From WXXI news.

This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Well, today we are welcoming two candidates who are going to be appearing on your upcoming ballots.

And as you know, we invite the candidates to appear with their opponents so we can have a conversation together about the issues.

We've been glad to bring together opponents in a number of races this election season.

That has been true in the weeks past.

That will be true next week.

Today is a little bit of a different story.

In our second half hour, we focus on the congressional race in New York, district number 24.

The incumbent Republican Claudia Tenney, is running for reelection.

She has not responded to our invitations to join us on this program.

Her opponent, the Democrat Alissa Ellman, will be with us in studio.

But in our first half hour, we begin with New York State Assembly seat number 138.

The Democrat Harry Bronson is the incumbent, serving since his election in 2010.

His opponent is Republican Tracy DiFlorio.

She has not responded to our invitations to appear on this program.

And so with that, the Democrat has.

Harry Bronson is a member of the state's New York State Assembly.

His website is vote Harrybronson.com.

Welcome back to the program.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you for having me.

Your district includes parts of the city of Rochester, towns of Henrietta, West Henrietta, Chile, Riga.

Is that it?

That is, the village of Churchville is in the town of Riga as well.

Okay.

Very good.

So we always kind of start with a reintroduction or an introduction.

Why are you running for reelection?

Because this is work that still needs to be done.

I've been very privileged and very honored to represent this district.

I'm now in my 16th year, and we've done a lot of work in the areas of health care in the area of education, workforce development, things of that nature.

But there's still more to do.

I want to continue to work on issues that are really facing the families right now, affordability and the high costs of things, trying to get those costs down and address those issues, making sure that we make more, advances and reducing the level of crime in our area.

Public safety is a big issue, and we've gotten a lot of good results in that area.

And then lastly, I'm all about creating, opportunities.

And now, as chair of the Labor committee, I've been the chair.

Now I'm in my third year working on workforce development, having apprenticeship programs, things of that nature.

I want to, work on all of those things.

And then lastly, climate, is probably my number two issue that I work on, and I want to make sure that we make the transition into a green economy that is equitable and that we create opportunities for people in that economy.

If you win reelection, are you a contender for New York State majority leader?

I mean, I wasn't sure if you were going to ask me that.

Of course I'm going to ask you that.

Yes, I believe I am.

This is in the sole discretion of the speaker of the Assembly.

He knows I'm very interested in the position.

We have had conversations, but, we will, make those decisions after the election and after things develop.

Not sure if I'll get it or not.

There's other very qualified people that, at least rumor is that they're in contention for the position.

But again, it's the sole discretion of the speaker.

I would be honored to partner with him to move our majority conference forward for the benefit of all New Yorkers.

Would that change anything for in terms of what you can do for your district, it will change tremendously.

What I can do for my district, as people will recall, now, Congress person, Jim Rally was majority leader for a number of years.

I will be, with the speaker, a at a level of leadership in the conference, with the ability to, have, input on where we take the conference, what policies we're going to focus on, how can we, better represent all of New Yorkers.

But, of course, even though we've had a lot of successes with, my wonderful delegation here, in the Assembly and in the Senate, from this area, we probably would have more successes because of that position.

Your opponent has an ad, that says our genie is helping fund your campaign.

So I want to start with that.

How much money is our genie given you?

I can't tell you how much they have given me, but, yes, I have received donations from RGA.

I work with them.

It's important for me to, work and partner with many stakeholders in the community.

RGA, may very well have contributed to my campaign.

That doesn't impact the policy decisions I make on their behalf, and I am interested mostly in that area to bring down the cost of utilities.

And we've done some things in that area, as you know.

We have, a rebate check in connection with utilities.

I'm not thrilled with the timing of it, but we have a rebate check in that area.

But more importantly, I supported a, moratorium on, building data centers.

And in that is a bill that, we passed waiting for the governor sign.

We created a commission that will evaluate making sure that data centers and those companies pay for the utilities and not shift that cost over to ratepayers.

All right.

So there's a lot there.

I went to data centers coming up here.

But let me just stay on a couple threads here.

First of all, what's your position on the the debated public takeover of a utility like our genie?

Would you support it?

I, I have not publicly supported, the takeover of the, private utility companies.

There's a movement across the state, including here.

One of my colleagues will be in town tomorrow speaking about that.

The issue that I have is I think we need to review it.

I know there's some push for a survey in this area to see if that actually will reduce the cost of utilities to consumers, to our families.

The other thing is, I'm not sure that a municipality has the bandwidth to really run a company like that.

You know, we're struggling to meet the other public services that we have to do.

And, you know, so adding that I'm not sure is the best idea.

So, no, I have not publicly supported, do you think our genie has done a good job or a poor job for their customers?

Generally, they have in the past done a poor job.

They have improved.

I've met with the CEO of RGA on numerous occasions, both one on one as well as in larger group meetings with other elected officials there.

The hiring for better, customer services there, the changes they have made to infrastructure, especially in a part of the city that I used to live in, no longer where the infrastructure was so poor.

