Battle of the Lake District 

In the closing arguments of a debate held by WROC-TV 8, Alissa Ellman, the Democratic challenger in the 24th Congressional District, directly addressed people working in the room.

Workers at the Nexstar-run affiliate unionized three years ago, but have yet to be recognized by the company. Ellman linked their struggle to her own fight in the sprawling congressional district, one which she says is about affordability and working families.

“Nexstar, recognize the union. It’s the right thing to do. I know that might make some people uncomfortable, but I’m not running to make people comfortable,” Ellman said. “I’m a fighter. I fought in Afghanistan when I was a teenager. I fought for families when I was a teacher.

I fought cancer. And if you elect me, I’m going to fight for you. Because I want to fight for rural New York and nobody else.”

In contrast to the Afghanistan War veteran and political newcomer, incumbent Republican Rep. Claudia Tenney emphasized her experience and the importance of continuing the work she has started in Congress. However, she also said her efforts, such as giving relief through no tax on tips or overtime through the One Big Beautiful Bill, are aimed at improving the lives of working New Yorkers as well.

“My opponent said she’s running because she has a vendetta against me. That is not a person to vote for. You have a choice,” Tenney said. “I’m trying to help us, we as New Yorkers, fight the downstream Democrats in New York City and the people that support my opponent.

“We’ve given benefits to our wonderful small business owners and the people that drive our economy. They’ve gotten incredible benefits from our working families tax cut. That’s all I’m trying to do,” she added. “I care about our communities. I’m going to continue to provide excellent public service for the people I serve.”

Whether Ellman can unseat Tenney in a district that’s extremely advantageous to Republicans is uncertain. While neither candidate responded to requests for comment from the Beacon in time for publication of this story, their comments at Tuesday night’s televised debate revealed much about their positions.

Contrasting candidates

Ellman was born to a working-class family in the hamlet of Houghton. At the age of 17, she joined the U.S. Army and was sent to Afghanistan in the early 2000s. Exposure to toxic burn pits during her time there manifested in rare deadly cancer in 2018. She was treated and beat the disease with medical care from the Veterans Administration. 

Along with a teaching career focused on youths, Ellman worked at the VA. She was fired from her position in early 2025 due to governmental agency cuts initiated by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. That experience with disinvestment was part of the reason the political newcomer decided to run for office.

“I’m running for Congress because our current representative, Ms. Tenney, has voted against the interest of every working person in this district. She’s voted to defund rural hospitals, to slash SNAP,” Ellman said during the debate. “She voted against the PACT Act that treated my own cancer. And she’s championed a war in Iran.”

Tenney has cast Ellman as “too radical for Upstate NY” and attempted to link her to Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani through campaign ads. Ellman instead presents herself as a political outsider and pragmatist who is focused on “kitchen table” issues.

“My name’s Alissa Elman. I’m not Kathy Hochul or Zohran Mamdani. I’m a disabled combat veteran who served my country,” she said. “I’m running for rural New York and nobody else.”

In contrast, Tenney has had many years in elected office. She won her first state Assembly seat in 2010 in an uncontested race in the state’s North Country. She then won a different Assembly seat, a gerrymandered Central New York district, in 2012 and was reelected in 2014.

Tenney’s first race for a congressional seat came in 2016, when she won in NY-22, a battleground district. At the time, the seat included a large swath of Central New York encompassing Oswego, Syracuse, and Binghamton. In 2018, Tenney lost it by only 1.8 percentage points (4,473 votes) to Anthony Brindisi, then she narrowly won it back in 2020 by 109 votes. In 2022, Tenney handily won the race for NY-24, the first iteration of the “Lake District,” and did so again in 2024. 

The congresswoman is known as a strong supporter of President Donald Trump, possibly best symbolized by her 2025 proposal, “Trump’s Birthday and Flag Day Holiday Establishment Act,” which would make June 14 a permanent federal holiday. However, while she largely supports his action on tariffs and immigration enforcement, Tenney says she differs slightly from the president on some foreign policy issues.

“(Russian President Vladimir) Putin is an evil dictator. He has gone in and continues to fire at the Ukrainians, even though there was supposed to be a ceasefire. I think we should be getting the resources to Ukraine, especially Starshield,” said Tenney. “I also think that the president needs to finish the job in Iran.” 

Outside of her political career, Tenney has a background in law and small business ownership, co-owning Mid-York Press, a commercial printing and manufacturing company. She has served on the U.S. House Small Business Committee and founded the Congressional Family Business Caucus. She received the “Guardian of Small Business” Award from the National Federation of Independent Business for her work in 2022.

“I’m talking to the small businesses. I know how they’re struggling,” Tenney said. “We have been through this before, and we are trying to fix it. We have a government in Albany that will not fix it.”

Lake District issues

The 24th Congressional District encompasses a huge swath of land in upstate New York. It covers over 7,200 square miles and wraps across all of Lake Ontario, giving it the nickname of “the Lake District.”

