Rep. Pat Ryan faces repeated pro-ceasefire protests

On Friday, left-wing protesters calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza attempted to confront Rep. Pat Ryan inside his district office in Kingston and climbed onto the building’s roof to hang banners. In response, police were called on the protesters. Demonstrators and Ryan’s staffers heavily dispute the exact circumstances of what occurred, with Ryan’s office accusing the protesters of threatening staff and the protesters accusing Ryan of lying about what happened. Each side posted conflicting videos of the confrontation on social media. 

The demonstration is the latest sign of Ryan’s issues with some left-wing constituents and organizers in his district who are dissatisfied with Ryan’s refusal to call for an unconditional ceasefire in Gaza. Ryan and other Democratic leaders say that the protesters only represent a very small group of people and the issue is unlikely to affect Ryan’s reelection. 

Although the protests and demonstrations haven’t involved a critical mass of his constituents, even a small number of defections from Ryan’s base may have the potential to cost him the general election in November. In 2022, Ryan only won the general election for the 18th Congressional District by a few thousand votes. This year, he’ll be facing off against former lieutenant governor candidate Alison Esposito – a strong Republican challenger with national backing – and he could find leaks in the ship problematic come November.

Reelection fight

Ryan first took office after winning a special election for the 19th Congressional District against Rep. Marc Molinaro in 2022. Along the way, the former Ulster County executive rode a wave of support for his pro-choice views following the Dobbs decision and the overturning of Roe v. Wade. He later beat former Assembly Member Colin Schmitt in the 2022 midterm elections in a race for the 18th Congressional District. 

The district’s boundaries may change later this year due to the latest round of redistricting, but for now it includes all of Orange County and the majority of Dutchess and Ulster. It’s expected to be competitive in November. In 2022, the district narrowly backed former Rep. Lee Zeldin and Esposito, then his running mate, over Gov. Kathy Hochul. In November, the New York Post reported on an internal GOP poll showing that voters were split between Ryan and a Republican challenger. 

For his part, Ryan thinks he’ll do even better in 2024 than he did in the midterms, given both his record as a congress member and because of his opponent's past support for former President Donald Trump and links to House Speaker Mike Johnson. 

Nonstop protests

There’s one issue that could complicate Ryan’s path to victory: Israel’s war in Gaza.

Ryan has been criticized for his position on Israel by both the left and the right. After he declined to vote for a Republican-backed bill that paired cuts to the Internal Revenue Service budget with $14 billion in military aid to Israel, Esposito and Republicans accused him of not supporting Israel. 

But most of the criticism has come from left-wing protesters upset that Ryan has not joined with progressives in Congress to support an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Since the war began in October, progressive protesters have repeatedly held demonstrations outside of his offices. More recently, some of the protesters have begun disrupting his public events.

The protesters – who come from a coalition of groups, including the Mid-Hudson Valley chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, the Hudson Valley chapters of Jewish Voice for Peace and Veterans for Peace, Bard Students for Justice in Palestine and the Mid-Hudson Islamic Community – are calling on Ryan to support an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

In December, protesters affixed pictures of doves and signs reading “Pat Ryan for Genocide” and “Zionism = Genocide” following a demonstration at his Newburgh district office. In November, protesters delivered a check for $25,950 to his Kingston office during a demonstration. The check was meant to symbolize the amount of money the American Israel Public Affairs Committee donated to Ryan in 2022. 

At a Tuesday swearing-in ceremony in Gardiner that Ryan attended, a group of protesters interrupted proceedings and began chanting, “not another nickel, not another dime, no more money for Israel’s crimes.”

Ryan has said that he would be willing to support a ceasefire under certain conditions, though he has resisted calls to join with progressives in Congress like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who are calling for an immediate ceasefire.

In a December post on X, Ryan wrote that he would support a comprehensive ceasefire agreement in which all hostages taken by Hamas were returned to Israel, all perpetrators of sexual violence were brought to justice, Hamas surrendered its control of Gaza and was replaced by a new Palestinian government, Israel and Palestine committed to a two-state solution, humanitarian aid to Gaza increased significantly and settler violence in Israel ended. 

“If you truly believe, like I do, that Israel has a right to exist and defend itself AND that the Palestinian people deserve to have their own state, I urge you to join me in this call for lasting security, dignity and peace,” he wrote. 

Dan Torres, Ryan’s deputy chief of staff and district director, told City & State that the congressman has met with the coalition several times to discuss their issues with his stance on the conflict. 

Ryan told City & State that the meetings were “constructive” and said they helped broaden his understanding of the conflict and its effect on constituents. Even after what happened on Friday, he said, “I think those that want to engage in good faith will continue to do so.”

But Mie Inouye, a member of Mid-Hudson Valley DSA, said that progressives remained unhappy with Ryan’s position. “He should expect continuing pressure,” she said. “What we're trying to communicate clearly to him is that we're not going to forget his stance on this issue and he shouldn't count on being reelected and certainly, he shouldn't count on progressive support for his candidacy if he's not able to condemn this genocide and demand a ceasefire.”

A tense confrontation

The ongoing tension between Ryan and the pro-ceasefire protests came to a head on Friday, during a protest at Ryan’s district office in Kingston. Both demonstrators and Ryan’s own staffers have offered conflicting accounts of exactly what occurred inside the building housing Ryan’s office that night.

