Rep. Mike Lawler dove into among the meatiest points in one of many nation’s most intently watched Home races in an interview on Tuesday with reporters from the Journal Information/lohud.
The Republican freshman from Rockland County staked out positions on key subjects like immigration and abortion, whereas drawing contrasts with former Rep. Mondaire Jones, the Democrat trying to unseat him. He additionally dug into native points just like the monetary plight of the East Ramapo Faculty District and fielded questions on former President Donald Trump, his occasion’s normal bearer.
Lawler, a former GOP advisor and state assemblyman, claimed New York’s seventeenth Congressional District seat in 2022 by narrowly beating then-Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, a five-term Democratic incumbent. Now he’s searching for a second time period and is being challenged by Jones, who represented a distinct model of the seventeenth District for a time period earlier than New York’s House lines were shifted in 2022.
Lawler opened by touting his bipartisan record, his sponsoring 5 payments that had been signed into legislation, and his securing $38 million in grants for native tasks in his district final yr, which he mentioned was excess of his opponent bought in two years.
“We’re not going to agree on all the pieces,” he mentioned of his constituents. “However I believe throughout my two years in Congress, I’ve confirmed myself to be bipartisan, unbiased and prepared to interact each neighborhood throughout the seventeenth Congressional District, and work to perform and obtain laws that’s necessary to our neighborhood.”
He and Jones are competing on Nov. 5 for a important swing seat that may assist resolve which occasion guidelines the Home, now in GOP fingers by a slim margin. The redrawn seventeenth District takes in all of Rockland and Putnam counties and elements of Westchester and Dutchess.
Jones was interviewed individually by The Journal Information/lohud. An account and video of the discussion were published on Wednesday.
Listed below are some takeaways from what Lawler needed to say on key subjects in his 53-minute interview.
Abortion: Most individuals agree on first-term abortions
Lawler, who has mentioned he personally opposes abortion besides in circumstances of rape, incest or the life and well being of the mom, was asked about his statement in a recent interview that “the overwhelming majority of Individuals consider there’s a affordable time interval for an elective abortion.” What number of weeks of being pregnant did he assume was a “affordable time interval,” and did he need Congress to set a single, nationwide coverage slightly than enable every state to set its personal guidelines?
“The choice on this concern is as much as the folks,” Lawler mentioned. “And I believe most individuals moderately consider that an elective abortion ought to happen within the first trimester,” which is as much as 13 weeks. “And I believe whenever you discuss to rational —and have a rational dialogue about this, that is the place most individuals fall. The unhappy half about this debate is that the extremes are what drives the dialog.”
He dismissed the thought of a nationwide abortion coverage as politically inconceivable, given the 60-vote threshold wanted within the Senate. (States have been left to resolve set their very own guidelines because the Supreme Court docket choice overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.)
“You are not going to get 60 votes within the U.S. Senate for that,” Lawler mentioned. “You are not going to get consensus amongst members of Congress on abortion.”
He repeated his vows to vote in opposition to any proposal to ban abortion nationwide, and identified that he opposed GOP makes an attempt to ban the abortion tablet mifepristone.
Gun management: Helps some steps, not assault-weapons ban
Lawler was requested about restoring a federal ban on assault weapons or enacting another new gun restrictions to forestall additional mass shootings. Jones went after him on that topic last month after a 14-year-old boy opened fire in a Georgia highschool with an AR-15 rifle and killed two fellow college students and two lecturers.
Lawler argued the present invoice to ban assault weapons is simply too broadly written and might’t clear Congress in that type. A Democratic-led Home narrowly handed a ban in 2022 with Jones voting in help, however the Senate later voted down the proposal.
“The way in which that the invoice is at the moment framed, they don’t seem to be going to have the ability to get consensus, as a result of it just about bans any semiautomatic weapon, and most weapons right this moment are semiautomatic,” he mentioned.
Lawler additionally touted his sponsoring a invoice that renewed a 1988 ban on weapons that may evade metallic detectors, and mentioned he helps expanded legal guidelines on safe-storage of weapons and expanded “pink flag” legal guidelines to maintain weapons away from people who find themselves deemed harmful.
Immigration: Mass-deportation pledge is unrealistic, “not proper”
Lawler was requested about Trump’s pledge to deport thousands and thousands of undocumented immigrants residing within the U.S. He has taken a far completely different stance on methods to deal with the nation’s undocumented inhabitants, co-sponsoring a invoice that might create a path to citizenship or authorized standing for many who have dedicated no crimes.
“Are you going to mass deport all people? No, it is unrealistic and it isn’t proper,” he mentioned. “You have got individuals who have been right here for 15, 20 years, who’ve kids, grandchildren who’re residents. You are not trying to tear aside households. However you do need to have a course of for them to grow to be authorized.”
Policing stance: Rep. Mike Lawler rips opponent Mondaire Jones for 2021 vote to let felons vote in prison
He went after the Biden administration for the migrant surge into the U.S. since 2021, which he blamed on its reversals of Trump orders. He argued for stopping the inflow by hiring extra border personnel and extra court docket personnel to listen to asylum and parole circumstances inside 60 days; by extending the southern border wall; and by cracking down on drug cartels.
Funds: Steep cuts GOP sought had been negotiating instrument
Lawler was requested about his voting for a stopgap spending measure final yr that would have slashed federal funding for domestic programs by up to 29%. Home Democrats and and a few Republican opponents blocked that proposal, resulting in a alternative that staved off a authorities shutdown on the final minute — with out the steep cuts.
Lawler mentioned he did not truly help the spending cuts that he voted for in that preliminary measure, often called a unbroken decision. He described it as a negotiating tactic that Home Republicans took with a Democratic-led Senate, partly to power a vote on a border-security invoice that they’d put within the decision.
“Finally, none of these cuts had been going to undergo,” he mentioned. “It was a perform of with the ability to negotiate with Chuck Schumer and the Senate.”
Chris McKenna covers authorities and politics for The Journal Information and USA As we speak Community. Attain him at cmckenna@gannett.com.
This text initially appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal Information: Mike Lawler’s abortion, immigration stances in interview on NY-17 race
