Dear Colonel Cait Conley,
Congratulations on your win!
Now that the primary is over, it looks like we’re your constituents, so we’re going to need to find a way to work together if we want to beat Mike Lawler, which we very much do.
But we have issues that matter to us deeply, because we believe addressing them is the best way to protect America, democracy, and the residents of New York’s 17th Congressional District.
We are a bloc of fully engaged voters in this district who are publicly, visibly conditional, who will not donate, canvass, phone bank, or vote for any candidate who has not made concrete commitments on issues that are, for many of us, matters of life and death.
If you make a good faith effort to work with us, we will work not only with you, but for you.
If you win without making them, we will hold you to account from day one.
If you ignore us, we will make sure every progressive voter in NY-17 knows you don’t think you need our votes.
We’re sorry for the strong language. But this is very serious.
Respectfully,
Babies Not Bombs NY-17
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Our Demands
1. Condition military aid to Israel on compliance with international humanitarian law.
Oppose any weapons transfers to Israel while civilians are being targeted in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon. Support legislation making all U.S. military aid conditional on compliance with the Leahy Law and international humanitarian law.
2. Oppose Palantir's ImmigrationOS and all AI-based deportation infrastructure.
Commit to voting against any legislation that funds or expands AI surveillance technology used to track, detain, or deport immigrant communities—including Palantir's ImmigrationOS contract specifically. Our neighbors are not data points.
3. Oppose 287(g) agreements that incentivize local law enforcement to cooperate with ICE
Support federal legislation prohibiting the use of federal funds to incentivize local law enforcement cooperation with ICE. Call publicly on Rockland, Putnam, and Westchester sheriffs to ban 287(g) agreements. The Hudson Valley's immigrant families should not fear that a traffic stop leads to a detention center.
4. Support community consent for data centers.
Oppose federal subsidies for data center construction in residential and rural communities without binding local consent processes and full environmental and energy impact review. The residents of this district have the right to determine what gets built in our communities.
5. Protect and expand healthcare access.
Commit to opposing any legislation that cuts, restricts, or privatizes Medicaid. Support lowering the Medicare eligibility age to 55. A medical crisis should not mean financial ruin for families.
6. Cancel student debt and ban unpaid internships.
Support student debt cancellation legislation and federal prohibition of unpaid internships, which function as a class barrier locking working-class young people out of career pathways. We were promised education was a path to stability. That promise has to mean something.
7. Support rent stabilization and tenant protections.
Champion federal legislation protecting tenants from predatory evictions and algorithmic rent price-fixing—AI software that landlords use to coordinate rent increases across markets. Young people in the Hudson Valley are being priced out of the communities we grew up in.
8. Require Pentagon climate accountability.
Support legislation requiring the Department of Defense to fully account for its carbon emissions in all federal climate policy. The U.S. military is one of the largest institutional carbon emitters on earth. You cannot claim to care about the climate while exempting the military from scrutiny.