RHINEBECK, N.Y. — Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro launched his congressional bid Tuesday with a “Field of Dreams” moment – walking out of a cornfield at Kesicke Farm in Rhinebeck to formally announce his campaign to unseat two-term Rep. Antonio Delgado in 2022.
“Am I in heaven?” Molinaro asked, borrowing a line from the 1989 baseball movie to the applause of about 120 people. In the background were the sounds of goats and a horse, and a recording of the Neil Diamond song “America.”
Molinaro’s candidacy first was reported by the Freeman and other area news media on Friday, when the Republican’s filing with the Federal Election Commission was posted on the FEC website.
In a 25-minute speech Tuesday, Molinaro described the actions of Democrats who control Congress and the White House as “socialist” and “creeping socialism,” and he also took a shot at the Democrats who control New York state’s government.
“What we have seen… from our leaders in Washington and Albany has been a sad and perplexing embarrassment,” he said. “But it is not the people that are failing America, it is our leaders – leaders who stood in silence, muzzled by indifference and political self-preservation, as Andrew Cuomo sexually assaulted and harassed dozens of women.”
Molinaro was the Republican candidate for governor in 2018. He lost to Cuomo by a margin of about 2 to 1.
On the subject of COVID-19, which claimed the life of Molinaro’s father, the Republican put himself at odds with some prominent voices in his party, saying: “COVID science has been discarded for partisan politics and power grabs.”
But he echoed the criticisms voiced by Republicans, and some Democrats, about the messy withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
“An embarrassing and deadly retreat from Afghanistan has made America and New York less safe than any time since 9/11,” he said.
Molinaro declined to answer questions about his ties to the family of former President Donald Trump. Trump’s late brother, Robert, donated $40,000 to Molinaro’s gubernatorial campaign three years ago.
Ulster County Republican Chairman Roger Rascoe, who was at Tuesday’s event, said Molinaro has enough government experience to overcome any association with the polarizing ex-president.
“This election is not about Donald Trump,” Rascoe said. He said Molinaro “is a person of the people, and he’s always put community first. He’s just a dynamic person with a great personality. People love him, and he’s going to win.”
Molinaro, 45, who lives in the town of Red Hook, 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.
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.
Sticking with the sports theme, Molinaro on Tuesday quoted hockey great Wayne Gretzky in explaining his decision to run for Congress: “You miss 100 percent of the shots you never take. … So I’m going to take my shot.”
Delgado, D-Rhinebeck, represents New York’s 19th Congressional District. 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.
Delgado won his first term in the House by ousting Republican Rep. John Faso of Kinderhook in 2018, and the Democrat was re-elected in 2020 over GOP challenger Kyle Van De Water of Millbrook.
Van De Water, who later moved to Hyde Park, announced in July that he planned to run for the seat again in 2022, but he dropped out of the race in August. On Sept. 7, the 41-year-old lawyer and military veteran was found dead in a cemetery in the town of Poughkeepsie, the result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
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.