Its northernmost point is near the St. Lawrence River and Alexandria Bay where it then bends southward to include Watertown and Oswego. The district covers half the Finger Lakes region, including areas such as Geneva, Canandaigua, Dansville, Geneseo, Letchworth State Park, and Batavia. It continues west until it reaches the Canadian border at the Niagara River and the town of Lewiston. 

Due to redistricting, its previous iteration in 2022 was altered slightly in 2024. The most significant changes were to absorb all of Orleans County and more sections of Niagara County.

Census data estimates give District 24 a population of 776,971 people and 371,340 housing units. It is primarily white, with 87.7% of the population classified as non-Hispanic white. Slightly more than 4% of residents are Hispanic, 2.5% are Black, with the remainder being American Indian, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, or multiple races. Districtwide, 21.3% of the population is 65 years or older, making it generally older than the rest of the state (18.6%).

The median household income is $69,878, which is slightly lower than the $73,132 median in District 25, which includes all of Monroe and parts of Ontario county, and the $82,095 median statewide.

These demographic elements have combined to make health care a key issue in the Lake District. A report by consumer watchdog group Public Citizen found that 30% of all hospitals in New York were at risk of shutting down due to cuts to Medicare by the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill. Two of those, the Newark-Wayne Community Hospital and Claxton Hepburn Medical Center, are located in District 24.

Ellman has indicated her support for the concept of Medicare for All but says she cares less about the title than the outcome.

“Whatever you want to call the solution to this problem is whatever you want to call it. If we do Medicare for All or if you want to label it something else, that’s fine. But we have to figure out a solution for working people,” she said at the debate. “They cannot afford to go to a doctor. There aren’t doctors in this region to treat them. We have to figure out a solution.”

In Tenney’s view, Medicare for All would be a huge mistake and not financially viable. She says that it could double the $227 billion budget for New York, of which Medicaid already comprises 42%.

“Ninety-five percent of the people that go to work in NY-24 are going into a small business that’s struggling to find ways to get health care for their people. It is not this difficult in other states where they don’t have a communist Medicare for All model that my opponent actually supports,” Tenney said.“She said she’ll take whatever there is. She’s not actually doing the hard work to figure it out. I am.” 

Farming and immigration enforcement

The region’s economic health is heavily dependent on the agricultural industry. A report released last year by the state comptroller’s office showed that the Finger Lakes alone accounted for 18% of all farms, 21% of all farmland, and 29% ($2.3 billion) of agricultural sales statewide in 2022.

The North Country and Western New York regions, which are partially included in District 24, also have a sizable proportion of the state’s agricultural production, particularly in poultry, eggs, and cow milk.

Deportation actions taken by the current federal administration appear to have damaged this sector’s labor supply, which relies on migrant workers. The state Department of Labor estimates that the industry employs between 40,000 and 80,000 farm workers every year and the U.S. Department of Labor estimates that 42% of farmworkers lack documentation.

A surge of deportations and several highly publicized actions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement have caused some workers in the area to hide or flee from their jobs. For example, New York Focus reported on arrests this summer at a greenhouse and packing facility in Ontario County that resulted in at least six workers being detained.

Tenney blames policies under former President Joe Biden and Hochul for much of this issue, claiming that millions of people came illegally across the northern border and that New York has spent $8 billion in taxpayer funds on benefits for illegal immigrants. She also believes that ICE has been hampered by not allowing police officers to work with them in operations.

“This country has been begging for 50 years to have immigration reform,” said Ellman. “Nobody is asking for open borders. Nobody is asking for no background checks. People just don’t want grandmas dragged out of their house and beaten in the streets. They don’t want Americans shot in the face by masked men. I don’t think that’s radical.”

A statement on ICE raids by the New York Farm Bureau, the state’s largest general agricultural advocacy organization, emphasized the industry’s dependence on migrant workers and farmers’ careful hiring practices. It advocates for reforming the H-2A visa program, which allows U.S. agricultural employers to hire foreign nationals for temporary or seasonal farm jobs when domestic labor is in short supply.

Tenney supports the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which was introduced in 2025 and would provide H-2A visa holders with legal status and a green card pathway. She contends that the bill has stalled due to Democratic party posturing, however.

Foreign policy: Gaza and Iran

Tenney has had success in fundraising, with contributions for this cycle totaling over $3.8 million. The largest segment of that is $1.9 million from 355 different political action committees. The biggest single donor in that category was the online fundraising platform WinRed with $672,317.

Next was the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which contributed $49,517 to Tenney this cycle. This has been a point of attack for Ellman, who says she would support the Block the Bombs Act, a bill introduced in 2025 that would prohibit the president from selling or transferring specific offensive weapons to Israel.

“Thirty-six independent studies have been done, not by American governments, not by leftists, but by independent people who have gone (to Gaza) and said that this is a genocide,” said Ellman. “In Israel, their citizens get free health care. Their citizens get free college educations. But we can’t afford it here in America, probably because we’re funding bombs there.”

