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To: Interested Parties
From: Riya Vashi, DCCC Regional Press Secretary
Date: June 23, 2026
Subject: The Case Against Jeanine Driscoll
A lifelong Nassau County resident, Laura Gillen has dedicated her career to fighting for Long Island families. Born and raised in Rockville Centre, Laura made history in 2017 as the first Democrat elected Town of Hempstead Supervisor in more than a century, taking on the same Nassau GOP machine that enabled decades of mismanagement, nepotism, and corruption. As Supervisor, Laura banned political activity on town property, passed sweeping anti-nepotism reforms, helped the Town to lower taxes for residents after years of tax hikes, and made the budget of America’s largest township transparent and accessible to the people who pay for it.
Laura has carried that same Nassau-first mindset into the work she is doing in the halls of Congress. Since flipping NY-04 in 2024, Laura has worked across the aisle to lower costs for Nassau families, protect Medicaid and SNAP benefits, lower energy costs, and improve Long Island’s road safety. She has been a consistent voice against the D.C. Republican agenda hammering Americans’ wallets, voting against the Big, Ugly Bill and warning that its cuts will “devastate Long Island.”
Meanwhile, Jeanine Driscoll was the Nassau GOP’s last resort — after 18 months of failed recruitment. Driscoll was anointed the GOP’s “backup nominee” by New York Republican party bosses only after corrupt cop Anthony D’Esposito ultimately declined to run for the seat himself. Driscoll’s last minute campaign launch was such a mess that her own website still showed D’Esposito’s photo, logo, and bio when it went live. Laura Gillen built her career taking on this exact machine and beating it. Nassau County families already know what kind of failed representation they get when the GOP machine picks their candidate, and they have rejected it before.
A career corporate lawyer who defended big airlines, manufacturers, and insurance companies at the expense of everyday working people, Driscoll has spent her time in local office working for an Administration that hiked taxes on Hempstead residents and using taxpayer money on self-promotional signs. Now Driscoll is pledging her “100%” loyalty to Donald Trump and the agenda raising costs and gutting health care for Nassau County families.
Handpicked by the Nassau GOP Machine, Driscoll Will Rubberstamp D.C. Republicans’ Agenda That Raises Costs and Guts Health Care for Long Island
Jeanine Driscoll has made it crystal clear who she will be working for in Washington, and it is not Long Island families. Driscoll has pledged to “stand with the President 100% of the time” and said his “wonderful agenda that really is helping us” continues, and said she has a “real issue” with any Republican who doesn’t stand with the president. Driscoll has even defended the Big, Ugly Bill — disastrous legislation that is devastating for middle-class families.
The agenda Driscoll is pledging to rubber-stamp is already raising costs and ripping health care away. The Big, Ugly Bill is projected to kick nearly 25,000 NY-04 residents off their health insurance and cost Nassau County over 2,500 hospital jobs, with Nassau University Medical Center and two other Long Island hospitals at risk of cuts or closure.
The bill enacted the largest cuts to Medicaid in history and gutted SNAP, putting critical food assistance at risk for over 15,000 NY-04 households and increasing average monthly costs for Long Islanders by 32%. It blew a $13 billion-per-year hole in New York’s health care system, gutted more than half of the funding for the Essential Plan that millions of working New Yorkers rely on, and threatens to rip food off the tables of nearly three million New Yorkers.
Laura Gillen refuses to let Long Islanders pay the cost for DC policies. She voted against the Big, Ugly Bill, stood with local leaders and Nassau hospitals to fight its cuts, and made clear it is “the largest erosion of our health care system in history.” Laura is fighting to lower costs for Nassau County families and take on the D.C. Republican affordability crisis making working families’ lives more expensive. That’s why she’s leading the fight in Congress “to raise or abolish the $10,000 [SALT] cap” and give Long Island families real, permanent tax relief, addressing a key priority for her district and standing against the partisan plan in Washington that does not provide permanent relief for New Yorkers.
Driscoll Is an Out-of-Touch Elitist Whose ‘Tax-Fighter’ Brand Is a Total Sham
Jeanine Driscoll loves to pitch herself as a fiscal watchdog and tax fighter for Nassau County families — but the receipts tell a very different story. Driscoll was a top member of Republican Town Supervisor Don Clavin’s transition team and an integral part of the Town of Hempstead administration that delivered Hempstead’s biggest tax hike in a decade, a 12.1% tax levy increase that broke New York’s 2% tax cap for the first time in 13 years. When Laura Gillen worked in the same town government, she saved Nassau County taxpayers more than $4 million, ended corrupt contracts, and stopped raises for political appointees.
Driscoll has repeatedly used taxpayer dollars to promote herself. Newsday’s Editorial Board called her out for a publicly funded “Salute to Veterans” sign that doubled as campaign material with her name plastered across it. She also spent more than $2,000 in taxpayer money on partisan campaign-style mailers attacking one of her political opponents. Meanwhile, she has offered zero plans of her own to lower costs for the Long Island families she claims to want to represent.
Driscoll’s record of waste and dysfunction has gotten so bad that Hempstead residents have called for a state audit of Hempstead’s finances under her watch. She is a part of a corrupt local machine where Town officials have failed to file required financial statements and even acknowledged bond disclosure violations. Driscoll’s “tax fighter” pitch is a sham. She doesn’t fight for taxpayers, she fights for herself on the taxpayers’ dime. Where Laura rooted out corruption and saved taxpayers millions, Driscoll’s Administration hiked taxes, hid financial records, and Driscoll even used the public payroll to fund her own political ambition.
