In N.Y. Swing District, Candidates Debate Trump, Energy and Data Centers

Representative Mike Lawler, a Republican in a crucial New York swing district, and Cait Conley, his Democratic challenger, sparred in a debate on Monday over President Trump’s policies and their records, as well as hot-button issues like data centers and energy costs. The debate, which took place in the afternoon and aired later on News12, was the first time that Mr. Lawler and Ms. Conley had appeared onstage together during the campaign. Ms. Conley used the moment to highlight her decades of military service, while Mr. Lawler sought to burnish his bipartisan bona fides by sharing examples of how he had worked with Democrats in Washington. But more than anything else, the two candidates attacked each other, with Ms. Conley seeking to portray Mr. Lawler as a lackey of Mr. Trump while Mr. Lawler characterized his opponent as a carpetbagger. Ms. Conley, a combat veteran and a national security expert in the Biden administration, beat two opponents who ran to her left in the June primary. Since then, Mr. Lawler and his allies have focused on her work for a company that built anti-drone systems and another that used artificial intelligence to scrape public sources for law enforcement analysis. At Monday’s debate, Mr. Lawler said Ms. Conley’s professional history — and her unwillingness to describe the specifics of her work, citing nondisclosure agreements — was emblematic of an ethically murky culture in Washington.

Ms. Conley, who last year moved back to the district, where she had grown up, to run for Congress, said it was a desire to make a sacrifice for her country that had caused her to spend decades away. Democrats are betting that her long record of military service will attract more moderate voters. About $16 million has been spent on advertising by the two campaigns and their outside supporters, according to Ad Impact, a media tracking firm, making it one of the most expensive congressional races in the country. Unseating Mr. Lawler is a top priority for Democrats as they seek to take back control of the House. Mr. Lawler was first elected in 2022 to represent the district in New York City’s northern suburbs, which former Vice President Kamala Harris narrowly won in the 2024 presidential election. It encompasses Rockland and Putnam Counties, as well as parts of Westchester and Dutchess Counties.

There has been little public polling in the race since the primary. But even in a national political environment that is proving favorable to Democrats, Mr. Lawler, a former state legislator, will not be easy to beat. The economy and the cost of living proved to be the focus for much of the debate’s beginning, with voters in News12’s Long Island studio asking the candidates about how they would contain rising prices. Mr. Lawler said he wanted to reopen the Indian Point nuclear power plant, which was closed in 2021, and permit natural gas extraction in an effort to bring down energy prices. Ms. Conley, for her part, said the federal government should incentivize clean energy production, and criticized the Trump administration’s decision to roll back tax breaks for wind and solar projects. The candidates also engaged in a tense back and forth over the value of building more data centers in the district and across the state. Each candidate asserted that the other was beholden to technology interests funneling money into the race. Though she has previously said there is a need for data centers, Ms. Conley also applauded the one-year pause on the construction of the largest such centers that Gov. Kathy Hochul put in place in July, and she said during the debate that she backed such moratoriums. Mr. Lawler said it should be left up to local municipalities to decide whether they wanted to build the facilities.

Representative Mike Lawler, a Republican in a crucial New York swing district, and Cait Conley, his Democratic challenger, sparred in a debate on Monday over President Trump’s policies and their records, as well as hot-button issues like data centers and energy costs. The debate, which took place in the afternoon and aired later on News12, was the first time that Mr. Lawler and Ms. Conley had appeared onstage together during the campaign. Ms. Conley used the moment to highlight her decades of military service, while Mr. Lawler sought to burnish his bipartisan bona fides by sharing examples of how he had worked with Democrats in Washington. But more than anything else, the two candidates attacked each other, with Ms. Conley seeking to portray Mr. Lawler as a lackey of Mr. Trump while Mr. Lawler characterized his opponent as a carpetbagger.

Ms. Conley, a combat veteran and a national security expert in the Biden administration, beat two opponents who ran to her left in the June primary. Since then, Mr. Lawler and his allies have focused on her work for a company that built anti-drone systems and another that used artificial intelligence to scrape public sources for law enforcement analysis. At Monday’s debate, Mr. Lawler said Ms. Conley’s professional history — and her unwillingness to describe the specifics of her work, citing nondisclosure agreements — was emblematic of an ethically murky culture in Washington.