“There is no evidence that is credible that there is a genocide going on in Gaza, full stop. Absolutely not true,” responded Tenney. “This is all just stuff coming from Hamas. It is not true. I’ve been to Israel. I’ve been there, down at the border of Gaza. I’ve gone through the kibbutzes where people were slaughtered, murdered, children were burned, and burned alive and killed, and women were raped.

“Israel is one of our best, most important allies. They’re incredibly important,” she added. “They’re fighting the war to preserve Western civilization on the main lines on the front. They’re the only democracy in the Middle East.” 

Tenney says that Iran, as a funder of proxies against Israel and the rest of the Middle East, must be kept from a nuclear weapon and the military action in the region should continue. This month, she introduced the Internet Reach and Access Now (IRAN) Act, which would attempt to allow Iranian citizens to bypass government digital censorship.

“(Iran has) continued to murder, kill, rape their own people, and murder and kill American citizens, and create havoc and just absolute chaos in the Middle East,” she said. 

In contrast, Ellman points out that Trump announced Iran’s nuclear program was decimated last year in June, but the war has dragged on since then. She also blames the operations and their repercussions on the global supply chain as responsible for rising prices. 

“Claudia Tenney over here used a picture of the ayatollah of Iran to light a cigar and posted that on social media. I don’t like the Ayatollah either. But I also know that I’m not willing to sacrifice another generation of Americans,” Ellman said. “When you vote to send people to war, you’re not voting to send an avatar to war. You’re voting for people like me to go to war. Teenagers, mothers, fathers—those people are dying in Iran, and for what? There are no clear objectives.”

The competing warchests

Other political action committees that have donated to Tenney’s campaign include companies with national reach, such as AbbVie, Eli Lilly, Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer, Nike, H+R Block, Goldman Sachs, Home Depot, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Target, Walmart, AT&T, TMobile, Verizon, and Draftkings. More local interests include Constellation Brands, L3 Harris, the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce, and Avangrid, the parent company of RG&E.

GOP Winning Woman, and Value in Electing Women, both of which specifically support Republican women, and Susan B. Anthony List, a female-focused anti-abortion organization, contributed to Tenney this cycle. Other organizations representing interests in nuclear energy, sugar, milk, and trucking also gave money to the Republican candidate.

The congresswoman received $1.4 million from 1,080 individual contributions, giving her an average of $1,300 per donation. Notable figures from that category include Terry and Kim Pegula, the owners of the Buffalo Sabres and Bills; Stephen and Andrea Wynn, former developers with Wynn Resorts; Richard Marriott, heir to the Marriott hospitality empire; Liz Peek, a Fox News commentator; and Sean Hanna, a local politician currently running for Webster town supervisor.

“I get my money from unions and grandmas who live right here in New York 24. This lady’s getting her money from AIPAC, getting her money from billionaires that live in Texas,” Ellman said. “Who do you think she actually represents?”

Tenney received donations this cycle from addresses in every state except Vermont and Alaska. About 28% ($1.1 million) of Tenney’s fundraising came from New York with Virginia and Washington, D.C., as the next largest locations at 24% ($933,997) and 14% ($562,173), respectively.

Ellman has raised a total of $295,793, a fraction of Tenney’s more than $3.8 million. Of that amount, $149,175 came from individual donors. Dani Friedman-Baker, an author and owner of a farm in Wellesley Island, gave the single largest amount, $7,000. State Assemblyman Albert Stirpe and former Schuyler County legislator Michael Lausell also contributed to Ellman’s campaign.

The Democratic party online fundraising platform accounted for $118,211 of Ellman’s war chest. She also received $14,000 from three political action committees representing unions for communications workers, machinists, and painters. Ellman contributed $9,207 of her own money to the campaign as well.

An uphill fight

Fundraising is not Tenney’s only advantage. Enrollment figures in the district heavily favor Republican candidates. February enrollment records show the Republican party with 43% of active voters, compared with 24% for Democrats. Analysts from the Cook Political Report and FiveThirtyEight continue to rate the district as “solid Republican.”

Similar to the Democratic Party in District 25, which was previewed by the Beacon last week, District 26 has seen a rise in unaffiliated voters. In 2008, registered voters without a party made up 20% of all voters within election districts that are now included in District 24. The most recent numbers show they now comprise 26% of all voters. In comparison, the enrolled Republican vote share remained at around 43% while the Democrats fell from 28% to 24% in that same time period.

Tenney handily won the first general election with the new boundary lines in 2024, defeating David Wagenhauser with 66% of the vote. She also won with that same percentage with a very similar looking map in 2022 against Steven Holden.

Even faced with long odds, Ellman still believes in giving voters a different choice. Similar to her comments during the Democratic primary earlier this year, she believes there are enough people who want change for her to make an impact.

“My opponent over here has Donald Trump’s phone number. She could call and remove these targeted tariffs right now,” Ellman said. “If you own a farm or a small business that relies on Canada for your tourist dollars and for your business model, you might want to vote a different way this year.”

Jacob Schermerhorn is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and data journalist.

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