Christopher Gallant, the Democratic candidate to challenge Representative Nick LaLota in New York’s First Congressional District, has announced that he will not participate in a debate with Mr. LaLota ahead of the Nov. 3 election.
While predictions of a “blue wave” in the midterm elections mount as President Trump and congressional Republicans’ popularity continues to slide, Mr. Gallant faces long odds in his bid to unseat the two-term Republican. While the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added the New York’s First to its Districts in Play program, which identifies what it considers competitive Republican-held or open House seats for resource allocation and strategic planning, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report continues to list the race in its “solid Republican” column.
“I am spending every minute of the next six weeks talking to voters face to face,” Mr. Gallant said in a statement sent to The Star on Tuesday, five weeks before Election Day. “Notice that the attacks against me aren’t coming after my politics, my policies, or what I’ve said I want to do for this district. That tells you everything.”
Mr. Gallant’s campaign received unwelcome publicity last month with the publication of photos of the candidate, taken several years ago, in which he modeled for “a San Francisco-based purveyor of leather-daddy supplies,” as The New York Post put it.
Mr. Gallant, who is gay, called the reports “a coordinated political hit meant to drive me out of this race.” In a statement responding to the reports, he said, “I won’t be shamed into silence — and I won’t allow my private life to be distorted and weaponized against me.”
On the social media site formerly known as Twitter, Mr. LaLota wrote on Tuesday that he had accepted invitations from NewsdayTV and News12 to debate weeks ago. “My opponent still hasn’t,” he wrote. “Voters deserve to hear and see us side by side and answer tough questions and defend our positions.”
Mr. Gallant, he continued, “should be willing to answer questions about his calls to abolish the Electoral College, defund [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], and pack the Supreme Court — and explain how he would address New York’s affordability crisis, protect election integrity, and secure our kids’ futures. Answering tough questions is part of the job.”