Ms. Conley, who last year moved back to the district, where she had grown up, to run for Congress, said it was a desire to make a sacrifice for her country that had caused her to spend decades away. Democrats are betting that her long record of military service will attract more moderate voters. About $16 million has been spent on advertising by the two campaigns and their outside supporters, according to Ad Impact, a media tracking firm, making it one of the most expensive congressional races in the country. Unseating Mr. Lawler is a top priority for Democrats as they seek to take back control of the House. Mr. Lawler was first elected in 2022 to represent the district in New York City’s northern suburbs, which former Vice President Kamala Harris narrowly won in the 2024 presidential election. It encompasses Rockland and Putnam Counties, as well as parts of Westchester and Dutchess Counties.

There has been little public polling in the race since the primary. But even in a national political environment that is proving favorable to Democrats, Mr. Lawler, a former state legislator, will not be easy to beat. The economy and the cost of living proved to be the focus for much of the debate’s beginning, with voters in News12’s Long Island studio asking the candidates about how they would contain rising prices. Mr. Lawler said he wanted to reopen the Indian Point nuclear power plant, which was closed in 2021, and permit natural gas extraction in an effort to bring down energy prices. Ms. Conley, for her part, said the federal government should incentivize clean energy production, and criticized the Trump administration’s decision to roll back tax breaks for wind and solar projects. The candidates also engaged in a tense back and forth over the value of building more data centers in the district and across the state. Each candidate asserted that the other was beholden to technology interests funneling money into the race. Though she has previously said there is a need for data centers, Ms. Conley also applauded the one-year pause on the construction of the largest such centers that Gov. Kathy Hochul put in place in July, and she said during the debate that she backed such moratoriums. Mr. Lawler said it should be left up to local municipalities to decide whether they wanted to build the facilities.

Representative Mike Lawler, a Republican in a crucial New York swing district, and Cait Conley, his Democratic challenger, sparred in a debate on Monday over President Trump’s policies and their records, as well as hot-button issues like data centers and energy costs. The debate, which took place in the afternoon and aired later on News12, was the first time that Mr. Lawler and Ms. Conley had appeared onstage together during the campaign. Ms. Conley used the moment to highlight her decades of military service, while Mr. Lawler sought to burnish his bipartisan bona fides by sharing examples of how he had worked with Democrats in Washington. But more than anything else, the two candidates attacked each other, with Ms. Conley seeking to portray Mr. Lawler as a lackey of Mr. Trump while Mr. Lawler characterized his opponent as a carpetbagger.

Ms. Conley, a combat veteran and a national security expert in the Biden administration, beat two opponents who ran to her left in the June primary. Since then, Mr. Lawler and his allies have focused on her work for a company that built anti-drone systems and another that used artificial intelligence to scrape public sources for law enforcement analysis. At Monday’s debate, Mr. Lawler said Ms. Conley’s professional history — and her unwillingness to describe the specifics of her work, citing nondisclosure agreements — was emblematic of an ethically murky culture in Washington.

Ms. Conley, who last year moved back to the district, where she had grown up, to run for Congress, said it was a desire to make a sacrifice for her country that had caused her to spend decades away. Democrats are betting that her long record of military service will attract more moderate voters. About $16 million has been spent on advertising by the two campaigns and their outside supporters, according to Ad Impact, a media tracking firm, making it one of the most expensive congressional races in the country. Unseating Mr. Lawler is a top priority for Democrats as they seek to take back control of the House. Mr. Lawler was first elected in 2022 to represent the district in New York City’s northern suburbs, which former Vice President Kamala Harris narrowly won in the 2024 presidential election. It encompasses Rockland and Putnam Counties, as well as parts of Westchester and Dutchess Counties.

There has been little public polling in the race since the primary. But even in a national political environment that is proving favorable to Democrats, Mr. Lawler, a former state legislator, will not be easy to beat. The economy and the cost of living proved to be the focus for much of the debate’s beginning, with voters in News12’s Long Island studio asking the candidates about how they would contain rising prices. Mr. Lawler said he wanted to reopen the Indian Point nuclear power plant, which was closed in 2021, and permit natural gas extraction in an effort to bring down energy prices. Ms. Conley, for her part, said the federal government should incentivize clean energy production, and criticized the Trump administration’s decision to roll back tax breaks for wind and solar projects. The candidates also engaged in a tense back and forth over the value of building more data centers in the district and across the state. Each candidate asserted that the other was beholden to technology interests funneling money into the race. Though she has previously said there is a need for data centers, Ms. Conley also applauded the one-year pause on the construction of the largest such centers that Gov. Kathy Hochul put in place in July, and she said during the debate that she backed such moratoriums. Mr. Lawler said it should be left up to local municipalities to decide whether they wanted to build the facilities.

