Orange County Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Heather Bell moderates the congressional forum featuring candidates Jackie Auringer (right) and U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan (left) at Mount Saint Mary College.
Incumbent U.S. Representative Pat Ryan and challenger Jackie Auringer faced off Thursday evening, October 22, at Mount Saint Mary College, addressing regional business leaders, students, and community members in a nonpartisan congressional candidate forum.
The event, co-hosted with the Orange County Chamber of Commerce, offered local voters a direct look at both candidates competing to represent New York’s 18th Congressional District.
Mount President Dr. Robert Gervasi welcomed attendees by underscoring the spiritual and educational purpose behind hosting the evening’s discussion. Gervasi emphasized that a central tenet of the Dominican tradition is "the shared search for truth and the common good.”
“Even when people disagree passionately, they still have to learn to do so with respect and even kindness,” he said. “I was pleased to see this evening event billed not as a debate, but as a forum in which we would…focus on our community and what's best for the common good.”
The forum was moderated by Heather Bell, Orange County Chamber of Commerce President and CEO, with introductory remarks from David Carlucci, former New York State Senator. It directed identical questions to each candidate regarding operating expenses, workforce retention, and housing supply across the Hudson Valley.
Jackie Auringer: Republican Challenger
Opening the candidate statements, Jackie Auringer presented herself as a newcomer driven to run by everyday frustrations facing local residents.
“I’m crazy about the Hudson Valley. I live here, I work here, I was born and raised here, and I want to stay here. But the dream of staying here is seemingly becoming more like a nightmare every single day," Auringer said. "I’m not a career politician. I’m just someone who stepped up.”
Addressing the high costs confronting area employers, Auringer urged regulatory rollbacks and singled out New York’s Scaffold Law as a primary target for change: “I really think that we could do a better job of what's going on here," she remarked, adding that she feels the current statute "has been contributing to a lot of insurance costs and other construction costs, and it’s been making it harder to do business here in New York.”
Auringer advocated for replacing absolute liability standards with comparative negligence through the federal Infrastructure Expansion Act, called for independent audits of local school district budgets to eliminate waste, and proposed expanding school curriculums with entrepreneurial programs so trade students learn how to own and operate businesses rather than just work within them.
Democratic Incumbent Congressman Pat Ryan
Congressman Pat Ryan opened his remarks by thanking the college for its service to the region and emphasizing an active, constituent-focused model of representation. “Thank you to Mount Saint Mary for all that you do to serve this community,” Ryan said. "And first and foremost, I think it is about always showing up – showing up and listening with humility, and then taking that… following up and delivering.”
Reflecting on his prior experience co-founding two small businesses, Ryan focused his economic response on trade policy and housing bottlenecks.
“To be clear, tariffs are taxes… particularly focused on small businesses,” Ryan stated, adding that he believes current duties are pushing local firms to the brink. “We need to repeal these tariffs that have been punishing and are driving up costs of everything.”
He cited his co-sponsorship of the Small Business Relief Act to return collected revenues directly to Main Street employers. Ryan also highlighted the district’s housing crisis, arguing that lawmakers must lower mortgage rates, relieve Canadian trade tariffs that increase lumber costs, and dramatically increase construction to build thousands of new homes, while continuing direct federal investments in local workforce initiatives such as SUNY Orange’s food technology program.
Mount Saint Mary College is a four-year, coeducational Catholic liberal arts college in Newburgh, N.Y., founded in 1959 by the Dominican Sisters of Newburgh. Guided by the Dominican heritage of service, scholarship, and truth, the Mount prepares students for lives of leadership and purpose.