You know, we had our utilities go down on a regular basis.

They've made improvements in that area.

And I also know with the smart meters that they've put on, houses, they've improved on the billing process.

Do they still have work to do?

Absolutely.

But they've come a long way in improving those things.

Republican Bruce Blakeman went after Governor Hochul in their debate this week over energy cost.

And Blakeman essentially says, look, this is a one party rule state and your utility costs have gone up, up up, up.

Who's in charge here?

Why haven't you done more to stop that?

He's saying that that's true of all Democrats.

And that that would be true of you, too.

Utility costs have gone, up in other states as well.

It's not just a New York State issue.

Part of the problem with utility costs, a lot of folks don't understand.

Or you just aren't knowledgeable.

Two thirds of your utility bill.

Two thirds of it is, infrastructure.

There was a delay by utility companies and invested in infrastructure.

Our system, with the way we approve capital dollars for infrastructure, needs to be reformed.

We're working on that right now.

That will have an impact on bringing down utilities costs.

The other thing, this is based on the market.

Electrical costs are directly related to the cost of gas.

The cost of gas is directly related to Mr.

Blakeman and my opponent's friend Donald Trump's, war, overseas and, as well as with tariffs.

So, you know, there's, there's a lot of factors that go into those utility costs.

We need to work to bring them down.

And I'm taking steps to do that.

And what's something tangible that would actually bring utility costs down and, that will bring it down.

One is going to be continuing to, to invest in infrastructure.

All right.

We have streamlined some of the processes in which utility companies have to apply and get capital dollars for infrastructure.

So that's one.

And we're in the process of doing that.

Some steps have already been taken.

Two is going to be to to make sure that utility companies report and we have a comparison of what their CEOs and high paying, executives are getting compared to what their profits are.

So that there's not a disproportionate amount of profits going to those high level executives.

Well, you mentioned the energy rebate check.

President Trump has said that if Republicans win the midterms, he's going to send every American adult $5,000.

New York State is sending right around election time, New Yorkers, $200.

What's the difference?

If you recall, the last time I was on the show, I think I mentioned this and I said I'm not thrilled with the timing of it.

You think the substance is the right thing?

The timing is the problem.

The timing is the problem.

Look, I would have preferred taking that $3 billion and applying it in other ways that would have, indirect, but still a benefit to New Yorkers.

But that's not what the governor wanted to do.

The governor wanted to use this rebate.

Ultimately, as you well know from previous conversations, the governor in New York state has an inordinate amount of control in the budget process.

Ultimately, that was that was something I could live with.

And I went with it.

And ultimately, people are getting some money put back in their pockets.

But it was her call on the timing.

She was the one who pushed that.

Did you tell her?

It kind of looks like a bribe.

She didn't talk to me during the budget.

I don't negotiate directly with the governor, but we did talk about it in our conference.

And we were.

And we did just share, the discomfort of the conference with, that approach versus taking that amount of money and applying it in programs that would benefit New Yorkers.

I don't know where your opponent I've not talked to your opponent, as we mentioned, stands on data centers.

You oppose data centers or at least you support them more.

I support the more moratorium.

Tell me more about that.

Yeah.

So two things happened with with data centers.

One, we passed a bill, led by Assemblywoman Didi Barrett.

She's the chair of our energy committee.

I'm a co-sponsor on that bill, passed it in the Assembly and passed it in the Senate.

And it was also a one year moratorium.

There was some push for a three year.

Ultimately, we agreed to it, a one year moratorium, so that we could evaluate the water use of data centers, evaluate the utility usage and the impact on ratepayers in that regard.

And also set up a commission that would evaluate how we can do this, that will benefit economic development, allow localities to have the benefit of it, but not have the burden shifted to ratepayers.

And so I support that approach.

I support it as a moratorium.

I don't support it as, a ban constantly because ultimately we would be left behind in the economy if we did that.

So the governor came out after we passed that bill, with an executive order that does very similar things but doesn't quite go as far.

Okay.

But it sounds to me like a year from now or next July or whenever it is, data centers are back in action.

Back in, back in action.

One.

There still be local control, but back in action with parameters put in place that would shift the impact on the, utility grid to those data centers and not, ratepayers, which then in turn increases costs.

Okay.

So I understand that.

And so and by the way, in a recent conversation, we talked to the supervisor of the town of Dryden.

They have a motel moratorium down there in the Finger Lakes.

There's the town of Tori.

They're having a debate about what to do there and what what was made clear was you've got the state moratorium, but localities can still at least pursue future opportunities, thinking the moratorium won't last forever.

So that's going on here.

I guess I want to understand, do you think it is?

Actually, it's not just lip service to say that in the future, if the moratorium lifts, you could have three things.

You could have local control.

So municipalities either going to vote or say in some way saying we want it or we don't, that we can have closed loop water systems or some kind of effect that will not stress water and that there will be some kind of energy mitigation.