Driscoll Has Spent Her Career Fighting for Big Corporations, Not Long Island Families
Before Jeanine Driscoll handed local families a 12.1% tax hike, she spent three decades as a corporate defense lawyer fighting against working families in court. Driscoll specialized in defending big airlines, manufacturers, and insurance companies in wrongful death, personal injury, and employment cases. Time and again, when corporations were sued by everyday people for negligence, exploitation, or wrongdoing, Driscoll took the corporations’ side.
Driscoll’s firm defended the airplane parts manufacturer sued over the Air France Flight 447 crash that killed all 228 people on board. Her firm defended Arise Virtual Solutions in a class action accusing the company of misclassifying its workers to dodge minimum wage requirements and forcing employees to pay for their own training. And her firm defended United Airlines after retirees were wrongfully excluded from corporate buyouts, a case United ultimately settled for $27.5 million.
While Laura Gillen practiced law representing victims of domestic violence pro bono and used her legal background to fight corruption in Hempstead, Driscoll built her career making sure big corporations did not have to pay when everyday Americans were hurt. That is who Driscoll is. And that is who she will fight for in Washington.
WHAT THEY’RE SAYING
Newsday: House passes Gillen’s bill to reinstate protected status for Haitians [Newsday, 4/16/26]
New York Post: Feds promise to clean up Long Island’s deadly traffic nightmare after congresswoman sounds alarm on 10 years of staggering crashes [New York Post, 6/12/25]
“After a decade of registering some of the deadliest roads across the US, the feds say they’re now ‘committed’ to tackling Long Island’s traffic crisis — following pressure from Rep. Laura Gillen and years of staggering crash stats.”
Long Island Press: Gillen pushes for safer roads, communities to take advantage of grant funding [Long Island Press, 7/10/25]
Newsday: Health advocates, Nassau Dems warn Trump’s ‘big beautiful bill’ will lead to ugly outcomes for Medicaid recipients [Newsday, 5/28/25]
“The cuts in Medicaid are going to make all our health care costs skyrocket,” increasing premiums for those with private insurance, Gillen warned. “Parents are going to say, ‘I don’t need to eat tonight because I have to pay for my child’s prescription.’”
Long Island Herald: Congresswoman Gillen questions Federal Aviation Administration decision [Long Island Herald, 7/29/25]
“Gillen put pressure on the FAA and federal Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy that resulted in an audit of the decision last year to relocate a dozen of the air traffic controllers from TRACON/N90 and determine if this was the right decision.
“Gillen said she is determined to also address the low staffing for air traffic controllers as this poses a risk as well to passengers safety. They are working on expanding schools for more air traffic control graduates.”
Newsday: Rep. Laura Gillen backs immigration package that includes rules for ICE, pathway to legal status [Newsday, 7/15/25]
Long Island Herald: Laura Gillen visits Valley Stream school to support ‘Feed Hungry Kids Act’ [Long Island Herald, 9/8/25]
New York Post: Rep. Laura Gillen pushes $45 million tech contest to make cars stop drunk drivers [New York Post, 1/28/26]
Long Island Press: Gillen announces plan to lower healthcare costs for Latino families [Long Island Press, 10/29/24]
Crain’s New York: New York Republicans appear to be getting crushed in the suburbs [Crain’s New York, 4/20/26]
“But against Gillen, they appear to be in much worse shape relative to their campaign on the North Shore. Gillen has $3.2 million in the bank and was preparing for a rematch against Republican Anthony D’Espositio, who held the seat before her. D’Esposito, who now works in the Trump administration, waffled for months on a comeback before declining to run again.
“Now Nassau County Republicans are left with their backup nominee, Jeanine Driscoll, a little-known local tax receiver. Driscoll will need to raise millions to catch Gillen.”
Raw Story: ‘Massive fail’: House GOP mercilessly trolled over ‘disaster’ campaign launch [Raw Story, 4/24/26]
The Downballot: Long Island GOP pulls off switcheroo, but not for the candidate it wanted [The Downballot, 4/15/26]
PATH TO VICTORY
Laura Gillen won in New York’s Fourth Congressional District because she built the kind of coalition that is centered on fighting for hardworking families. She flipped the district in 2024 with 51.1% of the two-way vote, a nearly three-point improvement over 2022, and she did it by reversing regional trends, posting gains of nearly four points across central Nassau’s swing communities despite Trump gaining ground at the same time. Laura does not just turn out her Democratic base—her common-sense, bipartisan approach appeals to Independent and Republican voters too.
Laura consistently runs ahead of the top of the ticket, outpacing the Democrats at both the presidential and gubernatorial levels, and her support among the district’s fast-growing bloc of unaffiliated voters has climbed since 2022. It is exactly the kind of durable, broad coalition that has Nassau Republicans scrambling in one of the most diverse districts on Long Island. Their first-choice candidate, Anthony D’Esposito, waffled for months before refusing a rematch, leaving them stuck with a little-known backup nominee.
Laura Gillen has the record, the resources, and the coalition. Jeanine Driscoll has an unpopular record of working in an administration that raised taxes, defending big corporations, and pledging “100%” loyalty to Donald Trump. Long Island families have a clear choice this November, and they are sending Laura Gillen back to Congress. |
