Republican John Faso launched his campaign for Congress in New York’s 19th District on Tuesday – joining Andrew Heaney in an upstate primary race that precedes what could be a close election to replace outgoing Rep. Chris Gibson.
In recent years, Faso, a former Republican leader in the New York State Assembly from Kinderhook, has only served as a political donor, avoiding electoral politics, himself, since his 2006 loss to Democrat Eliot Spitzer in the governor’s race. But Faso – now a partner at the law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips – began exploring a run in July, and this week made it official. While announcing his campaign, he praised Gibson, who he helped elect to Congress in 2010, but pushed an outsider message – saying “at every turn, Washington is making it hard for families and job creators.”