Representative Mike Lawler, a Republican in a crucial New York swing district, and Cait Conley, his Democratic challenger, sparred in a debate on Monday over President Trump’s policies and their records, as well as hot-button issues like data centers and energy costs. The debate, which took place in the afternoon and aired later on News12, was the first time that Mr. Lawler and Ms. Conley had appeared onstage together during the campaign. Ms. Conley used the moment to highlight her decades of military service, while Mr. Lawler sought to burnish his bipartisan bona fides by sharing examples of how he had worked with Democrats in Washington. But more than anything else, the two candidates attacked each other, with Ms. Conley seeking to portray Mr. Lawler as a lackey of Mr. Trump while Mr. Lawler characterized his opponent as a carpetbagger.

Ms. Conley, a combat veteran and a national security expert in the Biden administration, beat two opponents who ran to her left in the June primary. Since then, Mr. Lawler and his allies have focused on her work for a company that built anti-drone systems and another that used artificial intelligence to scrape public sources for law enforcement analysis. At Monday’s debate, Mr. Lawler said Ms. Conley’s professional history — and her unwillingness to describe the specifics of her work, citing nondisclosure agreements — was emblematic of an ethically murky culture in Washington.

Ms. Conley, who last year moved back to the district, where she had grown up, to run for Congress, said it was a desire to make a sacrifice for her country that had caused her to spend decades away. Democrats are betting that her long record of military service will attract more moderate voters. About $16 million has been spent on advertising by the two campaigns and their outside supporters, according to Ad Impact, a media tracking firm, making it one of the most expensive congressional races in the country. Unseating Mr. Lawler is a top priority for Democrats as they seek to take back control of the House. Mr. Lawler was first elected in 2022 to represent the district in New York City’s northern suburbs, which former Vice President Kamala Harris narrowly won in the 2024 presidential election. It encompasses Rockland and Putnam Counties, as well as parts of Westchester and Dutchess Counties.

There has been little public polling in the race since the primary. But even in a national political environment that is proving favorable to Democrats, Mr. Lawler, a former state legislator, will not be easy to beat. The economy and the cost of living proved to be the focus for much of the debate’s beginning, with voters in News12’s Long Island studio asking the candidates about how they would contain rising prices. Mr. Lawler said he wanted to reopen the Indian Point nuclear power plant, which was closed in 2021, and permit natural gas extraction in an effort to bring down energy prices. Ms. Conley, for her part, said the federal government should incentivize clean energy production, and criticized the Trump administration’s decision to roll back tax breaks for wind and solar projects. The candidates also engaged in a tense back and forth over the value of building more data centers in the district and across the state. Each candidate asserted that the other was beholden to technology interests funneling money into the race. Though she has previously said there is a need for data centers, Ms. Conley also applauded the one-year pause on the construction of the largest such centers that Gov. Kathy Hochul put in place in July, and she said during the debate that she backed such moratoriums. Mr. Lawler said it should be left up to local municipalities to decide whether they wanted to build the facilities.

Representative Mike Lawler, a Republican in a crucial New York swing district, and Cait Conley, his Democratic challenger, sparred in a debate on Monday over President Trump’s policies and their records, as well as hot-button issues like data centers and energy costs. The debate, which took place in the afternoon and aired later on News12, was the first time that Mr. Lawler and Ms. Conley had appeared onstage together during the campaign. Ms. Conley used the moment to highlight her decades of military service, while Mr. Lawler sought to burnish his bipartisan bona fides by sharing examples of how he had worked with Democrats in Washington. But more than anything else, the two candidates attacked each other, with Ms. Conley seeking to portray Mr. Lawler as a lackey of Mr. Trump while Mr. Lawler characterized his opponent as a carpetbagger.

Ms. Conley, a combat veteran and a national security expert in the Biden administration, beat two opponents who ran to her left in the June primary. Since then, Mr. Lawler and his allies have focused on her work for a company that built anti-drone systems and another that used artificial intelligence to scrape public sources for law enforcement analysis. At Monday’s debate, Mr. Lawler said Ms. Conley’s professional history — and her unwillingness to describe the specifics of her work, citing nondisclosure agreements — was emblematic of an ethically murky culture in Washington.

