New York City Comptroller Brad Lander has challenged Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) to a debate in her district after she was the “deciding vote” for the “big, beautiful” House budget bill.
Lander is a prominent New York City mayoral candidate and progressive Democrat aiming to topple Mayor Eric Adams and front-runner former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the election this year.
Malliotakis voted for the Republican reconciliation bill that passed narrowly Thursday. The congresswoman was a major proponent of the state and local tax deduction that raised the cap from $10,000 to $40,000. She ran for mayor in 2017 but lost to former Mayor Bill de Blasio.
“In honor of the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which would shred Medicaid, strip healthcare away from hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers and devastate our budget: I’ve got one big, beautiful invitation for the Honorable Rep. Nicole Malliotakis,” Lander said in a video posted on social media.
“Nicole, I cordially challenge you to a town hall debate in your district to discuss how this bill will affect New Yorkers. … Our shared constituents and 4 million New Yorkers enrolled in Medicaid deserve to know why you voted for this piece of s*** bill,” he added.
Lander’s campaign told the Washington Examiner it hasn’t heard from her on the request. If she doesn’t show up, the event will turn into a town hall for Lander on Wednesday night next week.
Malliotakis responded to the challenge in a statement to the Washington Examiner, blasting Lander for it.
“Why is the wacky ‘Defund the Police’ candidate for Mayor looking to debate me instead
of his own opponents? Is he afraid of debating Andrew Cuomo?” she said. “The reason I had to secure State and Local Tax (SALT) relief in the one big, beautiful bill is because Brad Lander repeatedly voted to increase our property tax levy as a city councilman. No wonder his campaign is on life support.”
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A Marist poll on the Democratic primary for New York City mayor that was conducted earlier this month saw Lander eliminated in the fifth round of ranked choice voting with 18% support, while Cuomo won in the next round against state Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, 60% to 40%.
The Democratic primary in New York’s mayoral race is on June 24.