Holden will run for Democratic nomination for NY-24

Yahoo

6 days ago

Jul. 21—Steven W. Holden Sr. is running for Congress again — and he's returning to the 24th Congressional District to compete for the seat against Congresswoman Claudia L. Tenney and at least two other Democrats.
Holden, 52, said he fell in love with the 24th Congressional District, covering northwestern Jefferson County and most of the Lake Ontario shoreline out to Niagara Falls, when he first ran to unseat Tenney there in the 2022 campaign, and circumstances have permitted him to return to the district to mount another run for office.
Holden said 2022 was a bad year for Democrats — the Democratic party was incumbent and held trifecta control in Washington D.C. for two years after 2020, and voters started to turn on them in the 2022 election.
"2022 was not a good year for Democrats in the state, it just wasn't for anybody," Holden said.
That same year, Governor Kathleen C. Hochul was up for her first run for a full term in office, and netted the narrowest win for a Democrat gubernatorial candidate in a generation.
Holden said he has heard a distinct lack of enthusiasm for Tenney, R-Cleveland, who was first elected to the newly constituted NY-21 in 2022 and beat Holden 65% to 34% in the final tally.
"What we're already hearing on the ground not just from Democrats, but from a lot of people, and this will come out more in the next weeks and months, is that there's a general dissatisfaction," he said. "We hear from everyone, they're not satisfied with the representation Claudia is giving right now."
He pointed to recent legislation the Congresswoman has introduced to undo a federal ban on plastic straws, and other issues related to the culture war that Tenney has championed.
Holden said he sees many people in the district concerned over the rising cost of living, now-in-place federal cuts to SNAP and Medicaid, and the ongoing uncertainty of the Social Security program.
"These issues are compounding on each other, and these are things that we've said for a few years will come to fruition," he said.
Holden for years has campaigned on his rural and military background — having grown up on a farm in Oklahoma, and a 20-year-plus career in the Army with four combat deployments and time as a senior officer. As recently as 2019, Holden was a consultant for the Army. He calls himself a "practical progressive," and in the face of a Republican-controlled Congress and Presidency, has said he would focus on pushing back on the GOP agenda.
If elected, Holden said he sees the best strategy for a Democrat lawmaker would be to work to convince moderate Republicans to oppose the most controversial GOP policies.
"Not being in power, there's only some much that can be done, but there is more than can be done," he said. "We can be vocal, try to build coalitions issue by issue."
If there is a Democratic majority in the House, Holden said he would have an inroad with the likely Democratic Speaker of the House, current minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-Brooklyn.
Holden has run, or tried to run, for Congress now three times in northern New York — his 2022 competition against Tenney that ended with her double-digit victory margin, then a campaign to be the Democrat against Congresswoman Elise M. Stefanik in NY-21 in 2024. In that campaign, Holden wasn't able to make it onto the primary ballot. In December of that year, when it appeared Congresswoman Elise M. Stefanik would be stepping down from her seat to take a job with the Trump administration, Holden started a public campaign for the anticipated special election. He ultimately was not chosen, and the nomination was preliminarily handed to Blake Gendebien.
This time, Holden said he thinks the difference that could spell victory for him lies in a grassroots opposition to the Trump administration's actions locally — and the way Tenney has tied herself to Trump.
"There's an energy that's arising because, people are waking up and going 'wait a second, these issues affect me,' and that's the difference," he said. "And now she's nationalized herself, which makes her a target across the country. She's on the DOGE caucus, she wants to make Trump's birthday a national holiday, and she's involved in the immigration issue."
Assuming all candidates are able to submit petitions to appear on the 2026 ballot, Holden is on track to head into as Democratic primary against Diana Kastenbaum, a former manufacturing CEO of Batavia, whose been organizing a series of town hall events across the district since the start of the year. On Friday, a former federal employee laid off in the government efficiency efforts led by Trump's 'Department of Government Efficiency,' from Lockport also announced her campaign to be the next Democrat to run in NY-24 — Alissa Ellman.
Tenney has no apparent Republican challengers as of now. The primaries will happen in June of next year ahead of the November general election.