In the first 10 days of his fledgling congressional campaign, Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro has raised $350,000 in contributions — proof, his campaign said, that his candidacy is resonating with supporters.
Still, the Red Hook Republican has a long way to go in his bid to unseat his most likely opponent, Democratic Rep. Antonio Delgado. The two-term congressman from Rhinebeck announced earlier this week he has amassed a campaign war chest of nearly $5 million.
According to an Oct. 4 press release, Delgado raised the money without accepting contributions from corporate political action committees (PACs).
The following day, the Molinaro campaign issued a press release touting the Republican’s fundraising efforts
“What an incredibly exciting outpouring of support from family, friends and supporters young and old,” Molinaro campaign spokesman Connor Smith said in the release.
“Marc is running for Congress to make a difference and get things done – and the encouragement and resources he has received from New Yorkers around our state for his candidacy is revelatory of the way his vision for New York is resonating with supporters,” Smith said.
Molinaro filed a “statement of candidacy” with the Federal Election Commission on Sept. 17, signaling his intent to run for a seat in the House of Representatives in 2022. Four days later he officially launched his candidacy at a press conference at Kesicke Farm in Rhinebeck, stepping into the void created in August when fellow Republican Kyle Van De Water dropped out of the race.
Van De Water, a 41-year-old lawyer and military veteran who ran unsuccessfully again Delgado in 2020, was found dead in a cemetery in the town of Poughkeepsie on Sept. 7, the result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Delgado won his first term in the House by ousting Republican Rep. John Faso of Kinderhook in 2018.
Molinaro, 45, is in the middle of his third four-year term as Dutchess County executive. He previously was a state assemblyman, Dutchess County legislator and, as a 19-year-old, mayor of the Northern Dutchess village of Tivoli. Molinaro ran for governor in 2018 but was defeated handily by Democratic incumbent Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
This past May, before Cuomo resigned, Molinaro announced he would not seek the state’s top job again, and he endorsed downstate Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin for the post.
Delgado currently represents New York’s 19th Congressional District, but the district could be reconfigured, and renumbered, before the 2022 election because New York state is losing one House seat, meaning at least some district lines will need to be redrawn. But because Molinaro and Delgado live in adjacent towns in Northern Dutchess, it’s likely they will wind up in the same district.
The 19th District currently comprises most of Dutchess County; all of Ulster, Greene, Columbia, Sullivan, Delaware, Schoharie and Otsego counties; parts of Rensselaer and Montgomery counties; and a small section of Broome County.