Ms. Conley, who last year moved back to the district, where she had grown up, to run for Congress, said it was a desire to make a sacrifice for her country that had caused her to spend decades away. Democrats are betting that her long record of military service will attract more moderate voters. About $16 million has been spent on advertising by the two campaigns and their outside supporters, according to Ad Impact, a media tracking firm, making it one of the most expensive congressional races in the country. Unseating Mr. Lawler is a top priority for Democrats as they seek to take back control of the House. Mr. Lawler was first elected in 2022 to represent the district in New York City’s northern suburbs, which former Vice President Kamala Harris narrowly won in the 2024 presidential election. It encompasses Rockland and Putnam Counties, as well as parts of Westchester and Dutchess Counties.

There has been little public polling in the race since the primary. But even in a national political environment that is proving favorable to Democrats, Mr. Lawler, a former state legislator, will not be easy to beat. The economy and the cost of living proved to be the focus for much of the debate’s beginning, with voters in News12’s Long Island studio asking the candidates about how they would contain rising prices. Mr. Lawler said he wanted to reopen the Indian Point nuclear power plant, which was closed in 2021, and permit natural gas extraction in an effort to bring down energy prices. Ms. Conley, for her part, said the federal government should incentivize clean energy production, and criticized the Trump administration’s decision to roll back tax breaks for wind and solar projects. The candidates also engaged in a tense back and forth over the value of building more data centers in the district and across the state. Each candidate asserted that the other was beholden to technology interests funneling money into the race. Though she has previously said there is a need for data centers, Ms. Conley also applauded the one-year pause on the construction of the largest such centers that Gov. Kathy Hochul put in place in July, and she said during the debate that she backed such moratoriums. Mr. Lawler said it should be left up to local municipalities to decide whether they wanted to build the facilities.

Representative Mike Lawler, a Republican in a crucial New York swing district, and Cait Conley, his Democratic challenger, sparred in a debate on Monday over President Trump’s policies and their records, as well as hot-button issues like data centers and energy costs. The debate, which took place in the afternoon and aired later on News12, was the first time that Mr. Lawler and Ms. Conley had appeared onstage together during the campaign. Ms. Conley used the moment to highlight her decades of military service, while Mr. Lawler sought to burnish his bipartisan bona fides by sharing examples of how he had worked with Democrats in Washington. But more than anything else, the two candidates attacked each other, with Ms. Conley seeking to portray Mr. Lawler as a lackey of Mr. Trump while Mr. Lawler characterized his opponent as a carpetbagger.

Ms. Conley, a combat veteran and a national security expert in the Biden administration, beat two opponents who ran to her left in the June primary. Since then, Mr. Lawler and his allies have focused on her work for a company that built anti-drone systems and another that used artificial intelligence to scrape public sources for law enforcement analysis. At Monday’s debate, Mr. Lawler said Ms. Conley’s professional history — and her unwillingness to describe the specifics of her work, citing nondisclosure agreements — was emblematic of an ethically murky culture in Washington.

Ms. Conley, who last year moved back to the district, where she had grown up, to run for Congress, said it was a desire to make a sacrifice for her country that had caused her to spend decades away. Democrats are betting that her long record of military service will attract more moderate voters. About $16 million has been spent on advertising by the two campaigns and their outside supporters, according to Ad Impact, a media tracking firm, making it one of the most expensive congressional races in the country. Unseating Mr. Lawler is a top priority for Democrats as they seek to take back control of the House. Mr. Lawler was first elected in 2022 to represent the district in New York City’s northern suburbs, which former Vice President Kamala Harris narrowly won in the 2024 presidential election. It encompasses Rockland and Putnam Counties, as well as parts of Westchester and Dutchess Counties.

There has been little public polling in the race since the primary. But even in a national political environment that is proving favorable to Democrats, Mr. Lawler, a former state legislator, will not be easy to beat. The economy and the cost of living proved to be the focus for much of the debate’s beginning, with voters in News12’s Long Island studio asking the candidates about how they would contain rising prices. Mr. Lawler said he wanted to reopen the Indian Point nuclear power plant, which was closed in 2021, and permit natural gas extraction in an effort to bring down energy prices. Ms. Conley, for her part, said the federal government should incentivize clean energy production, and criticized the Trump administration’s decision to roll back tax breaks for wind and solar projects. The candidates also engaged in a tense back and forth over the value of building more data centers in the district and across the state. Each candidate asserted that the other was beholden to technology interests funneling money into the race. Though she has previously said there is a need for data centers, Ms. Conley also applauded the one-year pause on the construction of the largest such centers that Gov. Kathy Hochul put in place in July, and she said during the debate that she backed such moratoriums. Mr. Lawler said it should be left up to local municipalities to decide whether they wanted to build the facilities.

