In 2018, before Liz Joy was the Republican candidate for the 20^th Congressional district seat, she survived a more dangerous kind of fight.

Joy was getting her nails done with her friend and manicurist Denise Caulfield at the Beauty & Bliss Salon in an Albany suburb when Caulfield’s estranged husband stormed into the salon and attacked Denise with a knife. After yelling to call 911, Joy attempted to get Thomas Caulfield away from Denise, only to be injured herself.

The incident helped to inform Joy’s position on safety and policing.  

Joy is a mother of four adult children. Her top issues include the economy, healthcare, and life.

Joy was asked her why she decided to run for the 20^th Congressional district seat now.

“I am very concerned about the trajectory of our state, New York State, and our nation,” Joy told Capital Tonight. 

Joy is angry at what she called the “deconstruction and devaluing of human life."

“When New York passed the Reproductive Health Act in 2019 and I was watching at the federal level Democrat representatives push more and more extreme bills that were deconstructing and devaluing viable babies,” she said.

During the interview with Liz Joy, she stated that New York’s Reproductive Health Act allows for abortion at full term. According to FactCheck.org, “after 24 weeks such decisions must be made with a determination that there is an “absence of fetal viability” or that the procedure is “necessary to protect the patient’s life or health.”   

Like many critics of bail reform, Joy believes that the uptick in crime that cities like Albany are seeing is directly related to the state’s new bail reform laws. We won’t know for sure until the state releases data, in July of 2021, that is currently being collected.