A neighboring tenant in the building who asked to remain anonymous told City & State that protesters, under the guise of looking for a therapist, walked into the main door of the building, went up to the third floor and knocked on Ryan’s office door.

Torres, Ryan’s deputy chief of staff, said that he first spotted the protesters outside the building while he was looking for parking. He said that demonstrators cursed at him and shouted at other staffers and attempted to enter Ryan’s office without permission.

Torres said that once he entered the hallway on the third floor, he saw protesters attempting to enter Ryan’s office, while a staffer tried to push the office door shut. He said one protestor leaned their back against the door while another wedged their foot against the door to prevent it from closing. She said the staffer holding the door seemed afraid. “I can see my co-worker's face, or half of her face, and she was terrified, and I wanted to just be honest about that. She recently graduated college and she is 4-foot-11,” he said.

The neighboring tenant told City & State that the staffer holding the door silently mouthed the words “call the police” to him, so they called 911. The county sheriff’s office confirmed to City & State that it received a report on Friday afternoon claiming that protesters were attempting to forcibly enter Ryan’s office and had climbed onto the building’s roof to hang banners. By the time law enforcement arrived on the scene, protesters had dispersed and no arrests were made. 

Torres said that the incident left staffers fearful. “The two women that I work with (at the office), they're tough women, don't get me wrong, but they were very shaken by this endeavor and one of them was physically shaking as well,” Torres said, adding that the staffers were retraumatized by the online discourse disputing their version of events.

In a statement released Friday night, Ryan condemned the demonstration. “Today a crowd attempted to forcibly enter our district office in Kingston, climbing the roof, interrupting work with constituents, and directly threatening my staff,” he wrote.

The protesters viewed the night differently. Daniel Atonna, a member of the Mid-Hudson Valley DSA steering committee, told City & State that protesters were peaceful, albeit confrontational, throughout the demonstration. Atonna said that there was a peaceful protest in the hallway outside Ryan’s office and protesters dropped banners from the building’s roof.  

Atonna said any assertions that they had threatened Ryan’s staff or tried to force their way into the congressman’s office were false. “He accuses us of vandalizing federal property and directly threatening his staff. Absolutely no one was threatened and nothing was vandalized,” Attona said. “In fact, he should use some of his AIPAC money to buy a dictionary.”

In a post on X, Atonna accused Ryan and his staff of lying about what happened during the demonstration and posted a video showing protesters conversing with Torres outside of Ryan’s office.

Torres said that he did speak with the protesters, but the video of their conversation omitted what else happened during the demonstration – protesters shouting at staff, attempting to enter the office and chanting pro-ceasefire slogans. 

Inouye, a DSA member who was at the protest, disputed claims that protesters had tried to force their way into Ryan’s office. “What I saw was one person with her foot in the door, and everyone else just singing. So I didn't see anyone pushing anything.”

Anna Jacobs, another one of the protesters, said that they only wanted a meeting with the congressman. “When we were (in the hallway) we were trying to ask for a meeting,” she said. Jacobs said that the protesters decided to show up at Ryan’s office in-person because their previous attempts to schedule a meeting with him had been unsuccessful. “We have been calling and emailing and we did not get an appointment,” she said. “We were just told he will not be available at a certain time, but we weren't given an alternate time to meet.”  

In an interview over the weekend, Ryan told City & State that he understood that in a district of 800,000 people, there were bound to be disagreements on policy and current events. But he said that he found the events that took place at his office “disappointing” and “concerning,” especially because of the effect it had on his staff. “They had barricaded themselves in the office,” he said. “I was there yesterday and the chairs were still on the ground on their side from having been propped up against the door.” 

Single-issue voters

The protests against Ryan show no signs of letting up. On Saturday, Ryan attended a swearing-in ceremony in the City of Beacon that was interrupted by protesters who asked Ryan, “How many people have to die before you support a ceasefire?”

The progressive anger with Ryan’s stance on Israel may have the potential to fracture his base and hurt his reelection prospects, though Ryan and other Democratic leaders in the district have dismissed that possibility.

Ryan disagrees that he will pay a political price for his continued opposition to an immediate ceasefire. “I think we're very aligned on the vast preponderance of issues and in fact, quite aligned on the situation in Gaza where I laid out what I think is a thoughtful redirect to a durable peace that will last and stand and stop the violence,” said Ryan.

Some Democrats in Ryan’s district said that foreign affairs, let alone the Israel-Hamas conflict, won’t be top of mind nearing the election.  “It's a smaller group, who are single-issue, or at least maybe a couple of issues, but this is of paramount importance to them,” Dutchess County Democratic Committee Chair Michael Dupree. “Polling that I see indicates the number one topic for voters is really affordability or affordable housing, just the cost of everything.”

Dupree said that the district has gone through some changes due to in-migration resulting in progressive pockets in municipalities like Newburgh, Kingston, Rhinebeck and Beacon. Even so, he added, “I just don't think it's gonna be a major issue.”

Ryan remains confident that his electoral result and broader base of support in the 18th Congressional District can only get better this year. Nonetheless, progressive demonstrators have no plans to let up. Ryan said he’s fine with that so long as Friday wasn’t a sign of things to come. 

“That's their right in our democracy, and if they want to continue to protest peacefully or do any of those sorts of actions, I fully respect and expect to support that,” he said. “That's how the system is supposed to work, but we can't cross those other lines.