So they're not either stressing the grid or cranking up everybody's bills.

Do you think those things are possible?

Yes, yes, I really do.

And I'm glad you brought up Closed Loop.

The proposal and the stamp, facility is a closed loop system.

As I understand.

So the water impact is, is much less.

But I do think that we can have these large companies that are putting in data centers foot the bill in connection with their adverse impact on the grid.

Keeping in mind, we have, you know, our our electrical grid is stressed already.

And, and these data centers use an inordinate amount of electricity.

So it's important for us to get a handle on all of that so that we can make the best policy decision and ultimately have the companies that are putting these in, bear the burden of the cost and bear the burden of the adverse impact on the grid.

They may have to do grid infrastructure in order to have that data center put in.

That removes the cost from, ratepayers.

So that's it's really important for us to take some time to slow down a little bit, but I also believe and putting aside a debate on AI.

But I also believe data centers are going to be a necessary component of our economy as we move forward.

You don't want to give me your predictions of doom possibilities with AI.

Oh, I'm so you know, I do have a nervous piece of me about AI.

I really do.

So why isn't every elected leader saying, okay, I'm listening to the tech leaders telling us they're not sure if it will kill us, but it might, and we're still going to just build the data centers, and we still will just do this because, well, I don't know.

I there's nothing we can do.

Yeah, well, it's not only AI that will rely on data centers.

There's lots of other parts of it.

And data centers is largely driven by the huge ones, is largely driven by that.

But I don't I don't think we're going to avoid going forward with AI.

What I do think is we have to have parameters on AI.

We have to have the safeguards put in place.

And, you know, we we should take our time on that as well.

So when it comes to energy, the governor said during the debate that she has an all of the above energy policy.

And that's kind of borrowing language from the Obama administration.

But it's not actually true.

She doesn't she doesn't want to lift the ban on fracking, for example.

I presume you don't either.

But no, I do not.

But it's not an all of the above.

But is it enough?

Do you think the governor's policy is enough?

What do you want to see with energy?

That's not happening, whether it's wind, solar, etc.. What's going on that you would change?

So I have the privilege of being chair of the Labor Committee.

As such, I am deeply involved in the transition to a green economy.

I have worked very closely with the Climate Jobs Institute out of Cornell, and, work to develop processes that will help us when it comes to energy, that is looking at all of the above.

So looking at the generation, where is that energy coming?

Is it coming from a renewable, sustainable source to the transmission of that energy?

Three battery storage.

How do we deal with if you're using solar or wind?

You know, it ebbs and flows on the production of the energy.

So can you when it's windy out, can you then store that energy in battery?

Was deeply involved in a federal grant that the University of Binghamton got, to develop battery storage.

RIT is part of that as well, Rochester Institute of Technology.

And so I'm looking at this as I want us to move to a green economy.

There is going to be a need to continue to use, you know, natural gas during that period of time and maybe even after for a period of time.

There are certain industries that electricity cannot heat up what they need to the level that they have to have for whatever their manufacturing is.

So, and in part of this, the the Climate Jobs Institute, my work also is involved in making sure as we make that transition, that we don't leave people behind who are in the fossil industry, and that we also bring people in who have been on the economic and workforce sidelines, for far too long.

What do you make of the the debate about solar arrays on farmland?

So, I think there's a balancing act there.

You know, as being a person who grew up on a farm and.

Yeah.

And now a person who lives on a farm, I believe that we can have both.

Let's keep in mind, in New York State, agriculture is our number one industry.

It is our number one industry.

So we don't want to get rid of all of our farms and put up solar panels.

But there is a place where you can put up solar panels and you can provide, generation of energy through those solar panels.

We also have to do that with wind.

We have to expand what we're doing in hydro.

Power right now.

There are some areas where the New York State Power Authority is expanding and in the area of hydropower, and ultimately, we're going to have to start talking about nuclear.

One of your Republican colleagues in the Assembly came on this program and said she is so concerned with solar arrays on farmland that New York will no longer be able to make its own food.

Yeah, that's not real.

You don't think that's that's not realistic.

All of us who are in the place to make decisions, we all realize that agriculture still is our number one industry.

And the second industry is tourism, which is also land based.

So we're not going to destroy all of our farmland for solar, but there is a place for solar in our economy.

All right.

So let me work through some feedback from listeners before we lose the half hour with the Assembly member who is running for reelection.

Robert in Fairport got to keep it tight.

Go ahead.

Robert.

Yeah.

The thing with powering these data centers and this hasn't been brought up yet, is that a lot of the newer data centers are being built with their own power sources, and often as diesel generation of power for the data center.

A lot of this discussion is, hey, let's, make sure they're not stressing the grid.

Well, they're not stressing the grid.

They're just putting out a lot of pollution.

The, fossil fuel generation of power.

And, you know, this electrical power generation to run a run a data center.

It's just the technology is not there yet for that.

How does he feel about that?

I'm curious to see what, Mr.

Bronson has to say.

Thank you.

Robert.