Representative Mike Lawler, a Republican in a crucial New York swing district, and Cait Conley, his Democratic challenger, sparred in a debate on Monday over President Trump’s policies and their records, as well as hot-button issues like data centers and energy costs. The debate, which took place in the afternoon and aired later on News12, was the first time that Mr. Lawler and Ms. Conley had appeared onstage together during the campaign. Ms. Conley used the moment to highlight her decades of military service, while Mr. Lawler sought to burnish his bipartisan bona fides by sharing examples of how he had worked with Democrats in Washington. But more than anything else, the two candidates attacked each other, with Ms. Conley seeking to portray Mr. Lawler as a lackey of Mr. Trump while Mr. Lawler characterized his opponent as a carpetbagger.

Ms. Conley, a combat veteran and a national security expert in the Biden administration, beat two opponents who ran to her left in the June primary. Since then, Mr. Lawler and his allies have focused on her work for a company that built anti-drone systems and another that used artificial intelligence to scrape public sources for law enforcement analysis. At Monday’s debate, Mr. Lawler said Ms. Conley’s professional history — and her unwillingness to describe the specifics of her work, citing nondisclosure agreements — was emblematic of an ethically murky culture in Washington.

Ms. Conley, who last year moved back to the district, where she had grown up, to run for Congress, said it was a desire to make a sacrifice for her country that had caused her to spend decades away. Democrats are betting that her long record of military service will attract more moderate voters. About $16 million has been spent on advertising by the two campaigns and their outside supporters, according to Ad Impact, a media tracking firm, making it one of the most expensive congressional races in the country. Unseating Mr. Lawler is a top priority for Democrats as they seek to take back control of the House. Mr. Lawler was first elected in 2022 to represent the district in New York City’s northern suburbs, which former Vice President Kamala Harris narrowly won in the 2024 presidential election. It encompasses Rockland and Putnam Counties, as well as parts of Westchester and Dutchess Counties.

There has been little public polling in the race since the primary. But even in a national political environment that is proving favorable to Democrats, Mr. Lawler, a former state legislator, will not be easy to beat. The economy and the cost of living proved to be the focus for much of the debate’s beginning, with voters in News12’s Long Island studio asking the candidates about how they would contain rising prices. Mr. Lawler said he wanted to reopen the Indian Point nuclear power plant, which was closed in 2021, and permit natural gas extraction in an effort to bring down energy prices. Ms. Conley, for her part, said the federal government should incentivize clean energy production, and criticized the Trump administration’s decision to roll back tax breaks for wind and solar projects. The candidates also engaged in a tense back and forth over the value of building more data centers in the district and across the state. Each candidate asserted that the other was beholden to technology interests funneling money into the race. Though she has previously said there is a need for data centers, Ms. Conley also applauded the one-year pause on the construction of the largest such centers that Gov. Kathy Hochul put in place in July, and she said during the debate that she backed such moratoriums. Mr. Lawler said it should be left up to local municipalities to decide whether they wanted to build the facilities.

Representative Mike Lawler, a Republican in a crucial New York swing district, and Cait Conley, his Democratic challenger, sparred in a debate on Monday over President Trump’s policies and their records, as well as hot-button issues like data centers and energy costs. The debate, which took place in the afternoon and aired later on News12, was the first time that Mr. Lawler and Ms. Conley had appeared onstage together during the campaign. Ms. Conley used the moment to highlight her decades of military service, while Mr. Lawler sought to burnish his bipartisan bona fides by sharing examples of how he had worked with Democrats in Washington. But more than anything else, the two candidates attacked each other, with Ms. Conley seeking to portray Mr. Lawler as a lackey of Mr. Trump while Mr. Lawler characterized his opponent as a carpetbagger.

Ms. Conley, a combat veteran and a national security expert in the Biden administration, beat two opponents who ran to her left in the June primary. Since then, Mr. Lawler and his allies have focused on her work for a company that built anti-drone systems and another that used artificial intelligence to scrape public sources for law enforcement analysis. At Monday’s debate, Mr. Lawler said Ms. Conley’s professional history — and her unwillingness to describe the specifics of her work, citing nondisclosure agreements — was emblematic of an ethically murky culture in Washington.

