Albany Has Lost Touch with Upstate New York

Over the past few months of traveling across Assembly District 113, I’ve had hundreds of conversations with people from communities like Saratoga Springs, Glens Falls, and Hudson Falls.

The message I keep hearing is the same:

Things are getting too expensive, and Albany isn’t listening.

Families are feeling it when they pay their heating bills. Small business owners are feeling it when they try to make payroll. Retirees are feeling it when they look at their property taxes and wonder how long they can stay in their homes.

Upstate New York is full of hardworking people who aren’t asking for special treatment. They simply want a government that understands the realities they face every day.

But too often, the policies coming out of Albany feel disconnected from those realities.

Over the past several years, the Legislature has passed sweeping policies affecting energy, labor, housing, and criminal justice. Many of these policies were written with the needs of New York City in mind, but their impact is felt very differently in Upstate communities.

When a new mandate raises energy costs, it hits families who rely on heating oil or propane much harder. When regulations increase costs for businesses, it’s the small local shops and restaurants that struggle to keep their doors open.

Upstate communities deserve policies that reflect how people actually live and work here.

This is one of the reasons I decided to run for the New York State Assembly.

My life story is rooted in Upstate New York. I was born in Plattsburgh and eventually made my way to Saratoga after a brief period in the foster care system as a child. I started working at fourteen years old, and over time built businesses that created jobs and opportunities in our communities.

Like many entrepreneurs, I’ve experienced firsthand how government policies affect the ability of small businesses to grow, hire employees, and serve customers.

That experience shaped the way I think about leadership.

Good policy isn’t ideological. It’s practical.

It asks a simple question:

Will this make life better for the people who actually live here?

Too often in Albany, that question gets lost.

Instead of focusing on affordability, public safety, and economic opportunity, the conversation becomes driven by politics and partisan priorities.

Upstate New York deserves better.

We need leadership that is focused on restoring affordability for families, supporting our law enforcement and emergency responders, and empowering small businesses instead of regulating them into the ground.

These shouldn’t be partisan ideas. They are common-sense priorities shared by people across the political spectrum.

If we want New York to thrive again, we need to start listening more carefully to the people who live outside the halls of Albany.

That’s exactly what I intend to do.