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The gloves were off.
Hudson Valley Rep. Mike Lawler ripped his Democratic challenger Cait Conley over her support for sanctuary state policies and portrayed her as a phony New Yorker in their final debate.
The two candidates for New York’s hotly contested 17th Congressional District came out swinging for the Wednesday night televised showdown on Pix11, trading barbs over ICE and President Trump’s immigration agenda.
Lawler, the Republican incumbent seeking his third term, said the high-profile ICE shooting last week in the Big Apple could have been prevented if local law enforcement were able to cooperate with federal immigration officers.
“Kathy Hochul’s disastrous new law — which Conley supports — prohibits cooperation,” fumed Lawler.
“We’re talking about a gangbanger who came into this country illegally,” Lawler said, referring to Oscar Begal, the Dominican Republic native and alleged Trinitarios gang member shot by ICE agents in The Bronx as he tried to evade arrest.
“You want accountability, so do I. Let’s start by actually enforcing the law in this country,” Lawler said.
He attacked Conley, saying she “ran around” a question by the parents of Sheridan Gorman, a Westchester County college student killed by an illegal migrant in Chicago.
“What happened to Sheridan Gorman should never have happened,” Conley replied after Lawler repeatedly pressed her.
“He should’ve been deported. He should’ve been turned over to federal immigration officials,” Conley finally conceded, referring to Gorman’s killer.
Conley repeatedly tried to connect Lawler to the president, saying, “He votes with Donald Trump 100% of the time.”
Lawler countered by noting his bipartisan voting record.
The incumbent also tried to paint Conley — who grew up in the greater Hudson Valley, attended West Point and then moved out-of-state for work — as a carpetbagger.
“I know you just moved here from Virginia,” Lawler sniped during one of many snide digs the two exchanged.
Conley returned to New York after living and working in Washington, DC, in national security after serving in the Army.
The candidates were neck and neck going into the debate, with most polls finding them separated by a mere two points — and Conley was leading, 48% to 46%.
That tight spread meant the stakes of Wednesday’s debate were higher than ever, with Emerson College Polling finding 7% of voters undecided — more than enough people to sway and tip the scales for a win.
Wednesday’s debate came just two weeks after their first showdown, where Lawler pressed Conley hard regarding her allegiance to sanctuary policies — a hot topic in the district that was home to Gorman, the 18-year-old Loyola University student murdered by an illegal migrant in Chicago last March.
Gorman’s parents in the first debate asked the candidates where they stood on the state’s sanctuary policies that resist local cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
Conley hemmed and hawed before Lawler jumped in.
“What you didn’t hear from Cait was an answer to your question,” Lawler said. “She does support Kathy Hochul’s new law.”
“She would not support federal legislation to end sanctuary policies,” he added. “Let me be very clear, I stand with you. I am against Kathy Hochul’s disastrous new law and I support any legislation that will end sanctuary jurisdictions in this country.”
New York’s 17th district covers a large territory, stretching from the White Plains border as far north as Hopewell Junction and includes a chunk of Westchester County.
The district was tightly contested in the 2024 election, too, with Lawler winning by a close 52% to 45% — and a razor-thin 50.3% to 49.7% in 2022.
Lawler — who Conley called a “lifelong political operative” in the first debate — is hoping to secure a third term on Nov. 3.
Conley, meanwhile, would be assuming her first elected position if victorious but not her first gig with the government.
She previously served in the US Army and then led the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency at the Department of Homeland Security.