NY-17: N.Y. Republican in Swing District Gets Rowdy Reception at Town Hall
Representative Mike Lawler of New York, one of the most vulnerable Republicans in Congress, faced a raucous and sometimes hostile crowd at a town hall Sunday night in the Lower Hudson Valley.
At one point, he paused the event for several minutes, after a young man interrupted and swore at him.
“Hey, bro, you can leave now,” Mr. Lawler said. “You want to act like that? Goodbye.” Uniformed officers escorted the man out as audience members chanted, “Let him stay!” and “Shame!”
The event, at Rockland Community College in Suffern, N.Y., came as Mr. Lawler, a two-term congressman, faces an arduous campaign for re-election in his swing district. Democrats consider the district, which Kamala Harris carried by less than a percentage point in 2024, a prime pickup opportunity in the coming midterm elections, which will decide the balance of power in Congress. In mid-January, the Cook Political Report shifted its rating of Mr. Lawler’s seat from “lean Republican” to “tossup.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/01/nyregion/mike-lawler-ny-town-hall.html