Sarah Klee Hood is Running for Congress (Again)
Second time’s the charm? DeWitt Democrat challenging Rep. Williams
The runner-up in last year’s Democratic primary is launching another campaign for Congress in New York’s 22nd Congressional District.
Sarah Klee Hood announced late Wednesday she’s running to unseat Republican Congressman Brandon Williams in the 2024 election.
A video was published on the candidate’s YouTube channel making the Congressional bid official.
“The path to a Democratic majority in the House runs through her district,” Klee Hood’s team writes on her campaign website.
“Brandon Williams, the incumbent Republican, is anti-choice, anti-Social Security & still stands with Donald Trump,” the website claims, continuing “NY-22 deserves better and that’s why Sarah is running for Congress again.”
Klee Hood, a town councilor from DeWitt, has been an outspoken adversary of Rep. Williams in recent months, most notably pushing back on an article in the Syracuse Post-Standard with the headline: “Brandon Williams ripped bipartisanship during campaign for Congress. Now he embraces it.”
“Brandon Williams, Marjorie Taylor Green, and Kevin McCarthy vote the same way 94% of time,” she wrote on Twitter last month. “And they all oppose: strengthening Social Security, universal background checks, protecting women’s right to choose.”
“That’s what I’d call extremism, not bipartisanship,” Klee Hood concluded.
The official announcement is the culmination of months of teasing the run on social media by the candidate, beginning even on the day that 2022 Democratic nominee Francis Conole conceded his election loss to Rep. Williams last November.
“Folks from across this district have been calling me, asking me to run,” Klee Hood told me in a February interview.
Though her team has been careful to hedge any statements about her candidacy with the phrase “if she decides to run,” her 2024 campaign has been essentially a forgone conclusion in most Democratic circles, particularly among grassroots activists in the district.
“We’re excited to have a candidate who lives in the district and is whole heartedly enthusiastic about working hard in Congress, putting the needs of families, veterans, and small business owners first, no matter if they live in rural towns or big cities,” said Jennifer Grieger, a spokesperson for the activist group “Indivisible Mohawk Valley,” based in Oneida County.
During and after the 2022 general election campaign, there was dissension within the party about whether Sarah Klee Hood would’ve made a better candidate, particularly in Oneida and Madison counties where Conole lost to Williams by wide margins.
Now, if Klee Hood remains the only candidate in the race on the Democratic side (which is not a sure thing) or is able to beat out a potential primary field, that theory of the case might be put to the test.
For her part, Klee Hood tells me she is hoping to learn from the loss by Democrats in 2022, in NY-22 and across the Empire State.
“I wasn't in the general,” she acknowledged, “I am sure it was a great fight all around.”
But when I asked what areas could be improved upon, Klee Hood said “People, man, it’s all about the people. You need to connect with them. They need to believe that what you’re doing is going to make their lives fuller, richer, more full of hope. I think we’ve lost that along the way.”
Conole told a reporter in February he will not seek the seat again in 2024.
Similar to Klee Hood, Conole lost a Democratic congressional primary to Dana Balter in 2020, before coming back to run for the seat again in 2022, at the urging of some Onondaga County Democrats who believed they would’ve faired better against Fmr. Rep. John Katko in 2020 if Conole had been their nominee. The district lines have changed dramatically since the 2020 election, thanks to the hectic (and still potentially ongoing) redistricting process.
Klee Hood’s team has redesigned her campaign website to highlight her close finish in the 2022 Democratic primary.
The site boldly points out that Klee Hood lost the primary by less than 900 votes, even after being outraised by Conole 12:1.
While statistics like that may be helpful in portraying Klee Hood as an “homegrown grassroots candidate”, as she’s described herself in the past, sources close to national Democrats say the numbers are worrisome and are currently looking elsewhere to recruit a more prolific fundraiser or deep-pocketed self-funder for the seat in 2024.
One source said the DCCC is looking for a candidate similar to another big-dollar fundraiser hand-picked by national Democrats: Josh Riley, who also announced his second Congressional bid in NY-19 this week.
