A former NYPD officer who jumped into politics last year as gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin’s running mate is set to announce Tuesday that she plans to seek the Republican nomination to challenge upstate Democratic Congressman Pat Ryan.
Allison Esposito signaled that she hopes to link Ryan to President Biden’s mismanagement of the border crisis and the lingering financial pain many families are still feeling from the bout of inflation the economy endured in 2021 and 2022.
“President Biden and his allies in Congress have left our nation a shell of its former self,” Esposito said in an early statement announcing her Hudson Valley candidacy. “Our southern border is non-existent, inflation has left families choosing between gas and groceries, and we have relinquished our standing on the world stage.”
Both issues have weighed on Biden’s approval ratings statewide, recent polls show.
But it will likely be a tough fight for Esposito, who spent 25 years on the police force in New York City before retiring.
The 18th Congressional District went heavily for Biden in the 2020 election. Since then, Ryan — a former Ulster County executive — has won both a special election and a full term in office despite heavy winds facing New York Democrats in 2022.
Ryan will enter the race with an estimated $1.4 million in his campaign account, according to filings.
Esposito entered politics as the second half of the Republican ticket led by former Congressman Lee Zeldin that challenged Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2022 — and lost by just 5 points in an unexpectedly close race, which led to widespread recriminations across the state’s Democratic Party.
Zeldin and Esposito focused their campaign nearly entirely on the pandemic-era spike in violent crime in New York City and on the subways, using the statistics to help reanimate longstanding antipathy toward the Big Apple in the suburbs where it is frequently portrayed as dangerous and out of control.
The ground has shifted since then.
Homicides in New York City are down 10% this year compared to 2022, while overall crime on the subways has fallen by 5% even as ridership has increased — with hate crimes down 34%.