Go ahead.

Robert, that's a very good question.

And the, and again, another reason why we want to take some time and study data centers.

The reality is, if you had heard earlier when I said when we're looking at, this area, we have to look at the generation of the energy, the infrastructure and transmission of the energy as well as how can we store it.

So we're looking at technologies to be able to use other generations of energy that are green and sustainable, and being able to store it.

But you are correct in the current state.

There are a lot of fossil fuels being used to, you know, feed the electricity into large projects like data centers.

Robert.

Thank you.

A couple comments from YouTube.

On the timing of the rebate check, it's to help with food and health care costs that are rising and to counter part of the Bebe that the GOP fix to happen after the midterm elections.

In my opinion, this is on Trump for all of it, not the governor.

Another YouTube comment.

It's hard to be an all of the above energy policy when the governor is not mandating green energy production beyond build public renewables.

What do you think?

Well, I you know, I would be more aggressive on, you know, renewables and sustainable, energy sources than what the governor is.

You know what what he meant by all of the above.

I, you know, I, I can't opine on that.

Okay.

Let me get a couple of emails and we'll get back to your phone calls.

This is from Alex.

For those following the midterms, the general expectation is somewhere between an embarrassing and a generationally crushing defeat for Republicans.

What sort of progressive reach items do you and the Rochester bloc see as legitimate targets in the next legislative session in New York, assuming that you have a strong mandate?

So I you know, I have already done a lot to counter what, this federal government has done.

I pass what's called the National Labor Relations Board.

Trick or bill.

That was the first in the nation.

It was to counter what Donald Trump was doing with the National Labor Relations Board, which oversees, organizing, unions and and bargaining rights and things of that nature.

I also passed the Shield act.

Shield 2.0, which would protect a woman's right to make, health care decisions regarding reproductive choices as well as gender affirming care.

To counter what the federal government and what other hostile states have done.

We will continue to do that.

We are going to have a very difficult year next year because, as was pointed out, a lot of the hits are going to happen after the midterm elections.

At the Medicaid, for example, Medicaid is going to be very problematic.

And, and then aside from that, connected to Medicaid, a lot of people may or may not know two thirds of Medicaid dollars are spent on the elderly, and people with disabilities.

The Trump administration has now, over the last few months, started to pull back from what's called the Olmstead decision.

United States Supreme Court decision that would require that does require states under Ada and under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to provide services in the community that would, have people with with disabilities be able to live independently in the community.

And the Trump administration's pulling back on that.

At the same time, they're cutting Medicaid.

This is going to have a tremendous adverse impact on people with disabilities.

And so we're going to have to fight back against that as well.

All right, Frances and Webster is next on the phone.

Hey, Frances.

Go ahead.

I I've heard some reports or I've read reports, Facebook post, about a couple of solar sites on farmland.

But part of the installation, before they started installing the panels, they stepped away, foot.

They basically stripped away all the topsoil and trucked it away.

And they say that that land will not be usable for farming when they're done with the solar project.

Any information on that?

Yeah.

I, I haven't heard those reports.

On the opposite side of it, I have, had discussions with people about having solar panels and still being able to grow crops or to raise certain type of livestock that's intermixed with the solar panels.

So I hope that would be the direction we would go.

And not stripping, the topsoil in such a way that it would not, have any agriculture abilities after that.

So I, I haven't heard those reports, but I'll certainly be willing to take a look into that.

If there if that is happening.

It's not my expertise here, but does the state have a role to step in with that?

Yeah, I think so.

If that's happening then I would look at a way to prevent that from happening and put in prohibitions from that, that approach.

Because we don't want that to happen.

One more email.

Gary says where does the candidate stand on the DSA, the Democratic Socialists of America, and they endorsed you.

Are you a fan of the DSA?

They have not endorsed me.

I, as, you know, we talked earlier about me having a leadership position, and I can proudly say that in our majority conference, I get along very well with folks who are more moderate.

Folks like myself, who consider themselves progressive, as well as folks who consider themselves, DSA.

I think it's important for us to have conversation and dialog and be respectful and open to having, conversations that will get us to the very best policy decisions we can make on behalf of our constituents.

Harry Bronson is running for reelection to the New York State Assembly.

His website is vote Harrybronson.com.

His opponent in the race is Republican Tracy DiFlorio.

She did not respond to our request for her to join us on this program, but Harry did, and we're glad to have the Assembly member here.

Thank you for making time, and I know we will talk to you after the election.

Thank you for having me, giving me this opportunity to have people hear about my positions.

Harry Bronson, candidate for New York State Assembly.

Alissa Ellman, who is running for Congress, joins us next.

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This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Two candidates on the ballot for the congressional district number 24, in New York State.

The incumbent is the Republican Claudia Tenney.

She did not respond to our request for her to join us on Connections.

But the Democrat in that race did.

Alissa Ellman is with us.

And I didn't even ask you before the program began.

If you have a website, I'm sure you do.

What is your website?

