SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY — Hours after his overnight Democratic victory in New York's 1st Congressional District primary race, John Avlon began Wednesday by challenging incumbent U.S. Rep. Nick LaLota, a Republican, in six debates beginning on July.
According to unofficial results from the Suffolk County Board of Elections, Avlon, a former CNN analyst from Sag Harbor, was projected to win the race by a wide margin over Nancy Goroff, a former chemistry professor at Stony Brook University — and face off against LaLota in the November match.
On Wednesday, Avlon lashed out at his current opponent: “The voters in New York's first congressional district deserve a series of real conversations about the issues that affect their lives. They deserve to judge the solutions we're proposing and see the difference between Nick Lalota's extreme MAGA approach to politics and my belief that we can come together and find common sense solutions to our most pressing problems.”
Avlon added: “The contrast is clear in this race: while Nick LaLota wants to cut Social Security, the Affordable Care Act and Medicare, raise the retirement age, make prescription drugs more expensive, and attack a woman's right to choose, we will rebuild the middle class, defend a woman's right to reproductive freedom, and protect and defend our democracy.
LaLota responded: “As a Manhattanite who doesn't know the history of Suffolk County elections, John Avlon wants summer debates either because he has to be back in Manhattan by the fall — as he usually does — or because he knows he's by double digits. polls and has some significant ground to cover. In any event, we will agree to a series of debates in the timing and format typical of the New York elections.
