Liz Gereghty, the sister of Michigan Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, launched her campaign Tuesday to unseat Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y.
Gereghty, a small business owner from New York's Westchester County, slammed "the radical Republican majority in Congress" and called on Hudson Valley residents to send her to Washington to solve the nation's problems.
"Now I'm running for Congress because when reproductive rights are getting rolled back in state after state, and schools have to take money from books and spend it on bulletproof glass because Congress refuses to do anything on gun violence," Gereghty said in her first ad.
"When it costs too much to live in the Hudson Valley or run a business here, and when the radical Republican majority in Congress is too busy banning books to help working families like yours, something's gotten way off track," she added.
Lawler is widely considered one of the most vulnerable New York Republicans in Congress, having narrowly beat former Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee head Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., by less than a percentage point in the 17th Congressional District.
Gereghty's campaign announcement comes before a visit from President Joe Biden, who is scheduled to make a stop in the district on Wednesday for fundraising, according to the Washington Examiner.
The outlet reports that Gereghty served on the Katonah-Lewisboro School District board and has lived in the area for nearly 20 years.
During the 2022 midterm elections, Whitmer won reelection with approximately 54% of the vote, giving Democrats full control of all three branches of Michigan's government for the first time in nearly 40 years.
The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates Gereghty's race as a "toss-up." Politico reportsed that former Rep. Mondaire Jones, D-N.Y., also is planning to launch a bid for the seat.
According to Axios, Biden plans to nominate Maloney as his ambassador to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris.
With the Republicans' slim majority in the House, Democrats only need to flip five seats to recapture control.
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