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Former President Donald Trump offers to help bring back a major challenge to Rep. John Katko, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach him in January.
Trump offered in a handwritten letter that was delivered today to two Conservative Party chairmen in Central New York.
Trump wrote his note in a copy of an article on April 23 posted on Syracuse.com with the headline, the Onondaga County Conservative Party threw John Katko on Trump’s impeachment vote.
Bernie Ment, chairman of the Onondaga County Conservative Party, said he received the letter via UPS express delivery. The letter was in an inner envelope with the president’s stamp and a return address of Mar-a-Lago, Trumps private club in Palm Beach, Fla.
A great move, Trump wrote in the letter. Katko will never win again. He is bad news. Please thank everyone including those in Wayne and Cayuga and now in Onondaga.
Trump added, I won big in the area. Help the campaign find a good candidate.
The former president signed a corner of the page with his oversized signature: Best regards, Donald J. Trump.
In the last year of the presidential election, President Joe Biden defeated Trump by 9 percentage points in the Katkos 24th Congressional District. Trump brought districts out of rural provinces by wide margins.
Katko, R-Camillus, received more votes than Trump in the district in both the 2016 and 2020 elections.
Katko was also one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump who still hasn’t faced a major Republican challenge.
House Republican leaders, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, have stood by Katko since the impeachment was voted on.
GOP leaders elevated Katko in January to a more visible post as the leading Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee. In that post, Katko raised his profile nationwide as a leading critic of Bidens ’immigration policies.
Trump publicly criticized all 10 GOP members, calling them political hacks that Republicans need to remove for party unity.
The letter delivered to Ment today was also addressed to Ron Greenleaf, chairman of the Oswego County Conservative Committee.
Both Ment and Greenleaf told Syracuse.com in the April 23 article that their party committees decided they would not endorse Katko for the Conservative Party ballot line next year.
Katko, a four -term Republican, appeared on the Conservative Party’s ballot line in each of his campaigns for Congress.
Conservative committees in Cayuga County and Wayne County the other counties in the four-county 24th Congressional District had previously decided to withhold their endorsement from Katko on his impeachment vote.
So far, no member of the Republican or Conservative Party has publicly announced a bid to challenge Katko next year.
The other nine GOP House members who voted to overthrow Trump in instigating the uprising in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol face key challenges supported by the former president and his affiliates. campaign committee.
One of the candidates, Max Miller, is a former Trump aide. Miller challenges Republican Rep. Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio.
Ment said the letter he received today did not include any contact information for Trump or his campaign representatives.
It was a surprise to me this morning when I got it, Ment said. I was shocked. It just turned out blue.
Conservative Party leaders will likely have to wait for New York state to complete a once -a -decade redistricting process before choosing a challenge to Katko, Ment said.
Is there a tip, comment or idea on the story? Contact Mark Weiner anytime via: Email | Twitter | Facebook | 571-970-3751
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