EDEN — Aaron Gies, Democratic candidate for Congress in New York’s 23rd Congressional District, challenged incumbent Rep. Nick Langworthy to participate in additional live, in-person debates with voters across the district.
The two campaigns have agreed to one televised debate hosted in studio by WETM TV in Elmira on Oct. 6, at 7 p.m,.
Gies made the challenge directly to Langworthy in a public encounter Sunday while waiting for the Eden Corn Festival Parade to start in the Erie County Southtowns.
A video of the encounter, recorded and posted by the Gies campaign over the weekend, is gaining significant attention online as voters across the district respond to the exchange.
Gies is now calling on Langworthy to make a public commitment to a series of debates held in different parts of NY-23, a geographically large district stretching roughly 230 miles from Chautauqua to Tioga County and approximately 100 miles from South Lockport to the Pennsylvania border.
“People in this district deserve to hear directly from the people asking for their vote,” said Gies. “This district is too big, and the issues facing our communities are too important, for voters to be kept at arm’s length from their representatives.”
Gies pointed to Langworthy’s record of avoiding in-person town halls with constituents and questioned why the incumbent would be reluctant to participate in a live debate where voters could hear directly from both candidates.
“For me, this is not about putting on a show or scoring political points,” Gies said. “It is about accountability. If we are asking our neighbors to trust us to represent them in Washington, then we should be willing to stand in front of them, answer their questions, and defend our records.”
Gies is calling for debates in communities across the district, rather than limiting voters to a single, only-televised event in one geographic area.
“NY-23 is not one community. It is hundreds of communities, from the Southern Tier to the Pennsylvania border and everywhere in between,” Gies said. “Voters in Jamestown deserve the same opportunity to hear from their candidates as voters in Elmira, Hamburg, Corning, Owego, Wellsville, or anywhere else in this district.”
The Gies campaign said it will continue to press Langworthy publicly to commit to additional live debates and is encouraging voters to watch and share the video of Gies’ challenge.
“Yesterday, I put the challenge directly to Congressman Langworthy,” Gies said. “Now I’m putting it to him publicly: Will you debate me, live and in front of the people you represent, across this district?”
The video of the encounter is available on the Aaron Gies campaign’s social media channels.
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