Ms. Conley, who last year moved back to the district, where she had grown up, to run for Congress, said it was a desire to make a sacrifice for her country that had caused her to spend decades away. Democrats are betting that her long record of military service will attract more moderate voters. About $16 million has been spent on advertising by the two campaigns and their outside supporters, according to Ad Impact, a media tracking firm, making it one of the most expensive congressional races in the country. Unseating Mr. Lawler is a top priority for Democrats as they seek to take back control of the House. Mr. Lawler was first elected in 2022 to represent the district in New York City’s northern suburbs, which former Vice President Kamala Harris narrowly won in the 2024 presidential election. It encompasses Rockland and Putnam Counties, as well as parts of Westchester and Dutchess Counties.

There has been little public polling in the race since the primary. But even in a national political environment that is proving favorable to Democrats, Mr. Lawler, a former state legislator, will not be easy to beat. The economy and the cost of living proved to be the focus for much of the debate’s beginning, with voters in News12’s Long Island studio asking the candidates about how they would contain rising prices. Mr. Lawler said he wanted to reopen the Indian Point nuclear power plant, which was closed in 2021, and permit natural gas extraction in an effort to bring down energy prices. Ms. Conley, for her part, said the federal government should incentivize clean energy production, and criticized the Trump administration’s decision to roll back tax breaks for wind and solar projects. The candidates also engaged in a tense back and forth over the value of building more data centers in the district and across the state. Each candidate asserted that the other was beholden to technology interests funneling money into the race. Though she has previously said there is a need for data centers, Ms. Conley also applauded the one-year pause on the construction of the largest such centers that Gov. Kathy Hochul put in place in July, and she said during the debate that she backed such moratoriums. Mr. Lawler said it should be left up to local municipalities to decide whether they wanted to build the facilities.

Representative Mike Lawler, a Republican in a crucial New York swing district, and Cait Conley, his Democratic challenger, sparred in a debate on Monday over President Trump’s policies and their records, as well as hot-button issues like data centers and energy costs. The debate, which took place in the afternoon and aired later on News12, was the first time that Mr. Lawler and Ms. Conley had appeared onstage together during the campaign. Ms. Conley used the moment to highlight her decades of military service, while Mr. Lawler sought to burnish his bipartisan bona fides by sharing examples of how he had worked with Democrats in Washington. But more than anything else, the two candidates attacked each other, with Ms. Conley seeking to portray Mr. Lawler as a lackey of Mr. Trump while Mr. Lawler characterized his opponent as a carpetbagger.

Ms. Conley, a combat veteran and a national security expert in the Biden administration, beat two opponents who ran to her left in the June primary. Since then, Mr. Lawler and his allies have focused on her work for a company that built anti-drone systems and another that used artificial intelligence to scrape public sources for law enforcement analysis. At Monday’s debate, Mr. Lawler said Ms. Conley’s professional history — and her unwillingness to describe the specifics of her work, citing nondisclosure agreements — was emblematic of an ethically murky culture in Washington.

Ms. Conley, who last year moved back to the district, where she had grown up, to run for Congress, said it was a desire to make a sacrifice for her country that had caused her to spend decades away. Democrats are betting that her long record of military service will attract more moderate voters. About $16 million has been spent on advertising by the two campaigns and their outside supporters, according to Ad Impact, a media tracking firm, making it one of the most expensive congressional races in the country. Unseating Mr. Lawler is a top priority for Democrats as they seek to take back control of the House. Mr. Lawler was first elected in 2022 to represent the district in New York City’s northern suburbs, which former Vice President Kamala Harris narrowly won in the 2024 presidential election. It encompasses Rockland and Putnam Counties, as well as parts of Westchester and Dutchess Counties.

There has been little public polling in the race since the primary. But even in a national political environment that is proving favorable to Democrats, Mr. Lawler, a former state legislator, will not be easy to beat. The economy and the cost of living proved to be the focus for much of the debate’s beginning, with voters in News12’s Long Island studio asking the candidates about how they would contain rising prices. Mr. Lawler said he wanted to reopen the Indian Point nuclear power plant, which was closed in 2021, and permit natural gas extraction in an effort to bring down energy prices. Ms. Conley, for her part, said the federal government should incentivize clean energy production, and criticized the Trump administration’s decision to roll back tax breaks for wind and solar projects. The candidates also engaged in a tense back and forth over the value of building more data centers in the district and across the state. Each candidate asserted that the other was beholden to technology interests funneling money into the race. Though she has previously said there is a need for data centers, Ms. Conley also applauded the one-year pause on the construction of the largest such centers that Gov. Kathy Hochul put in place in July, and she said during the debate that she backed such moratoriums. Mr. Lawler said it should be left up to local municipalities to decide whether they wanted to build the facilities.

