Former election security official announces run for Congress in New York

Cait Conley, an Army combat veteran and the former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency official who oversaw the security of nationwide election systems in 2024, is running for New York’s 17th congressional district, she announced Monday.

Conley, 39, is a Hudson Valley native. After the 9/11 attacks, she deployed for 16 years in Iraq and Afghanistan and later served as counterterrorism director in the White House’s National Security Council. Before joining CISA, she headed Harvard’s Defending Digital Democracy Project, which focused on equipping election officials, infrastructure providers and campaign leaders with cybersecurity tools and strategies. If she wins the Democrat primary, she would face Republican Rep. Mike Lawler in 2026.

Conley is running as a Democrat with a national security background. On her campaign website, she lists security priorities like “defending the homeland, fighting crime and fixing our broken immigration system” while also saying she will “fight cuts to Medicaid and Medicare that will impact New Yorkers, and fight to codify in federal law a woman’s right to make her own healthcare decisions.”

She also highlights a snippet from Russia’s Foreign Affairs Ministry stating that she is banned in the nation. A ban from entering Russia is often deemed a badge of honor in the U.S. national security community because it shows an individual has been a sound force in countering Russian influence or shaping policies that challenge Moscow’s interests.

“Protecting what makes this country great is why I’m running now, because the politicians who created this mess are not going to be the ones who fix it,” she says in a video on her site. “How do you tolerate what’s being done to our country? To New York, the answer is: you don’t. I fought for my country, fought to protect our democracy. And now I’m ready to fight for New Yorkers.”

New York’s 17th Congressional District, which includes all of Rockland and Putnam counties, northern Westchester, and part of southern Dutchess County, has become a key battleground in recent election cycles. Lawler first won the seat in 2022 by defeating then-incumbent Democrat Sean Patrick Maloney in a major upset, giving Republicans the district for the first time since 1981.

While at CISA, Conley served as a voice of reason to reporters and stakeholders that closely followed developments leading into the 2024 election. Baseless election fraud claims peddled by President Donald Trump in 2020 culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol and galvanized skepticism of the security and reliability of U.S. elections.

Conley’s role involved coordinating with groups that oversee the physical integrity of voting systems and the safety of election officials, while monitoring months of election disinformation threats on social media that originated from foreign adversaries, including Russia and Iran.

On Election Day, she held multiple calls with reporters as she and partners dealt with hoax Russia-tied bomb threats sent to key election sites around the country. She was also quick to dismiss a post from Trump claiming there was chatter regarding “massive CHEATING in Philadelphia” on election night: “We have been in close communication with state and local election officials across the country today and we have no data or reporting to support these claims.”

Her campaign website reflects this experience: “Today, more than ever, our democracy is in danger. Cait has always fought to protect us from all threats at home and overseas.”

Conley won’t be alone in the Democrat primary next summer. Beth Davidson, a Rockland County legislator, declared her candidacy last month, and Westchester County nonprofit executive Jessica Reinmann was already in the running. It’s possible that more Democrat candidates will join in the race. And, notably, Lawler himself has also expressed interest in challenging Gov. Kathy Hochul, which would mean vacating his seat as a member of Congress.