© 2024 WRVO Public Media
NPR News for Central New York
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Coverage of the 2016 presidential election from NPR News and related blogs, including candidate profiles, interviews and talking points.On-air specials will also be broadcast as Election Day approaches, including the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary.WRVO also provides coverage of regional elections both on-air and online.

Wendy Long hopeful about her 2nd run for Senate

Ellen Abbott
/
WRVO News

Republican Wendy Long is taking another shot at running for U.S. Senate in New York state. The conservative lawyer from New York City lost a race against Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand four years ago in a landslide. This year, she’s taking on the man who could become the next Democratic Party leader in the Senate, Charles Schumer.

Long says things are very different this election year. She’s amassing a more grassroots volunteer organization throughout 62 counties. And she’s planning an aggressive social media strategy through things like Facebook town hall meetings to interact with voters and the media.

"It’s kind of a contrast to the kind of staged, very prepared Schumer Sunday press conference, being accessible to everybody,” said Long.

But Long says probably the biggest difference this time around is the man who will be at the top of the ticket -- Donald Trump.

Credit Ellen Abbott / WRVO News
/
WRVO News
Republican candidate for Senate Wendy Long and Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro at this year's Onondaga County GOP annual clambake.

"The excitement, the grassroots. Everybody’s interested in politics, everybody’s following it all of a sudden, whereas four years ago that wasn’t the case, it was kind of a drag.”

Long believes Trump has a chance to do well in New York, despite the fact that it’s a decidedly blue state, with a two-to-one Democrat to Republican enrollment advantage.  And she expects him to have long coattails. Long, a former clerk for Justice Clarence Thomas, says she and Trump have something in common -- both are political novices, which she believes is driving much of the Trump excitement to date.

"People are really fed up with career politicians. And people who’ve gone to Washington and stay there, to just keep themselves in power, and keep making money, and really they aren’t doing a good job for the people back home.”

Schumer is heavily favored to win a fourth term in the Senate.

Ellen produces news reports and features related to events that occur in the greater Syracuse area and throughout Onondaga County. Her reports are heard regularly in regional updates in Morning Edition and All Things Considered.