Representative Mike Lawler, a Republican in a crucial New York swing district, and Cait Conley, his Democratic challenger, sparred in a debate on Monday over President Trump’s policies and their records, as well as hot-button issues like data centers and energy costs. The debate, which took place in the afternoon and aired later on News12, was the first time that Mr. Lawler and Ms. Conley had appeared onstage together during the campaign. Ms. Conley used the moment to highlight her decades of military service, while Mr. Lawler sought to burnish his bipartisan bona fides by sharing examples of how he had worked with Democrats in Washington. But more than anything else, the two candidates attacked each other, with Ms. Conley seeking to portray Mr. Lawler as a lackey of Mr. Trump while Mr. Lawler characterized his opponent as a carpetbagger.

Ms. Conley, a combat veteran and a national security expert in the Biden administration, beat two opponents who ran to her left in the June primary. Since then, Mr. Lawler and his allies have focused on her work for a company that built anti-drone systems and another that used artificial intelligence to scrape public sources for law enforcement analysis. At Monday’s debate, Mr. Lawler said Ms. Conley’s professional history — and her unwillingness to describe the specifics of her work, citing nondisclosure agreements — was emblematic of an ethically murky culture in Washington.

Ms. Conley, who last year moved back to the district, where she had grown up, to run for Congress, said it was a desire to make a sacrifice for her country that had caused her to spend decades away. Democrats are betting that her long record of military service will attract more moderate voters. About $16 million has been spent on advertising by the two campaigns and their outside supporters, according to Ad Impact, a media tracking firm, making it one of the most expensive congressional races in the country. Unseating Mr. Lawler is a top priority for Democrats as they seek to take back control of the House. Mr. Lawler was first elected in 2022 to represent the district in New York City’s northern suburbs, which former Vice President Kamala Harris narrowly won in the 2024 presidential election. It encompasses Rockland and Putnam Counties, as well as parts of Westchester and Dutchess Counties.

There has been little public polling in the race since the primary. But even in a national political environment that is proving favorable to Democrats, Mr. Lawler, a former state legislator, will not be easy to beat. The economy and the cost of living proved to be the focus for much of the debate’s beginning, with voters in News12’s Long Island studio asking the candidates about how they would contain rising prices. Mr. Lawler said he wanted to reopen the Indian Point nuclear power plant, which was closed in 2021, and permit natural gas extraction in an effort to bring down energy prices. Ms. Conley, for her part, said the federal government should incentivize clean energy production, and criticized the Trump administration’s decision to roll back tax breaks for wind and solar projects. The candidates also engaged in a tense back and forth over the value of building more data centers in the district and across the state. Each candidate asserted that the other was beholden to technology interests funneling money into the race. Though she has previously said there is a need for data centers, Ms. Conley also applauded the one-year pause on the construction of the largest such centers that Gov. Kathy Hochul put in place in July, and she said during the debate that she backed such moratoriums. Mr. Lawler said it should be left up to local municipalities to decide whether they wanted to build the facilities.

Representative Mike Lawler, a Republican in a crucial New York swing district, and Cait Conley, his Democratic challenger, sparred in a debate on Monday over President Trump’s policies and their records, as well as hot-button issues like data centers and energy costs. The debate, which took place in the afternoon and aired later on News12, was the first time that Mr. Lawler and Ms. Conley had appeared onstage together during the campaign. Ms. Conley used the moment to highlight her decades of military service, while Mr. Lawler sought to burnish his bipartisan bona fides by sharing examples of how he had worked with Democrats in Washington. But more than anything else, the two candidates attacked each other, with Ms. Conley seeking to portray Mr. Lawler as a lackey of Mr. Trump while Mr. Lawler characterized his opponent as a carpetbagger.

Ms. Conley, a combat veteran and a national security expert in the Biden administration, beat two opponents who ran to her left in the June primary. Since then, Mr. Lawler and his allies have focused on her work for a company that built anti-drone systems and another that used artificial intelligence to scrape public sources for law enforcement analysis. At Monday’s debate, Mr. Lawler said Ms. Conley’s professional history — and her unwillingness to describe the specifics of her work, citing nondisclosure agreements — was emblematic of an ethically murky culture in Washington.