Yeah, it's Ellman for congress.com Ellman.

You've done that before.

Ellman for congress.com.

We always ask the candidates if they want to share that.

Thank you for making time for the program.

Of course.

Thanks so much for having me.

It is a big district here, and the district that you are running for includes 14 different counties.

Yeah, 14 different counties, including all of Wayne, Oswego, Seneca, Yates, Livingston, Orleans, Wyoming, Genesee, Cayuga and Ontario, along with parts of Niagara, Jefferson, Steuben and Schuyler counties.

How many miles did you put on your car in the last year?

Around 31,000.

So anybody who works in this district, and I suspect the Tenney campaign does, too.

It's a huge district, probably a nice little product of gerrymandering, I guess is absolutely.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

So, And so why did you decide you want to run?

I want to give you some chance.

A chance to kind of tell your tell the audience a little bit about why yourself and why you are running for Congress this year.

Well, you know, I grew up pretty poor in the Southern Tier, and I joined the Army to go to college.

When I was 17, September 11th.

Happened almost immediately after that.

And, I did my first deployment at 19.

I did several years in Afghanistan, both as a, soldier and as a contractor there doing airfield management and logistics.

And I came home to wanting a quiet life.

I got married, I had two daughters.

I put myself through school to be a special ed teacher, and I'd still be doing that.

But I got a really rare form of cancer.

Probably attributed to burn pits in Afghanistan.

And that forced me to take some time off.

And when I decided to go back to work, I went back to work at the Buffalo, VA Education department, where I been working just under a year when I got dosed in the first wave of layoffs.

And that that really upset me the way that the president and the current administration was talking about.

Di hires many disabled veterans, R.D.

hires people that I worked with, had traumatic brain injuries, had missing limbs, were laid off.

And a lot of those people go back to work for the dignity of having a job.

They don't have to do that.

They do it because they want to give back.

And that's the same reason that I did it.

And after that happened, I went to Claudia Tenney's office, and I just asked the question, like, what's the plan?

Because I know that it's less than 250 people in this country process every educational claim for veterans in the country.

So that's 18,600,000 veteran claims and all of their dependents are processed by 250 people.

That's pretty efficient.

So I just wondered what their plan was.

And instead of giving me a plan, they talked to me about how, Claudia Tenney agrees with every single decision that Donald Trump makes and gave me a pamphlet about Donald Trump, and that really upset me.

I went home and I didn't really know what I was going to do with that energy at first, but I happened to run into a very experienced campaign manager who directly asked me to run for Congress and presented me with a 35 page plan that he'd been writing for two years.

And that changed, the course of my life.

You know, I didn't sit home and think I'm going to run for Congress.

That's weird.

But when you get directly asked to do something and there's an actual plan available, becomes a different ballgame.

And I think we've done a pretty darn good job.

We've heard about, in general about dose cuts affecting veterans, but we don't we don't often see them in the flesh, and you're one of them.

Yes.

You got I mean, you say you got dosed.

If that hadn't happened, you're probably still working there.

And you're not running for Congress, right?

Yeah, I'd still be in a cubicle at the VA, working for the education department and helping people get their veterans benefits.

And, you know, I gave up disability to take that job.

I gave that up.

So I think that's pretty efficient.

The month prior to getting dosed, I was at at 200% production with 100% quality, meaning that I was doing the job of two people and it was not my performance that got me dosed.

It was, performative politics, and I'm just so sick of it.

I want to see our government actually accomplish things.

You know, I mean, we can all complain about whatever, but until somebody is coming up with ideas on what we can do next, I just really wish we'd get rid of these do nothings.

When were you diagnosed with cancer?

What year?

It was 2018.

20?

Yeah.

2018.

How are you doing?

I'm super lucky.

If you're going to get a cancer, you probably want the type that I got.

It's called Feo.

Chromosome cytometer.

It's super curable and almost never recurs.

And so I'm very, very lucky, but I, I closely know people who deployed with me who will die from cancers, that they got from Afghanistan.

And I am one guy in particular.

Part of the Pact act is named after him.

His name is Rafael Barboza.

He, he served with me in Afghanistan, and he has stage four colon cancer, and he's, like, a year older than me.

Was, like, 43.

He's going to die from that.

You know, it's it's a tragedy.

And, you know, I take it personal that Claudia Tenney voted against the Pact act, which literally allows the VA to pay for those cancers.

She voted against that.

And her excuse was, well, her reason on her website is that she didn't want the spending to be permanent, pretty permanent, pretty permanent.

When you get cancer and you're dying from it, the exposures and, you know, she has championed this Iran war.

She took photos of herself burning a picture of the Ayatollah of Iran, lighting a cigar with it, and put it all over the internet and said, smoke them if you got them, which is a military thing.

And weeks later, when they killed him, she posted it again and said, smoked em.

I'm disgusted by that.

The bar for these representatives is an actual hell.

And you know, I actually went to war.

I've seen that up close and personal and it really grinds my gears to have someone be so disrespectful about human life.

