Avlon steps aside for veteran Chris Gallant to challenge LaLota

Daily Point

Black Hawk pilot, 36, steps up in CD1

For months, the big political question for the 1st Congressional District was whether TV commentator and author John Avlon would take a second shot next year at trying to unseat Republican Rep. Nick LaLota. The answer came back on Friday when Avlon sent out an email announcing the “difficult decision” that he’d pass this time.

“Running for office requires an all-in effort,” Avlon wrote supporters. “At this time, my young children need and deserve two present parents; and you need and deserve a candidate who can devote 110% of their time and energy in standing up to Donald Trump’s dangerous agenda … We all have a lot of work ahead to defend American democracy while rebuilding the middle of our politics and the middle of our economy.”

Once Avlon stepped aside, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee promptly announced that Chris Gallant, 36, would pick up the party banner in the 2026 midterm election. As a first-time candidate from Amityville, he’s first introducing himself to the public before making his case to voters.

Per Gallant’s campaign bio: He’s a Black Hawk helicopter pilot for the New York Army National Guard, an air traffic controller, has served as local union president for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association and is a volunteer firefighter, including in Copiague. He’s served in the Mideast, holds a degree in aviation management from Dowling College and lives with his fiancé Mike, a National Guard member.

Interestingly, neither LaLota nor Gallant lives in CD1. Both reside on Suffolk’s South Shore in CD2.

In the months leading up to Gallant’s declared candidacy, sources told The Point, both Avlon and Gallant privately discussed with Washington-based party operatives the degree of fundraising and other resources available. At this point, the race is not a top priority for the “out” party, which is focused primarily in New York on turning over the seat north of New York City held by Rep. Mike Lawler.

LaLota won last November with 55% of the vote against Avlon’s 45%. The East End district has been a red one since 2014 when Lee Zeldin unseated Democrat Tim Bishop. That said, Avlon has noted that he did run two points ahead of Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, in the district, while LaLota ran two points behind Trump.

For Long Island, that’s the second challenge in next year’s congressional scrums to fall into place early. In CD2, former Democratic Suffolk County Executive Pat Halpin, 72, is coming out of electoral retirement and planning to challenge Rep. Andrew Garbarino.

Republican challengers have yet to emerge, meanwhile, in CD3 and CD4, which are represented by veteran Nassau County Democrats Tom Suozzi and Laura Gillen. Defending those seats is listed as a DCCC priority.

In this never-ending campaign cycle, priorities can change between now and autumn of next year. If polls and circumstances shift considerably from one district to another, campaign resources may be redistributed out of Washington to the Democratic challengers.

— Dan Janison dan.janison@newsday.com

Pencil Point

Burning issue

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Quick Points

You thought they were environmentalists?

• President Donald Trump used a meeting at his golf course in Scotland with the European Commission president to waylay windmills — and environmentalists. "… because the environmentalists, they’re not really environmentalists. They’re political hacks. These are people that, they almost want to harm the country." Rachel Carson, you just made the list!
• New York’s Office of Cannabis Management screwed up the dispensary siting law and nearly 200 locations were approved too close to schools. Maybe the folks who drew the lines were sampling dispensary products.
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— Mark Nolan mark.nolan@newsday.com

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