An Olean native has announced his candidacy for Congress, but what district will he run in and who will he run against?
The Olean Times Herald quotes 34 year old Andrew McCarthy as saying he has watched the decline of Olean and what is now the 23rd Congressional District. He says he started thinking about a run before current 23rd District Congressman Tom Reed announced he would not run for re-election, nor for Governor.
What no candidate knows at the moment is the makeup of New York’s 26 congressional districts. The state lost a district in the 2020 census and final district maps have not yet been determined. Depending on which district winds up representing Olean, McCarthy believes a primary opponent could be former State Senator Catharine M. Young of Olean, who resigned her Senate seat two years ago and is now director of the New York Center for Excellence in Food and Agriculture at Cornell Agritech in Geneva.
McCarthy, who calls himself a social conservative, could potentially face Congressman John Katko in a primary if Katko’s district winds up including Olean.
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