I'm not in support of the Ayatollah.

I think she would just say he was.

He was a repressive figure who was hurting the world and threatening the United States.

Sure, she can say that, but like the celebration of the death of another human being is is really gross.

And it's disrespectful.

And to get into another Middle Eastern war is stupid.

There's no other word for it.

It's just stupid.

You can't go into another country and bomb the crap out of them to change the way they are.

That doesn't work.

Have we not learned?

Have we not learned since, you know, the first Gulf War, since Iraq and Afghanistan?

Have we not learned that this does not work?

Well, so let me ask you a few questions.

So we're talking talking to Alissa Ellman, the Democrat running for Congress and district number 24, Congressional District 24.

The Republican, Claudia Tenney did not respond to a request for her to join us as well in this program.

When they approached you about running for Congress, had you been a lifelong Democrat?

I, I was a Democrat, but I wasn't like, I would politically active.

I mean, I'm a super prime voter.

I vote and everything, but it's not like I have never been had any political connections or anything like that before.

Did you ever have you run for any other offices?

No.

Have you ever thought about running for any other office?

No.

You ever assume in your life you'd be running for offices?

No.

That's what makes me dangerous.

Because this isn't a lifelong goal of mine that I've had since I was ten years old.

That I've been building a career around.

This is out of desperation.

For real representation and somebody who's actually going to fight for rural New York.

Well, this is what you've said.

You said you think better than Claudia Tenney.

You understand what rural families are going through?

Yeah.

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Houlton, New York.

If you've ever heard of Houghton College, that's where I grew up.

It's the middle of the Southern tier.

It's very rural.

There's very little opportunity outside of working at Houghton College in that in Allegheny County.

Which is what prompted me to join the military and, to be able to get out, and, and do some things and support myself.

So, yeah, I grew up, pretty poor.

I was the youngest of six kids.

And, you know, my parents were low middle class, maybe even lower classes.

With that many kids.

That's a lot to support.

And I just.

I understand what it's like to worry about heating your home over the winter.

Like, I grew up in a house with a wood stove and no TV.

Like, that's what we're talking about.

So making myself into, a soldier and then making myself into a teacher and buying a home in Lockport and being able to support myself, I'm fully aware of what it's like to go to the grocery store.

I actually do my own grocery shopping, you know, like I am a middle class mom.

That's what I am.

So what do you think families are struggling with the most in your district and especially rural families?

Oh my gosh, I. The top three things immediately are, the cost of health care.

If you have a job, the cost of energy is is just killing them.

And the cost of groceries.

I hear it every single day, and I've canvased thousands of Republican and conservative households in the last three weeks.

And it doesn't matter if you're rich or poor and anymore, even like the upper middle classes are really hurting.

Like the I went to a very nice neighborhood in Niagara County, in Lewiston, and I had people tell me I have not been able to save a dollar in two years.

I own this beautiful, you know, $600,000 home.

I can't save a dime because there's nothing left at the end of the month.

And it's because I've.

I've, you know, I thought the economy would be better.

I wasn't expecting to pay $6 a gallon for diesel.

These are the things that people are concerned about.

And, you know, a lot of what's on TV is propaganda.

So I'm focused on real issues.

I'm not focused on these performative issues that a lot of politicians are focused on.

I'm concerned about how we lower energy costs.

So a couple things on rural counties in particular, one of the I mean, again, I'm trying to channel what I think your your opponent might say.

And here's one of them.

Sure.

If you look at rural northern Pennsylvania, there's a lot of fracking and a lot of fracking jobs.

And if you look at the Southern Tier in rural New York counties, we have a fracking ban, and that's a statewide ban.

But that was put in place by Democratic governance.

And Republicans tend to support opening up and drilling more.

And and whether it's fracking or other fossil fuels, and then it's Democrats who are forcing us into this narrow energy restriction and that's causing prices to go upward.

What do you make of that?

I think that energy prices skyrocketing are it's a very complex issue.

It's not just one layer of the onion.

You got to dig a little deeper.

And frankly, I love our environment.

I don't want to see us pollute it.

If there's a way to get to energy resources that doesn't pollute our environment and destroy, beautiful places like Allegheny County, it doesn't rip apart their their nature, doesn't pollute their water.

Then I'm for it.

I don't agree with Democrats on every single position that they have statewide or nationwide, but that's because I'm Alissa Ellman.

I'm not one of these, you know what I'm saying?

I I'm myself, and I'm not totally opposed to to looking for alternative energy.

However, I think it's a lot smarter to go with renewable energies that actually have longer term benefits and less environmental impact.

But but what do you think is causing the cost of energy to be as high as it is?

I mean, you mentioned the Iran war, but.

Oh, well, that's affecting gas prices, but I think electric bill prices, I mean, like for example, Nyseg and National Grid are both owned by foreign nations like, National Grid is owned by a company in the UK.

Nyseg is owned by a company in Spain.

I don't think they have our best interests.

