape, incest or the life and health of the mother, reiterated his promise to vote against any national abortion ban or restriction in Congress and accused Jones of lying about his position to have. He attempted to turn the tables by describing Jones’ own position on the issue as extreme.

“The only extremist here is Mondaire Jones,” Lawler said. “He supports abortion up to the moment of birth, he supports abortion based on sex selection, he opposes parental notification, and he is okay with non-doctors performing abortions, which makes abortion less safe.”

In another exchange, both parties touted dueling proposals to tighten border security and reform the country’s outdated immigration laws. Lawler supports a tough Republican border law that Democrats oppose, as well as a bipartisan immigration reform proposal. Jones supports a bipartisan Senate plan that stalled after Donald Trump scrapped it and Republicans distanced themselves – and is now a rallying cry for Democrats.

Lawler accused the Biden administration of fueling a migration crisis by reversing Trump administration orders that had prevented such a large influx. And he criticized the Senate bill Jones supports for maintaining a “catch-and-release” policy that allows migrants to live in the U.S. while their immigration cases are pending.

Jones defended the Senate bill by pointing out that the Border Patrol union supports it and accused Republicans of blocking a solution to the refugee crisis by opposing it.

Who is extreme? The other guy

Each played up the bipartisan legislative proposals they supported and took every opportunity to portray the other as extreme, which has been a consistent campaign theme for both since the start of the campaign.

Jones accused Lawler – who placed fourth in the House on bipartisan bills in his first year – of merely “posing as a moderate” and linked him several times to Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s presidential nominee. He referenced Lawler’s recorded remark at a private Trump fundraiser in New Jersey in July that Democrats “hate this country.”

“When the cameras are off, he stokes division,” he said. “And if he were interested in uniting this country, he would not support a man for president of the United States who, for example, called our military veterans ‘suckers and losers.’

Lawler countered that Jones was unable to bridge the partisan divide in Congress, saying he was No. 381 in the House of Representatives for bipartisan bills that called police “racists” and “white supremacists” and immigration officials “terrorists.” Jones claims he vehemently denied it. He once linked Jones to Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, both progressive leaders.

“At the end of the day, Mondaire Jones has a long, extreme record,” he said. “And that’s why he’s not able to do what I was able to do in this Congress. I have worked with Democrats and Republicans to address the challenges facing our country, and I will do so again.”

Here is one of those delicate exchanges

At another point, arguments erupted after Jones touted how seniors benefited from Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act, enacted during his time in Congress. He noted that the 2022 law capped insulin prices for Medicare recipients at $35 and set a $2,000 annual cap on prescription drug costs beginning in 2025. It also allowed the government to negotiate Medicare drug prices with pharmaceutical companies for the first time.

“Leave it to an avowed socialist to praise price controls,” Lawler responded, before blaming European trade practices for rising drug costs in the U.S. and outlining possible solutions.

“We’re going to hear a lot of lies tonight,” Jones replied at the end. “I have never called myself a socialist, to put it bluntly.”

“Yes, you did,” Lawler replied.

“No, I didn’t,” Jones said. “You don’t have a citation for that.”

Chris McKenna covers government and politics for The Journal News and USA Today Network. Reach him at [email protected].