For decades, Oneida County has been the anchor of one of upstate New York’s congressional seats. And regardless of its boundaries over years of redistricting, its representatives — from Sherwood Boehlert to Claudia Tenney — have hailed from the Mohawk Valley.
That has now changed.
The new 22nd Congressional District combines Oneida County with Madison and Onondaga counties, as well as a sliver of Oswego County, joining the cities of Utica and Rome with the larger city of Syracuse.
Not only does Onondaga County have more residents than both Oneida and Madison combined, both candidates for the congressional seat — Democrat Francis Conole and Republican Brandon Williams — are from the western portion of the district.
“There is definitely concern in the Mohawk Valley about a potential lack of attention under the new congressional district. I think this concern is bipartisan. I hear it from both Republicans and Democrats,” said Luke Perry, a political science professor at Utica University.
“I think there is a sort of a sense of resignation that the dynamics have changed,” he continued. “The geographic power base of the district has shifted west and that Utica is now in the shadow of Syracuse when it comes to House representation over the next 10 years.”
Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente, a Republican who supports Williams, said the region has crucial national security level federal installations that cannot be forsaken.
“Air Force Research Laboratory, Rome Labs is an essential piece of the entire region,” Picente said. “But it does sit here and it does have the importance of continuity. And again, the question resides in not having a congressional member that actually resides here that has that kind of interest and incentive — as well as just the force of maintaining it — becomes an issue.”
“My hope is whoever wins this race understands that,” he added.
Aside from population differences, there can also be a political one.
In an exclusive Spectrum News 1/Siena College poll released Friday, Conole led Williams by 16 points in the portion of the 22nd District that includes Onondaga County and the sliver of Oswego County, while Williams led by 16 points in a combination of Madison and Oneida counties.
But Onondaga County’s traditional Democratic tilt in national and statewide elections far from guarantees a Democrat’s win in a congressional race. Dana Balter won Onondaga County in 2018 when she challenged Republican Rep. John Katko for the old 24th District seat — but just barely — and Katko’s solid margins in the rural counties of that district helped him win re-election.
“When we think about elections, I do think the Mohawk Valley is a pivotal piece to either side winning the election, Oneida County in particular,” Perry said. “It’s certainly smaller than Onondaga County, but I don’t think winning Onondaga County alone is likely, unless it’s a very large margin, is likely to be sufficient to win the election.”
That’s something Democrat Sarah Klee Hood knows about.
“I remember when the boundaries were redrawn and it was Oneida and I think the next day after, I looked at the team and I said ‘we need to go to Oneida,’” Hood said.
Hood, a DeWitt town councilor, ran in the Democratic primary race for the 22nd District this summer. She placed a close second to Conole, partially because she won Oneida County.
“They're a unique community. They're not by any means a suburb of Syracuse. They have their own identity, their own economic levers and they have their own challenges that they want addressed,” said Hood, who now supports Conole.
Hood said job skills retention and training — educational programs that can make the region a workforce development pipeline — was an important issue for voters there.
“That’s very unique to them. That’s not something that we can say ‘oh we have this in Syracuse. Let’s just put a different flavor on it.’ It’s very unique to them in terms of what their funding resource looks like and what their workforce development looks like,” she said.
Hood’s political success there is not an outlier either. On the congressional level, Oneida County has been competitive in the last few cycles and can be decisive district-wide. After Claudia Tenney won the county by 12 points in 2016, Anthony Brindisi won the county by 2 points in 2018 and unseated her in the district, then Tenney won back the seat in 2020 and won Oneida County by 2 points.
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As for the current candidates, Conole and Williams insist they are aware how decisive the region could be in this race.
“Our primary campaign focused heavily on Oneida County, and just last week Brandon had five separate events throughout Oneida County, including a rally in Utica with Lee Zeldin,” a spokesman for Brandon Williams’ campaign said. “We invited and hosted Steve Scalise (and three other members of Congress) to a special event in Vernon, and have also met with the Oneida County GOP Committee. Brandon has also toured factories, been a panelist at Griffis, and visited farms across Oneida County.”
A spokesman for Francis Conole’s campaign said they opened an office in Utica and attended a forum with the Rome Chamber of Commerce, among other things.
“Numerous events in Oneida (More than we've had in Onondaga),” he said.
County Executive Picente said the close compact of the new 22nd District could help ease Mohawk Valley voters’ concerns about being overshadowed.
“I would have voters understand and demand that because it’s concentrated like that, they should expect to see an equal time of their representative in each of those counties,” he said.
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