Josh Riley is ready to work with anyone in D.C., even Trump

Democratic Rep.-elect Josh Riley won a close victory Tuesday in the 19th Congressional District over Republican Rep. Marc Molinaro, though Molinaro has not yet conceded the race. Riley’s victory was one of very few bright spots for Democrats in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s decisive victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election. For now, Riley is taking a district-first outlook, more concerned about what he can do for his soon-to-be constituents than with who’s in the White House.

But Riley may be in for a rude awakening once he goes to Congress. Republicans now control the U.S. Senate and could also maintain control of the House of Representatives. It’s not clear how much Riley will be able to do in D.C., though the representative-elect said he’s open to bipartisanship and even working with the Trump administration if it gets the job done for his sprawling upstate district.

City & State caught up with Riley a few days after his win to discuss his campaign, his plans for office and how he plans to stay sane after three years of campaigning and a new baby. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

How does it feel to see Rep.-elect next to your name?

I’d say it’s incredibly humbling, and it’s a huge honor, and I’m just really eager to get to work because we have a lot of work to be done.

How do you plan to hit the ground running once you get to Washington, D.C.?

I think there’s so much work to be done to rebuild the middle class in this country. That is going to involve rethinking a lot of the bad trade deals that our country has gone into. It’s going to require us to revisit tax policy so that we’re giving tax cuts to the middle class instead of to billionaires and oil companies who don’t need it. The prescription drug costs are still too high, and the grocery prices are still too high, so we have to get to work to bring those costs down.

What do you think connected most with voters on the campaign trail?

I ran my campaign not trying to focus too much on a political party. I broke with my own party in the places where I thought it was the right thing to do. I think what cut through is people around here don’t really care all that much about Democrat or Republican. What they care about is who’s looking out for them and who’s going to take upstate New York’s values to Congress, and that’s how we focused our campaign.

How will you navigate being a first-term lawmaker if Republicans control Congress?

I expect there to be lots of opportunities for me to work with the Trump administration on things like renegotiating bad trade deals that shift manufacturing jobs away. If President (Donald) Trump was serious on the campaign trail when he talked about no tax on tips, and when he talked about ending the tax on Social Security benefits, those are things that I would be very eager to work with his administration on.

On the other hand, if there are things the Trump administration does that hurt upstate New York, there is going to be nobody who fights harder than me to stop those things from happening. And that includes, for example, if he intends to give more tax cuts to billionaires and oil companies at the expense of hard-working folks who are struggling to make ends meet, I’m going to fight like hell to stop that from happening.

Do you see yourself working with upstate Democratic colleagues like Rep. Pat Ryan and Rep.-elect John Mannion?

I expect to work with Democrats and Republicans across upstate New York to make sure that our voices are heard. So for example, I will work in a bipartisan way to try to get the cap on State and Local Tax exemptions lifted so that we can deliver a middle-class tax cut to the Hudson Valley. That’s something where there’s bipartisan agreement, and where I’m going to lend my voice to that effort. I’m going to fight like hell if the Republicans try to repeal the CHIPS and Science Act, which House Speaker Mike Johnson, just about a week or two ago, said he wanted to do, and I expect that I will be able to work with my colleagues across upstate New York who understand and appreciate how important those investments are in American manufacturing.

You’ve been running for this seat for three years now. What do you think was the difference this cycle?

I launched my first campaign a year out from the 2022 election, and then I relaunched this campaign in the spring of 2023. I think one of the biggest differences is that we were able to build a very strong grassroots campaign. I didn’t take any corporate PAC money. I’m never going to take any corporate PAC money. Instead, we relied on folks chipping in 5, 10, 15 bucks, whatever they could afford, to invest in a campaign that would go and work for them for once. The vast majority of the contributions to our campaign were under $50. We had hundreds, if not thousands, of volunteers knock on, I think it’s over 220,000 doors. We made over 1 million phone calls, and so this was really just a huge team effort where a whole bunch of everyday people across upstate New York came together and said, “We deserve a voice in Congress, and we’re sick and tired of the conversation being dominated by career politicians and special interests.” And we built a campaign that was truly by and for everyday people.

You said the district doesn’t really care for partisan politics. Do you foresee it always being a place that’s won by close margins?

I think this district is – just if you’re looking at partisanship – it’s probably pretty evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans and independents/unaffiliated, and I think that’s exactly how it should be, because for candidates to be successful in districts like this, you have to earn support from people on the other side of the aisle. I think one of the biggest problems we have in our politics right now is that a lot of people are living in their own bubbles, and a lot of our districts are gerrymandered so that Democrats can win seats without ever talking to Republicans and Republicans can win seats without ever talking to Democrats, and that’s just not how I was raised.

I’m a Democrat. I come from a Republican family. To this day, I couldn’t tell you the political party of a lot of my friends and neighbors from growing up, and so we ran a campaign that was rooted in that experience. I think if we had more of that across the country, we wouldn't be as divided as we are these days.

Why do you think individual candidates like yourself did well, but Kamala Harris, not so much?

Well, I don’t know that I can speak to how the presidential campaigns were run. I think a lot of people want change in our politics, and I think that what I was offering voters was a candidate who’s not taking corporate PAC money, not beholden to the special interests, and in fact, going to stand up to the special interests. Someone who is willing to take on my own party, whether that’s with respect to immigration or trade deals. I think that those upstate New York values, that’s just how people operate across upstate New York, and so I tried to take that into my campaign. I think too many people across the country, and too many people who are political pundits or who live in their bubbles, think that political campaigns need to do certain things or run certain ways, and we approached this instead as just, “How do most of New Yorkers think about this stuff?” And let’s channel that into a campaign. And I think that’s what worked for us.

Between campaigning for years and having a new child, you must be exhausted. So how do you plan to recharge before you head to Washington, D.C.?

I feel like I should be a lot more tired than I actually am. There are hundreds of volunteers, my campaign team, all the supporters we’ve had – it’s actually inspired me and given me a huge amount of energy and so I am really, really, truly eager to hit the ground running and start doing the work. I am going to take a little bit of time with my family to recharge and to rest in December, but right now, in the immediate term, there’s so much that needs to be done, and I’m just really excited to be doing it.