I've actually looked into this issue quite a bit, but I've seen that, you know, I wonder, man, Niagara Falls is 20 minutes away for me.

Like, why is my electric bill dang near $700 a month?

Like, this is bananas.

I this is too expensive.

And I started looking into it.

It turns out like Niagara Falls produces a ton of power, but they sell it on the open market.

And that money gets put into an account that gets directed by the state government.

And, you know, I initially thought maybe we should address that through publicly owned power, which there are plenty of really successful models that make energy much cheaper across the whole country.

There are tons of places that do this, and but I don't think that that's going to be possible to do in New York State.

So then I thought, what else could what could the federal government do?

Right.

There are weatherization funds.

In particular, there's a weatherization fund that helps single family homes.

So it doesn't help any small businesses.

It doesn't help farms, it doesn't help rentals.

I think we need to expand weatherization significantly because the cheapest electricity, the cheapest gas is the gas.

And electricity you don't use.

So to make a weatherization fund, Weatherizing is permanent, and we need to help.

It should be all buildings in rural New York that we're doing this for.

It shouldn't just be relegated to single family homes.

It gets the tax break.

It should also go to to landlords, to be able to make their rentals more affordable, to make, small businesses more affordable, to, to run.

I mean, I've talked to with plenty of small business owners like just in Lockport, and so many of them are on the verge of closing their doors because of their electric bill, because of their gas bill.

That's what's causing them to close.

I had another idea.

I don't I'm not married to the idea, but it's just something to explore.

I think we should have a federal revolving loan fund that's super low interest or zero interest for municipalities to take out a loan to put renewable energy that they source themselves.

So, like, if you're up in the Adirondacks, you can use geothermal.

If you're down in the Southern Tier, you get a lot of wind.

You can use windmills.

People hate windmills and solar farms and call them ugly because they are ugly.

You know what makes them look a lot prettier when you're electric?

Bills 40 bucks a month.

You know, we need to sell this to people.

And that would be another way to break up the monopoly of Nyseg and National Grid, who have a monopoly on our on our power sources.

If if we allow municipalities to put in solar panels, wind farms, geothermal, whatever they want to put into their municipality, and we make a rule that says all that power has to be given back, either an A credit or however they want to do it to the local people who live there and pay the taxes there.

You're going to see a lot more support for renewable energies when it is affecting directly that person's electric bill.

All right.

Let me hit a couple of other topics you mentioned.

You don't always agree with Democrats.

Introduce voters to yourself.

What's a place where you tend to disagree with your own party?

Well, I'm I'm for effective law.

And that it doesn't really have a party to me when it.

What does that mean?

Well, I really like, you know, I, I don't agree with the Democrats on their gun laws in New York state.

I think that they're a little ridiculous.

As a person who's handled weapons, I'm no weapons expert, but as a person who's handled weapons quite a bit, and my wife, shortening a magazine has never stopped a school shooting and making baby guns.

Orange doesn't stop a school shooting, and it destroys our credibility with people who are single voter issue, people who are in the middle.

Independents who would otherwise vote Democrat will vote red on this single issue, because Democrats burn the middle ground.

They burn the middle ground by making these dumb wars.

Now I'm all for red flag laws.

I don't want crazy people having an AK 47, but I think that instead of being in an echo chamber of people who agree with you, you should bring gun owners and people who are experts in weapons to the table.

They probably have really good insight to make more effective law.

Do you own firearms?

Yeah, of course I do.

Okay.

What did you shoot in Afghanistan?

And I'm 16 sometimes, and I'm four.

But it's not like you're often shooting Afghan and said, I, I worked a logistics job.

You know, I understand.

I just want to know what you handled.

So.

Yeah.

So you've got experience and you think in general, your party is governing from a place of less experienced and it shows to voters.

Yeah, I do okay.

And I also think that, you know, like for example, they, they try to performatively do things that don't actually make a difference in, in what they say they're trying to make a difference in, for example, like they'll say, oh, we're going to get rid of silencers.

Well, a silencer is actually called a repressor.

And all it does is reduce the amount of noise that comes out of the weapon.

And a lot of people who do this as a hobby, they need those repressors to protect their hearing.

Right.

Like if you're going to the gun range, this is your hobby.

And they recognize that getting rid of this isn't stopping domestic violence, and it's not stopping public shootings, which is what people want, right?

I mean, that's the goal of the law.

It's not just to control and make a performative law.

And in that aspect, I disagree with them.

And I've called out my own party plenty of times and said, where I'm differ than them, who's your political hero?

Do you have any?

No, you don't really have like, political heroes, do you think about?

No.

Okay.

Oh no, I okay.

I take that back.

I love FDR, FDR yeah.

I listen to his fireside chats because I think our country is going through a crisis moment right now.

It may not be a completely collapsed economy, but we are going through something right now.

And, you know, I read a lot about history growing up.

And I loved FDR even back then.

But I'll sometimes listen to his fireside chats because I find them to be really inspirational.

