WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – Claudia Tenney, one of the candidates in the new 24th congressional district, is deeply conservative, endorsed by former President Trump.
But ask her about one of the issues dividing the Republican party, aid to Ukraine, and she will also name check another former Republican president.
“I think I would be more of a Reagan ‘peace through strength’ type of international America First person, as opposed to some of the isolationism I think we’re seeing,” she told 7 News in a wide-ranging interview Tuesday.
Tenney and fellow Republican Mario Fratto, a businessman from the Finger Lakes, are competing to win the Republican nomination in the new 24th, which takes in Watertown and much of Jefferson County.
The winner of an August 23 primary goes on to face Democrat Steven Holden in November.
Tenney is already in congress, representing Utica, Binghamton, and a largely rural area extending into Oswego County.
She dismisses accusations she is switching congressional districts because the 24th is a safe Republican district, calling it a “national seat.”
Tenney, a member of the House foreign relations committee, strongly backs U.S. support for Ukraine, even though an increasing number of her Republican colleagues do not.’
“I supported aid to Ukraine. I think this is where a lot of the America First people don’t understand that everything that is happening right now with Russia dominating, and this unprovoked, just senseless humanitarian disaster in this war on Ukraine is critically important to the world,” she said.
That said, she believes President Biden should be impeached.
“Absolutely. He should be completely impeached for what he’s doing on the southern border. As Commander In Chief, what he’s done is absolutely just devastating to the American people,” she said.
Tenney, who is generally a fiscal conservative, is also willing to experiment. Much of her district has trouble getting broadband internet, so Tenney said she’s backing an effort in Chenango County to have a local government supply high speed service ““so that we have affordable options, and people aren’t left with only a Spectrum option or some other option that’s really unaffordable and unobtainable for most people.”
On other issues:
– Regarding the flooding along the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario in 2017 and 2019, she said “I think Plan 2014 was a colossal mistake. I think they (the International Joint Commission, the group charged with the responsibility for regulating Lake Ontario) caused irreparable harm to the region.”
– On protecting Fort Drum, Tenney said she watched the devastation caused in Rome when Griffiss Air Force Base closed. “As a member of congress, it is important that we fight tooth and nail in every way we can to ensure that we have these critical defense installations,” she said.
– On abortion, Tenney said she is pro-life, and supports the anticipated Supreme Court decision returning the regulation of abortion to individual states.
– On firearms, asked if there were any gun control measures she would support after the mass shootings in Buffalo and Texas, Tenney said “I think we have a greater issue to look at and to just isolate this problem as ‘It’s a gun problem.’ It’s really a broader problem than that. And if we continue to just focus on guns, we’re always going to miss the target.”
– On former President Trump, who has endorsed her, Tenney says she has her disagreements with the ex-president, but “I like the fact that he says he’s going to do something, he makes a promise, and he keeps it. Just about every policy he said ‘I’m gonna do this,’ and he did it, against a lot of angst from all sides.”
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