New York Special House Election a High-Profile Clash of Rising Stars

New York Congressional District 19 Aug. 23 Republican special election candidate Marc Molinaro, in suit, thanks firefighters in Beekman on Aug. 22 after they responded to a fire at Barton Orchards. Courtesy of Molinaro for Congress

Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, New York’s Republican 2018 gubernatorial nominee, is unopposed in the upper Hudson Valley’s Congressional District 19 (CD 19) Aug. 23 GOP primary.

Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan, meanwhile, is projected to handedly win his three-candidate race in the Democrat’s CD 18 primary and move onto November’s general election for the “tossup” congressional seat representing the lower Hudson Valley district.

But first things first: the county executives from opposite sides of the river are also squaring off in an Aug. 23 special election for “old” CD 19’s vacant U.S. House seat.