Democrats Test New Election Strategy With Embrace of Local Economics - WSJ

QUEENSBURY, N.Y.—A special election in a congressional district along the Canadian border looms as an early test of Democrats’ plans for escaping the political wilderness. Democratic leaders want to recruit state Assembly member and former corrections officer D. Billy Jones. They hope his working-class background will resonate in the mostly rural district. Some unsuccessful past candidates for the seat had looser local ties and wealthier backgrounds.

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The special election would fill the seat of Rep. Elise Stefanik (R., N.Y.), President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as ambassador to the United Nations. New York’s governor must set an election date within roughly 90 days of a vacancy. “This race [for Stefanik’s seat] will be a referendum on President Trump’s first 100 days. Everybody in the country is going to be watching,” said Vince Casale, a Republican consultant based in upstate New York.

Strategists said Republicans have an advantage. Trump defeated Kamala Harris in the district by around 20 points, and the 15-county district has about 76,000 more enrolled Republicans than Democrats. Stefanik won an easy re-election to a sixth term over Paula Collins, a lawyer who settled in the district earlier this year.

Jones, 50 years old, worked for 20 years at the Bare Hill Correctional Facility in Malone, N.Y., as he rose in local politics. He said he was still considering whether to enter the race. He faulted his party for not listening to voters’ concerns on the economy ahead of this year’s elections. “The secret is to talk to people instead of talking at them,” Jones said. “People did not feel the economy was going well. You can’t make people feel something if they’re not feeling it.”

Other potential Democratic candidates include Collins and Blake Gendebien, a dairy farmer. There are no primaries in New York special elections, and local party leaders choose their standard-bearers.

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