With President Donald Trump poised to move back to the White House for a second term in January, upstate New York Republicans are celebrating their party’s victory.
Trump completed his political comeback with a resounding win that included making gains in typically deep blue New York.
Assembly member Chris Tague represents the 102nd district.
"The president has vowed since he got back into the presidential race two years ago that he was going to fix the border crisis once and for all," said Tague. "And I think that you saw on election day that most Americans and even New Yorkers, I mean, President Trump, looks like today, is somewhere between 44 and 45% of the vote in a very blue New York state. So I think the affordability issue and the migrant issue was prevalent with most New York voters and most American voters. So those are the things that I'm looking to see what changes here after the president comes into office on January 20, and I'm hoping that our friends on the other side of the aisle got the message on election day and are actually going to listen to voters this time around."
Albany County Legislator Mark Grimm of Guilderland, who represents the 28th District, agrees Trump will hit the ground running.
"Now I feel like more things will be done about inflation, about the border that haven't really worked out the last four years," Grimm said. "So that's my number one reason for optimism is I think inflation will be settled. Under Trump, it was like 2% a year. And something finally, will be done about the border, which impacted, you know, hotels right here, nearby in our area. So I think those are two big pluses, and I think that's what drove the vote this past Tuesday."
Grimm hopes the party will be mindful that not everyone agrees with everything Republicans do and say and hopes it doesn’t go too far to the right.
New York state Senator Jim Tedisco of the 44th district, who declined to speak with WAMC for the last several months of the election, is happy to see Trump return.
"His agenda is going to make in terms of a difference for the United States of America, and potentially at New York State, and I think the optimism is about someone who's going to keep tax dollars in people's pockets. It's going to fix the economy, and going to fix the border, which basically they did everything to destroy," said Tedisco.
Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple, a Democrat, expects law enforcement will experience subtle changes under the Trump presidency.
"In a generic sense, I don't think you'll see massive change in law enforcement. I think what you will see are some of the sheriff's offices will get asked to house immigrants, if they in fact, do any sweeps. I mean, I know a number of years ago we had probably 100 plus in the county jail. That's really the only change that I see. I don't see anything else coming down the pike, as long as you know, things remain peaceful anyway. But I do, in fact, think that some of the county jails will probably have a higher census due to action on borders," Apple said.
