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Claudia Tenney's Re-Election Bid Garners Support and Protest Among Controversy

Lileana Pearson / WAER News

Claudia Tenney was in New Hartford, New York this past weekend to announce her re-election bid for Congress. She was unable to escape some of the recent controversy surrounding her as she launched her new campaign.  The freshman Congress member represents the 22nd district of New York that includes the Utica and Binghamton areas.

At the event, Tenney voiced her intentions to make the tax plan permanent, roll back government regulations, and support community public health and veterans.

“Our message is freedom. Our message is limited government, low taxes, putting the money of the taxes, our taxes, back in your hands, and our message is to get people back to work and to bring families and all of us back together. Our message is America first.”

Credit Lileana Pearson / WAER News
Supporters of Tenney voiced their agreement with her views on taxes and the military.

Tenney’s arrival in New Hartford was met with mixed reactions as people gathered to cheer her on and to protest her platform. Several of her supporters spoke in favor of Tenney’s stance on taxes and her support of President Trump’s tax plan. Marie Green is a small business owner who said her business’ survival depends on Tenney’s re-election.

“We provide the jobs. We need support to provide those jobs. The high taxation is very detrimental to the area. So Claudia is sensitive.”

Residents who came to protest Tenney’s re-election bid felt differently about whom the tax plan benefits.  Jen DeWeerth, the protest organizer and member of Indivisible Mohawk Valley, said Tenney’s support of the plan is only one reason not to send her back to Washington.

Credit Lileana Pearson / WAER News
Critics of Tenney took the chance to protest her re-election and comment on the controversy surrounding her views.

“She has voted for the GOP tax scam which gives billions of dollars to millionaires and billionaires and big companies straight out of the pockets of working class and middle class people, working people, normal people just like us who fill her district, and all this money is going to Wall Street instead.”

DeWeerth added that Tenney’s recent comments that most mass shooting suspects are Democrats embarrassed the region.  Tenney grew angry at reporters’ questions about this and said the comments were out of context. 

She used the rest of her time in front of her supporters to highlight major issues she hopes to see tackled if she is re-elected, such as the opioid crisis, better benefits for veterans, and protection of the second amendment among the support and protest.

Chris Bolt, Ed.D. has proudly been covering the Central New York community and mentoring students for more than 30 years. His career in public media started as a student volunteer, then as a reporter/producer. He has been the news director for WAER since 1995. Dedicated to keeping local news coverage alive, Chris also has a passion for education, having trained, mentored and provided a platform for growth to more than a thousand students. Career highlights include having work appear on NPR, CBS, ABC and other news networks, winning numerous local and state journalism awards.