Embattled Clinton Democrats persevere amid conservative gains in upstate NY

Photo by Colin Ellis

CLINTON, NY - On September 13, ahead of a November 4th Election Day, the Clinton Democrats held a gathering on the town green, aimed at rallying support for what is expected to be a heavily contested set of local elections in the coming months. The event sported a friendly block-party atmosphere one would expect of a well-knit local group whose members have been united in a common cause for decades. Activists distributed campaign signs, candidates talked policy with voters, and organizers staffed a booth where new voters could register for the upcoming election. 

Several candidates were present and delivered speeches. Among them was Tami Seaman, who is running for office for the first time in her life in the wake of being fired from her position at the IRS. She strongly believes the firing was the sole responsibility of the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, during Elon Musk’s brief tenure at the helm of the agency. The firing came after a highly positive performance review during which she was assured that she was an essential employee, and coincided with around 6,000 other layoffs that enveloped the agency in the early months of DOGE’s cost-cutting campaign. 

Seaman described this event as the impetus for her decision to become more intimately involved in politics. Many people targeted by the IRS layoffs were disparaged by conservatives as having performed useless work, symptomatic of a bloated and inefficient federal bureaucracy. Seaman firmly rejected this notion and said that the experience made her realize how difficult political life can be when you lack a voice to advocate for yourself and others. She desires to provide this voice to the community while in office.

Although the group was optimistic about their chances in the upcoming elections, it was difficult to ignore the elephant in the room – Republicans have long held a stronghold in the mostly rural upstate New York, and many elections have seen them gain ground in Oneida County recently. While the state remains solidly blue at the federal level, many members of the group highlighted a gradual shift to the right in recent elections that culminated in a considerable republican surge in the 2024 federal election. The past few election cycles have flipped many town governments red, and those still maintaining a democratic majority are often holding on by a razor’s edge, only a few seats removed from conservative control. The largely rural Oneida County has always been somewhat purple, but the recent string of conservative victories is unprecedented in recent history. In the 2022 senatorial election, Oneida county voted almost ⅔ in favor of republican Joe Pinion; although this margin of victory slipped down around 4% in the 2024 election. The overall results for the presidential election that year represented the most narrow liberal victory in the state in over three decades.

Conservative efforts have also extended beyond the ballot box - recently, the right-wing activist group Moms for Liberty made an incursion into the Clinton school system, accusing several teachers of touting pro-LGBTQ+ material that they believed was “pornographic” in nature. Although they were met with near-universal backlash and failed to gain any notable influence in Clinton schools, the group’s effort is emblematic of a modern conservative establishment that has grown increasingly radical and confrontational since the election of Donald Trump in 2016. From telling alt-right extremist groups to “Stand back and Stand by” during a 2020 debate and pardoning over 1,500 rioters involved in the capitol insurrection, Trump has invited and even endorsed political violence in America. Several candidates present at the rally spoke about their experiences with these radical, Trump-era conservatives and the inflammatory policy and rhetoric they have sought to implement across the state. This extremism reared its head during the rally– during a campaign speech, a man in a black pickup truck rolled down his window and screamed obscenities at the group as he drove by. Although the incident was the sole disruption during the event, it was a stark reminder of the stiff opposition and high stakes that democrats across the country will face in November.