BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Yonkers native Joe Pinion played football at Colgate University. Now he's trying to tackle Chuck Schumer.
The U.S. Senate candidate isn't well-known by most New Yorkers, but he's a political commentator, securing his own cable show on Newsmax which he left when he chose to run for office.
"Quit my job to run for U.S. Senate," he said. "Went back to Yonkers, New York. Told my mother about it. She cried, but as I told her and I've told people all across the state, there are some things worse than not having a job. It's called not having a country."
The Republican is running against Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader who has been in Congress since 1981 and a New York senator since 1999.
"I trust the voters that they will recognize that if they hold up a mirror to their own lives and ask themselves a question, are they better off today than they were 42 years ago when Chuck Schumer went down to D.C., 24 years ago when he was elected to the United States Senate, I think the answer will be, they are not," Pinion said.
He said there are a number of issues that are important to him, including the economy, crime across New York and the country, and an education system that's failing, particularly, poor and minority students. Among other things, he wants to codify that literacy is a basic human right for children across the country.
On abortion, he believes the issue has been weaponized by both parties but said women's reproductive rights have already been codified by the New York state Legislature. As for the Jan. 6 riots, he said people who stormed the Capitol should be held accountable and are being held accountable.
"We can focus on the wedge issues that have kept us divided for a very long time or we can focus on the everyday issues along with the wedge issues that have gone unaddressed and unresolved by people like Chuck Schumer," Pinion said.
He is the first Black candidate nominated by either major party for the Senate in the history of New York state. Pinion said his race is not central to his candidacy, but it is relevant.
"I'm not here running to make history, but it is important to note that perhaps that might be part of the reason why one out of three black children live in poverty in a state this is supposed to be so progressive, perhaps that might be part of the reason why three out of five children in the Bronx live in poverty, why the poverty rates in Buffalo are absolutely out of control," he said.
Pinion believes he can win by forming an uncommon coalition in which not just Republicans but disenfranchised Democrats, blanks and minor party voters who want change look to him.