“From protecting a woman’s right to choose, working with anyone to secure the border, and taking on greedy corporations, Pat Ryan has been a fierce advocate for the Hudson Valley since the moment he took office. Meanwhile, MAGA extremist Alison Esposito is a Manhattanite who has made it clear she’s only interested in doing the bidding of her far-right Republican Party bosses. Hudson Valley families will see right through Esposito’s corruption and resoundingly re-elect Pat Ryan in November,” said DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene.
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To: Interested Parties From: Ellie Dougherty, DCCC Regional Press Secretary
Date: June 25, 2024
Subject: The Case Against Alison Esposito
As a decorated combat veteran, West Point graduate, small businessman, county executive, and father to two young kids, Pat Ryan has dedicated his life to serving others, fighting for freedom, and delivering results for his community. After winning an extremely competitive special election in the 2022 cycle, Pat immediately got to work to tackle the issues important to Hudson Valley families.
In Congress, Pat Ryan has been a tireless advocate for the people of the Hudson Valley and worked to secure millions of dollars for West Point, public schools, affordable health care, and safer streets. He’s also worked to lower costs, provide critical flooding assistance, increase police funding, secure the border and reform our immigration system, deliver relief to small businesses, and always fight for a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions.
Pat’s strong record stands in stark contrast to MAGA extremist Alison Esposito – a Manhattanite who is running on the far-right agenda of her Republican Party bosses in Washington to restrict abortion, slash Social Security and Medicare, play politics with border security, and stand with corporations over voters’ interests. As if her disastrous agenda wasn’t bad enough, Esposito’s campaign has been riddled withmultiplescandals.
While Hudson Valley families know and trust Pat Ryan to deliver for them, the opposite is true for Alison Esposito. Once voters are given a side-by-side of Pat’s effective bipartisan record versus Esposito’s extreme agenda, it’s clear that New York’s 18th Congressional District will resoundingly re-elect their congressman.
A CARPETBAGGER WHO CAVES TO WASHINGTON PARTY BOSSES
Alison Esposito has been ensnared in multiple scandals revealing her lack of ties to New York’s 18th Congressional District – exposing just how out of touch she is with Hudson Valley voters.
First, failed former candidate Esposito went on a district-shoppingspree before finally landing on running in the Hudson Valley, and only changed her voting registration to New York’s 18th Congressional District one week before launching her campaign. Second, she was exposed for not paying her staff, including a campaign manager and communications director, for more than three months into her campaign. And finally, Esposito got caught red-handed for not only potentially violating campaign finance law – she also all but confirmed she’s still a Manhattan resident by admitting to using campaign funds to pay for a parking spot near her Upper East Side apartment. Records show that the 2022 campaign for Esposito’s far-right former running mate, Lee Zeldin, paid for the Upper East Side parking spot even months after losing the election.
But on top of her growing list of campaign faux-pas and blatant carpetbagging, Esposito’s loyalty to Washington party bosses sheds even more light on why she’ll fail to be an independent voice and advocate for Hudson Valley families in Congress. At every turn, Esposito has embraced extreme GOP figure-heads like convicted felon Donald Trump, anti-abortion extremist Mike Johnson, and election-denier Elise Stefanik. Whether it’s pushing their anti-abortion and anti-gun safety crusade, playing politics with border security, or hiking up prices, it’s clear Esposito is a MAGA lackey.
AN ARDENT ANTI-CHOICE EXTREMIST
Alison Esposito is an anti-abortion extremist who can’t be trusted to protect Hudson Valley women’s reproductive freedom. As the unsuccessful Lieutenant Governor candidate in 2022, Esposito repeatedly pledged to impose abortion restrictions – even going as far as committing to voting for draconian laws that would require biased counseling for women and girls seeking an abortion. But Esposito’s anti-choice extremism on the campaign trail in 2022 didn’t stop there. In fact, she continued to make her dangerous agenda abundantly clear by answering “yes” on a questionnaire from an anti-abortion group asking if she’d support a national abortion ban from “conception.”
Now, in her campaign to represent a swing district, Esposito has tried to walk back her extremist anti-abortion views – but has failed miserably at doing so. On a local radio show, Esposito praised the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, saying it was the “absolute right thing.” She’s also attempted to minimize the importance of abortion access in New York and touted endorsements from leaders of the GOP’s crusade against reproductive rights, including convicted felon Donald Trump, Mike Johnson, and Elise Stefanik.