Ms. Conley, who last year moved back to the district, where she had grown up, to run for Congress, said it was a desire to make a sacrifice for her country that had caused her to spend decades away. Democrats are betting that her long record of military service will attract more moderate voters. About $16 million has been spent on advertising by the two campaigns and their outside supporters, according to Ad Impact, a media tracking firm, making it one of the most expensive congressional races in the country. Unseating Mr. Lawler is a top priority for Democrats as they seek to take back control of the House. Mr. Lawler was first elected in 2022 to represent the district in New York City’s northern suburbs, which former Vice President Kamala Harris narrowly won in the 2024 presidential election. It encompasses Rockland and Putnam Counties, as well as parts of Westchester and Dutchess Counties.

There has been little public polling in the race since the primary. But even in a national political environment that is proving favorable to Democrats, Mr. Lawler, a former state legislator, will not be easy to beat. The economy and the cost of living proved to be the focus for much of the debate’s beginning, with voters in News12’s Long Island studio asking the candidates about how they would contain rising prices. Mr. Lawler said he wanted to reopen the Indian Point nuclear power plant, which was closed in 2021, and permit natural gas extraction in an effort to bring down energy prices. Ms. Conley, for her part, said the federal government should incentivize clean energy production, and criticized the Trump administration’s decision to roll back tax breaks for wind and solar projects. The candidates also engaged in a tense back and forth over the value of building more data centers in the district and across the state. Each candidate asserted that the other was beholden to technology interests funneling money into the race. Though she has previously said there is a need for data centers, Ms. Conley also applauded the one-year pause on the construction of the largest such centers that Gov. Kathy Hochul put in place in July, and she said during the debate that she backed such moratoriums. Mr. Lawler said it should be left up to local municipalities to decide whether they wanted to build the facilities.

纽约关键摇摆选区的共和党籍国会议员迈克·劳勒尔和他的民主党挑战者凯特·康利在周一的辩论会上，就总统特朗普的政策及其政绩，以及数据中心和能源成本等热门问题展开了激烈的争论。该辩论于下午举行，并随后在News12播出。这也是劳勒尔先生和康利女士在竞选期间首次共同登台。康利女士借此突出了她数十年的军事服务经历，而劳勒尔先生则通过分享他在华盛顿与民主党人合作的例子来彰显自己的两党合作资格。但最重要的是，两位候选人互相攻击，康利女士试图将劳勒尔描绘为特朗普的走狗，而劳勒尔则将对手描述为“ carpetbagger”。康利女士是一名退役战斗军人以及拜登政府的国家安全专家，她在6月的初选中击败了两名向她左倾的对手。从那以后，劳勒尔先生及其盟友们聚焦于她为一家专门打造反无人机系统的公司以及另一家利用人工智能从公共来源中抓取信息供执法机构分析的公司的工作。周一的辩论中，劳勒尔先生表示，康利女士的专业背景——以及她拒绝描述其工作细节、引用保密协议的态度——体现了一个在华盛顿充满了道德模糊文化的现象。

康利女士去年搬回该选区、也就是她长大的地方来参选国会议员，她说是对为自己的国家做出牺牲的渴望促使她离开数十年。民主党人押注她长期以来的军事服务记录将吸引更多的温和选民。据媒体追踪公司Ad Impact统计，双方竞选阵营及其外部支持者在广告上花费了约1600万美元，使其成为全国最昂贵的国会选举之一。要赢下劳勒尔先生是民主党人在寻求夺回众议院控制权时的首要任务。劳勒尔先生于2022年首次当选代表纽约市北郊的选区，前副总统卡拉·哈里斯在2024年的总统选举中以微弱优势赢得了该地区。该选区包括罗克兰县和普特南县，以及部分的西切尔县和达切斯县。

自初选以来，该选区的公众民意调查寥少。但即便是在对民主党有利的全国政治环境下，作为前州立立法员的劳勒尔先生也不会轻易被击败。经济和生活成本成为了辩论之初的主要焦点，News12的长岛工作室的选民们向候选人提出了关于如何控制不断上涨的物价的问题。劳勒尔先生表示他希望重新开放已于2021年关闭的印第安点核发电厂，并允许进行天然气开采，以降低能源价格。康利女士则表示联邦政府应该鼓励清洁能源的生产，并批评特朗普政府决定撤销对风能和太阳能项目的税收优惠的决定。两位候选人还就在该选区和全州范围内建设更多数据中心的价值问题进行了紧张的争论。每位候选人都声称对方受到技术利益集团的金钱影响。尽管她此前曾表示数据中心是有需求的，但康利女士也赞扬了纽约州长霍契姆女士(Kathy Hochul)在7月份实施的关于最大数据中心建设的一年停工措施，并在辩论中表示她支持这样的禁令。劳勒尔先生表示应由地方政府决定是否建设这些设施。