And I wonder if we'll ever find another leader who will talk to us in that way and encourage us in that way, and be real and honest in that way.

Five more minutes with Alissa Ellman, the Democrat running for Congress in District 24.

So let me squeeze a lot and we'll move fast here.

Okay.

Are the Republicans that you like currently in power?

No.

Okay.

Throughout history, yeah.

You know, I love John McCain.

I read his biography, loved him.

And, you know, there there used to be Republicans that I had a lot of respect for.

But at this point in time, there is just too much wrong with what MAGA is doing.

And, you know, I know that not all Republicans support Donald Trump or Claudia Tenney, because plenty of them have called me, have reached out to our campaign, asked us about specific positions.

I've had lots of conversations with them, and there are still reasonable, like average Republicans.

But anyone who can support, violating the Constitution and the law.

I don't care what party you're in.

You're wrong.

Alex emailed to ask, would, with Democrats poised to pick up several dozen seats in the House, would you caucus for and support a Medicare for all bill?

Absolutely, absolutely.

I'm in support of Medicare for all.

But I also want to add on to that that I would support anything that would lower the cost for working Americans for their health care.

Health care is a third of most people's paychecks.

You make under $80,000 a year.

It's a third of your paycheck, and you get an $8,000 deductible.

And to me, making a bunch of excuses and pointing at it and saying, oh, here's all the reasons we can't do it.

We're Americans, we're innovative.

We're the most, you know, richest company in our country.

In the world.

There isn't a reason we can't do this and do it together.

The only reason we're not doing it is because of lobbyists.

For big insurance companies.

That's the only reason we're not doing that.

That's crazy to me.

And that's why we don't accept any corporate PAC money.

We don't accept any any money that we think might be dirty money or would sway our opinion because we're not here.

I'm not running this and giving up a year and a half of my life and tens of thousands of my dollars to not stick to my ideals.

The point of running a campaign like this, if we try some miracle when we know what the voter registration deficit is here, we know how hard it would be to flip this district.

We're not delusional.

But if by some miracle we able to do that, we would do it because we, you know, I want to represent the working people that I've lived around my whole life, that I've worked with my whole life.

Like that's the whole point for me.

If I don't get to do that, then I don't even want to do it.

Gary wants to know, if you support the DSA and do they support you?

The Democratic Socialists of America?

I am not endorsed by DSA.

I will say that my opponent sent out a mass text and puts on some social media saying that I've been endorsed by communists and Marxists who want to defund the police, which is a little joke.

I mean, go on.

And of course, I want to defund the police.

We of course need police.

That's ridiculous.

And, you know, I posted it on my social media and as somebody from the DSA follows me and commented, hey, your positions aren't far enough left for us.

We probably wouldn't endorse you, but you've never even applied for our endorsement.

I said, yeah, I know, they're going to fight a socialist.

No, I'm not a socialist.

They're going to try to make you look like a radical no matter what you do.

You know, if you want to call loving your neighbor, trying to get people health insurance and solve problems, socialism like, more power to you.

You know, so this century, how many doors you think you've knocked on?

Probably, this, like, this year?

Probably around 7 or 8000.

Darlene Graham, the sister of Lindsey Graham, who's running for that Senate seat in South Carolina, says the issue she gets asked most about in South Carolina is biological men playing women's sports.

How often does that come up at the door for you?

Never.

Not once, not once.

Okay.

Do you want to tell people your position on that issue?

Yeah, I'm going to tell you that I've got a group of subjects that are under an umbrella.

I call a Nana umbrella because it ain't none your business.

And it's certainly not anybody's business.

And the government, whether that what people do, what grown people do with their bodies is not something I want the government regulating.

Okay?

But it's never come up at the door, never once.

So as we close here, 30s to what issue comes up the most at the door?

Absolutely it is.

The cost of living is the cost of living.

It is health care.

It is the cost of groceries.

It is the cost of energy and gas.

I will tell you that I have heard repeatedly from conservatives and Republicans who have been very upset that I voted for Donald Trump three times.

I would never vote for him or a Republican again for a while because my diesel prices are $6 a gallon.

He promised no new wars.

He basically is doing this to enrich himself.

But would they vote for Claudia Tenney?

I don't know, you know, many of them have.

I have yet to have a negative interaction with a Republican or a conservative because that unlike one never once, never once, I have, I am one of these people, you know what I mean?

Like, unlike Claudia Tenney, I am one of these people.

I'm not a millionaire.

I'm a regular mom.

I didn't spend my life seeking after office to enrich myself.

I spent my life in service to the public.

What's your website?

Ellman for congress.com Ellman.

If you win, will you come back on this program?

Absolutely.

If you don't win, will you come back on this chair?

Alissa Ellman is the Democrat running for Congress.

I want to tell you again, Claudia Tenney was invited, is invited and has not responded to those requests.

She's the incumbent Republican running for reelection in district number 24.

Thank you for making time for the program.

Thank you so much for having me.

I really appreciate appreciate your time.

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