“Working Moms may not have a lot of big donor connections, but they know how to make it work,” Klee Hood’s campaign website says, in a seeming nod to those concerns.
Sources also said national Democrats were seeking a military veteran to run against Williams, who frequently highlights his service in the nuclear Navy. Klee Hood is a former Air Force commanding officer who retired in 2015 “to focus on her family” after 6 years of service, according to her website.
Klee Hood’s website also points out that she won two of the three counties in the district during the primary: she won handily in Oneida and Madison counties, while Conole took the largest county in the district, Onondaga, which includes the city of Syracuse.
But in an interview with me last December, when he said he was still considering a third Congressional bid, Conole dismissed the idea that Klee Hood’s performance in the primary was indicative that she could have been a better nominee.
“Sam [Roberts] and Chol [Majok, two of Conole’s and Klee Hood’s other primary opponents] had strong, loyal support in Onondaga,” Conole told me, “and while Sarah did have success in Oneida, the primary turnout was very low and can’t be extrapolated for much.”
Conole could not be reached for further comment on Klee Hood’s imminent announcement.
When Klee Hood officially launches her bid, she’ll be the second Democrat to get in the race, but the only candidate still actively vying for the seat. Manlius Town Councilor Katelyn Kriesel ended her campaign after just four weeks earlier this year.
In 2022, Klee Hood highlighted her issue priorities, speaking frequently about the environment and climate change.
“Sarah was the Director of a clean technology incubator where she worked with the scientists and small businesses who create the technology to address climate change,” her website says.
She told WAER last August: “We need to have affordable housing that will be able to transition off of natural gas and fossil fuels.”
Rep. Williams has focused on energy policy during his first few months in office, often describing himself as “an energy expert.”
He believes that those looking to transition away from fossil fuels are “dreaming” and said while chairing a committee hearing on March 23rd that New York State is challenged by having fewer oil and gas pipelines.
“I’m grateful for what we have and wish we had more,” said the freshman representative.
Other issue stances Klee Hood has taken includes expanding affordable child care, paid family medical leave, and creating a single-payer, universal healthcare system.
“No family should go bankrupt because of healthcare costs,” Klee Hood told The Ithaca Voice in April 2022.
Some national and local Democrats are unsure if a district that narrowly supported Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden in the last two presidential elections and has consistently, with limited exceptions, elected Republicans for local, state, and federal offices would be likely to send someone with a more progressive track record on issues, like Klee Hood, to Washington. Others push back on these concerns, saying that voters are looking for bold ideas and leadership to solve important problems.
The focus of her primary campaign in 2022, though, was largely centered on an issue that has garnered bipartisan support: campaign finance reform.
During the primary, Klee Hood and others frequently drew attention to support Conole received from a political action committee backed by crypto-billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried.
Bankman-Fried has since faced multiple rounds of federal fraud and bribery charges following the collapse of his cryptocurrency, FTX. He has plead not guilty.
Klee Hood called the contributions an issue of “personal integrity” for Conole during a primary debate last August.
Conole defended himself last December after his general election loss, telling me the contributions were not related to his stances on cryptocurrency and did not affect his views on any subject.
In response to several specific follow-up questions on the matter, Conole denied any coordination with the PAC by his campaign, which would be illegal, but acknowledged that the headlines surrounding Bankman-Fried, which had just started to emerge in the weeks following the election, were not ideal.
Klee Hood also wrote an op-ed for the Syracuse Post-Standard in August calling Super PACs “a crisis for democracy.”
She has likewise criticized the integrity of the man she hopes to unseat in Congress, calling Williams “dishonest” and a “far-right extremist” in recent tweets.
In response to a request for comment on this story via direct messages on Twitter, a spokesperson for the Williams campaign blocked me. No other representatives for the incumbent Republican responded.
Congressman Williams is currently touring the district holding town hall events with residents, meeting with local leaders, and touting the record of his first few months in office. He’ll be in Morrisville tomorrow for his third town hall, on the day of Klee Hood’s planned announcement.