Pat Ryan, on the other hand, won his hotly-contested special election in 2022 in large part due to the spotlight he put on protecting a woman’s right to choose. In Congress, Pat has been a fierce advocate for abortion rights – fighting against his Republican colleagues’ strategic efforts to impose a national abortion ban every chance that’s been presented to him. The first bill he introduced in Congress would ensure that women across the country have access to safe abortion medication. He proudly reintroduced the Women’s Health Protection Act to reinstate the protections from Roe v. Wade nationwide, as well as legislation to safeguard access to IVF and contraception.
A THREAT TO SOCIAL SECURITY, MEDICARE, AND THE MIDDLE CLASS
Alison Esposito’s ties to some of the most extreme faces of the Republican Party like Mike Johnson and Elise Stefanik makes it clear where she stands on critical issues impacting Hudson Valley families – particularly when it comes to their MAGA agenda to slash Social Security and Medicare and stand with corporations that are hiking up prices.
As his gubernatorial running mate in 2022, Esposito praised Lee Zeldin as someone who could “save our state,” yet Zeldin proposed cutting New York’s Medicaid budget as part of his campaign’s policy platform. Esposito has also repeatedly boasted about receiving endorsements from Mike Johnson and Elise Stefanik, but as part of House GOP’s leadership, they’ve backed an out-of-touch budget to gut critical programs Hudson Valley families rely on – including Social Security and Medicare.
Additionally, Esposito’s record as a loyalist to her Republican Party bosses spells trouble for Hudson Valley families’ pocketbooks. As Esposito continues to make it clear she’ll do whatever her Washington party bosses ask of her, voters should have no doubts she will stand with big corporations over the middle class. She dismissed critical legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act that would hold corporations accountable and crack down on price gouging, lowering household energy costs and prescription drug costs for seniors. Esposito would join a DC Republican caucus determined to give massive tax breaks to their corporate allies, making life more expensive for Hudson Valley families.
Meanwhile, Pat Ryan has protected Social Security and Medicare and cut taxes while working to bring down inflation by going after price-gougers and greedy corporations. Pat successfully called for the CEO of Central Hudson to step down after egregious billing errors overcharging his constituents. He’s done all of this while bringing good-paying jobs to the Hudson Valley, including spearheading the rehabilitation of a former IBM site that delivered a more than $200 million investment to New York’s 18th Congressional District.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
Mid Hudson News: Ryan votes against bill that restricts abortion rights for service members [Mid Hudson News, 06/16/24]
News12 Westchester: Rep. Pat Ryan advocates for local police officers with series of bills [News12 Westchester, 05/29/24]
Axios: Scoop: New York’s lone vulnerable Democrat has $2.2M war chest [Axios, 01/06/24]
Albany Times Union: Complaint alleges congressional candidate paid for parking space with campaign funds [Albany Times Union, 05/20/24]
Politico: At Least It Wasn’t Placard Abuse [Politico, 05/08/24]
“Hudson Valley congressional candidate Alison Esposito is going to pay for her own parking in Manhattan after Playbook flagged some potentially illegal campaign payments.
“The Republican’s campaign recorded two $529 monthly payments this year to the Icon Parking garage near her Upper East Side apartment.
“That would seem to violate Federal Election Commission rules prohibiting the personal use of campaign funds.”
Albany Times Union: Esposito campaign did not pay staffers for at least 3 months, per FEC filings [Albany Times Union, 04/10/24]
PATH TO VICTORY
Pat Ryan knows how to run and win in this traditional swing seat. Pat Ryan won New York’s 19th Congressional District’s highly contested special election in 2022 by focusing on reproductive freedom and kitchen-table issues that mattered most to Hudson Valley voters. Just a few months later, the congressman also won the hyper-competitive race to represent New York’s 18th Congressional District post-redistricting. Now, in 2024, Pat Ryan has a clear record of delivering on his campaign promises and is in a strong position to win reelection to this critical district – that President Biden won by over nine points in the major-party vote in 2020 and where Democrats have a registration edge – once again.
An incredibly strong fundraiser who has already raised more than $4.8 million this cycle to date, Pat is well-resourced to continue representing the Hudson Valley come next November. Meanwhile, MAGA extremist Alison Esposito has failed to accrue significant financial support with less than $350,000 cash on hand and continues to prove how out-of-step she is with this purple district by co-signing Washington party bosses like Donald Trump, Mike Johnson, and Elise Stefanik’s extreme agenda that will hurt Hudson Valley families.
