With Election Day approaching, affordability is a central issue in the race for New York's 23rd Congressional District.
Democrat Aaron Gies is challenging Republican Rep. Nick Langworthy in the district that includes parts of Erie and Niagara counties and all of the Southern Tier portion of Western New York.
7 News invited both candidates to sit down for separate interviews in Buffalo after requesting a debate in the region. Gies accepted the invitation, while Langworthy's team said he was unavailable.
In a conversation with 7 News Anchor/Reporter Michael Wooten, Gies discussed his campaign, his proposals for lowering costs, universal health care, the impact of tariffs and the war in Iran, and why he believes a moratorium is necessary for new data centers.
You can watch the full Q&A above.
The following Q&A has been edited for clarity and length.Q: Why run in a district that many people consider a safe Republican seat?Dr. Aaron Gies: This is our home. I wasn't looking for a congressional seat to run for. I was looking around at my neighbors in Olean and watching them lose their homes, lose their health care, cancel their vacations, and I thought somebody's got to do something about this. So that's why I'm running.
Q: Affordability is a top issue for voters. What would you do in Congress to address inflation that you attribute to the war in Iran and the president's tariffs?Gies: I think there's a lot of momentum around ending the war in Iran. The last time there was a war powers resolution, it passed the House with several Republican votes, including Mike Lawler over in New York's 17th District, but it died in the Senate.
If Democrats flip the House and, God willing, we flip the Senate in November, then we can make that happen. We can pass a binding war powers resolution that would compel the president to wind up the war in 40 days.
Q: Your opponent has characterized you as a progressive Democrat. How do you explain your policies to conservative voters in the district?Gies: It depends on what issue we're talking about. If we're talking about housing or infrastructure, then I probably look more conservative. But if we're talking about health care, then, yes, I believe we need universal, single-payer health care in this country.
The for-profit health care system is bankrupting Americans personally. It's also bankrupting us nationally. We have two competing systems: the government system that covers about half of us and the for-profit system that covers a little less than the other half.
We get the worst of both worlds. We have some of the worst medical outcomes of any developed country, but also the most expensive medical system.
Universal health care would allow us to cover everybody, even if they're poor or live in a rural area. It could also save us money as taxpayers and consumers because we could get rid of most insurance.
Q: Critics of Medicare for All say the tax increases needed to pay for it would be unaffordable. How do you respond?Gies: Taxes will have to go up. There's no way around that. But remember, we're eliminating almost all insurance and asking the government to manage the risk pool, which it can do much more efficiently because it has 100% of the population in the risk pool.
I don't think taxes would have to go up dramatically to do what we need to do.
Q: What is your message to farmers dealing with high diesel and fertilizer prices?Gies: On Day One, the next Congress should reverse Trump's tariffs, which are hitting farmers particularly hard, and pass that binding war powers resolution to wind up the war, which is driving up gas and diesel prices.
But there's a lot more we need to do in the longer term to make farming something people can make a living at again.
Almost all the farmers I know work off-farm as well. Farming is a labor of love in this district to keep the farm going and the land producing. We appreciate that work, but it should be work that pays a living wage.
Right now, about 70% of the benefits of the farm bill go to big agriculture, corporate farms and the companies that sell farmers their fertilizer and seed. We should reverse that. Most of the benefits in the farm bill need to be going to farmers.
Q: New Yorkers are facing high utility bills. Critics blame Democratic policies in Albany. How do you respond?Gies: I share the frustration with the utility commission and with Albany not being more aggressive with the utility commission.
How does it come about that our two big power providers are foreign-owned? How does it come about that nobody can get clear answers as to why our utility bills have doubled or, in some cases, tripled? That's what I'm hearing from constituents in the last year.
One thing I'm sure of is that it isn't the fact that we don't frack in New York State. The fracking ban, if I'm not mistaken, was instituted in 2015. Our bills did not double in 2015. They doubled in 2025 and now through 2026. So there's something else going on here.
I'm eager to get to the bottom of it. I tell folks at my town halls that I'll raise my voice for Western New York, not for special interests in Washington. But I'm happy to raise my voice for Western New York in Albany as well because people certainly need relief.
Q: Your position on data centers differs from Langworthy's. Why shouldn't localities be left to make those decisions without a moratorium?Gies: I'd like to see what the benefit to localities is.
A big data center like the Stream Data Center in Alabama, New York, is a $19 billion investment. It's going to have a very big footprint, draw a lot of power and demand a lot in terms of environmental resources, including water.
But what's it giving back? Sixty-six on-site jobs. They've requested $1.4 billion in public subsidies. Half of that is going to come from rural Genesee County.
They want to do this all over District 23 as well, and I just don't see the cost-benefit analysis working out for us. But it does work out for politicians who get big PAC checks from AI data companies and the intermediaries building these data centers. I hate to say it, but I think that's where the motivation is coming from.
I don't think data centers are a good deal for Western New York. At minimum, we need a moratorium that will allow us to put in place some reasonable environmental regulations and really firm siting regulations.
Putting these things, which are essentially water heaters, next to Lake Erie, where they want to do it, is not only going to threaten cold-water species that are already threatened in the lake. For every quarter of a degree that the lake gets warmer, our lake-effect snow is going to get worse, and that's not something I'm eager to make happen.
Q: Are there any parts of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act that you believe were good?Gies: Any huge omnibus government spending bill is going to have some good things in it.
I have stated publicly that I think we should continue no tax on tips, no tax on overtime and no tax on some Social Security benefits, because those are pieces of the tax law that directly benefit the working class and the middle class.
Those parts of the law were temporary. They were going to sunset in three years. Meanwhile, the tax cuts for the very wealthy and corporations are permanent.
All the analysis says the bottom 40% of Americans actually saw their taxes rise under H.R. 1, whereas the top 1% got an average tax cut of something like $75,000.
It's lopsided in a way that I find repugnant. We need a tax code that is fair to working- and middle-class Americans. I think they should pay less in taxes, but once we get above $250,000 or so, people might need to pay a little more.
The very wealthy, including billionaires and people who make most of their income from investments rather than earnings, need to pay their fair share. They often have an effective tax rate that's less than what you and I pay, and I find that offensive.
Q: Your campaign publicized a poll showing Langworthy's favorability had declined, but the poll still showed him with a sizable lead. How close do you think this race is?Gies: That poll is about a month old now, and I really wish we could poll again. I don't think we're going to do that. I think we're just going to go down to the wire and do the work.
I think it maybe suggested that his poll was done about 10 days before ours, and it showed him at 54%, where ours showed him at 52%. Part of me suspects that could be movement.
I don't credit all of this to the work I've been doing. Gas is $4.35 a gallon. Who would be happy with what the federal government is doing right now?
It's not a surprise to me that Langworthy's popularity and support are shrinking. But the question I have is whether my popularity and name recognition will rise fast enough for us to win this race.
I wake up every morning and ask, what else can I do to get the word out that I'm working to make a good life affordable for everyone in Western New York and the Southern Tier? I think when people hear that message, it's persuasive.
Q: If elected, what would be your top priority when you take office in January?Gies: It's to lower people's everyday costs.
All three things we want to do on Day One are designed to lower costs: restoring Affordable Care Act subsidies that funded New York's Essential Plan and are critical to keeping our hospitals open in the short term, reversing the tariffs, and ending the war.
It's all aimed at lowering costs for everyday New Yorkers, making their lives affordable. Then we have to pursue opportunity. We need to grow again.
