By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
OLEAN — Democratic congressional candidate Aaron Gies of Olean launched his campaign for the 23rd Congressional District seat now held by Rep. Nick Langworthy.
Gies, an assistant professor of theology and Franciscan studies at St. Bonaventure University, announced plans to run last month.
His wife, Katie, a local veterinarian, introduced Gies who spoke to a group of 65 supporters at “The Good Life Launch” at Four Mile Brewing Co. Wednesday night.
“If you think what’s going on (in Washington) is wrong, the campaign needs donors, people to write postcards, knock on doors and share things on Tic Tok, she said.
“I have no ambitions to save the country or even save this district by myself,” Gies told the group. “It’s going to take a fight. I am fighting for a good life that you can afford.”
He said his campaign will need all the volunteers he can get. He will also need contributions, which he is already working on.
Gies is currently looking at two campaigns. The first is a Democratic primary involving Buffalo lawyer Kevin Stocker, who like Gies is a former Republican. If he wins the primary next June, he would then face Republican Langworthy in the November 2026 midterm elections.
Cattaraugus County Democratic party Chairwoman Mandy Bushnell encouraged those attending the launch party to help Gies. “We need a change here. We’ve won this district before and we can do it again.”
Gies asked the group “What goes into a good life you can afford?” Their replies included: health care, dental care, education, affordable housing, freedom from fear, affordable child care, clean air and water, law and order and protection for speech. “All of these things need to be available to us all,” he said.
Gies said, “MAGA Republicans think of America like jackals thinking about a dead gazelle. They want to rip it apart piece by piece, and they want the biggest piece.”
Billionaires in big business are the ones that get subsidies, favorable treatment and attention paid to their issues, and all over District 23 we have hard working people who work in factories and schools and hospitals and on farms “and they don’t have lobbyists.”
He said, “That is what we have to flip in Washington, and that is why I’m running. Representatives must represent the people who elected them to office, and not the last lobbyist to talk to them.”
A central part of Gies’ jobs platform is small, locally-owned businesses. “They employ more people for their size than a business that’s owned out of town or out of the country. They have a stronger commitment to their places.” Money spent at a local business bounces around the community two to four times as much as from a store with an out of town owner, Gies said.
“Local businesses make our communities richer, and I would like to amplify that effect,” he said, suggesting that the law against local companies issuing stock that dates back to the Depression, ought to be repealed.
“Will you fight with me?” Gies asked. “Will you fight with me for a life we can afford?”
Afterward, in an exclusive interview with the Olean Star, Gies said the 23rd Congressional District has been ignored for decades by both Republican and Democratic administrations. Residents “are so angry and frustrated and ready to burn it all down. But unfortunately for them, Trump is quite happy to actually burn it all down. The reason he’s doing it is to enrich himself and his friends.”
Gies said, “The problem with Nick Langworthy is that he will simply defend whatever the Trump administration does.” There may be places district residents agree with Trump, such as his immigration policy, and some parts of the “Big, Beautiful Bill,” he said.
“Nick has signed on to the Big Beautiful Bill, which could close our hospitals and nursing homes.” It could cost the district tens of thousands of jobs, he stated.
Langworthy is also defending Trump’s tariffs, “which are already raising prices and causing inflation to tick up,” Gies said. The tariffs could also cost the district thousands of jobs.
The congressman “has zero loyalty to his district, toward the Constitution. He is 100% in the tank for Trump and I think that is dangerous for the district,” Gies said.
Gies is originally from rural North Carolina. He left there to follow his wife to her first vet job in Columbia, S.C. They later moved to Washington, D.C., where he received his doctorate in theology.
They moved to Olean seven years ago when he got his job at St. Bonaventure University. They have a son, James.
Gies noted that two candidates who have dropped out of the Democratic primary race — Maylon Justin Haller and Brittany Binz — have endorsed his candidacy.
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All Rights Reserved. Eric M. Firkel. Star News LLC.
