By Colin Brennan
BUFFALO — With ten days until Election Day, Rep. Nick Langworthy has about 37 times as much cash as his Democratic challenger in New York’s 23rd Congressional District. But federal filings show the challenger, Aaron Gies, has now raised more than the incumbent in two straight reporting periods.
Pre-general reports filed this week with the Federal Election Commission cover Oct. 1 through Oct. 14. Langworthy, the Republican and Conservative nominee, ended the period with $1,994,176.70 in cash on hand. Gies, who has the Democratic and Working Families lines, reported $54,077.18.
In those two weeks Gies raised $94,066.32 and Langworthy raised $53,220.25. The third quarter went the same way: Gies took in $357,243.04 from July through September, against $296,167.57 for Langworthy.
The election is Nov. 3. The district, which Langworthy won by a wide margin in 2024, has a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+10. It is still one of the most reliably Republican seats in New York.
Where the money is going
Langworthy’s campaign spent $622,785.48 in the first half of October. That cut its cash on hand from $2,563,741.93 on Sept. 30.
Most of the money went to a single item. The report lists a $551,000 “media buy” on Oct. 9 with Strategic Media Placement Inc. of Delaware, Ohio. The campaign also paid $22,900 to IFA Holdings LLC of Arlington, Va., for “survey research” and $10,000 to Capelianis Consulting for finance consulting.
It also gave $25,000 on Oct. 9 to the Nassau County Republican Committee, on Long Island. Langworthy was chairman of the New York Republican State Committee before he was elected to Congress in 2022.
Gies spent $270,790.07 over the same period, which is more than four times what he had raised in it. The largest payments went to The Parkside Group: $137,986.72 for mailers and $5,022 for door hangers. The Balduzzi Group received $87,500 for advertising, and Meta received $7,200 for digital ads.
Two very different donor bases
Across the whole cycle, the campaigns have raised money from very different places.
Since January 2025, Langworthy’s committee has reported $2,675,792.78 in total receipts. Of the $2,252,760.56 that came in as contributions, about 54.5 percent ($1,227,226.65) came from political action committees and other committees. About 45 percent ($1,018,071.91) came from individuals.
His donors in the latest period included the PACs of SpaceX, UPS and the American Institute of CPAs at $5,000 each, and BASF and the Barona Band of Mission Indians at $2,500 each. The NRA Victory Fund, AbbVie, Vertex and the Meat Institute each gave $1,000. So did the Allegany County Women’s Republican Club. Since the books closed on Oct. 14, Langworthy has filed 48-hour notices for another $41,000 in large contributions.
Gies has reported $678,483.72 in receipts for the cycle. Individuals gave $648,733.72 of it, about 96 percent of his contributions. PACs gave $23,750. That includes $3,000 each from Allegany County Matters and Boosting Future Leaders Onward, plus gifts from several county Democratic committees.
The Gies campaign has made that contrast a central theme. In an Oct. 15 statement reported by the Olean Star, Gies said, “The people who punch the clock, pay the bills, and keep this district running have more power than Langworthy’s downstate corporate interests.”
That statement said 95 percent of Gies’ money came from individuals, compared with 33 percent for Langworthy. FEC summary totals through Oct. 14 support the 95 percent figure for Gies, but they put Langworthy’s individual share at about 45 percent of contributions.
In a release this week, published by the Wellsville Sun, Gies went further. “I’ve spent my life teaching that true greatness is serving,” said Gies, a theology professor at St. Bonaventure University. “Nick Langworthy has spent his life in politics, taking care of corporate interests and party insiders.”
The same release said Langworthy “has yet to hold a single in-person town hall,” and said Gies is on a “100 Town Hall tour in 99 days.” The Chronicle has not independently verified either claim.
What the incumbent is running on
Langworthy is seeking a third term. He sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and in the campaign’s only debate he focused on the economy, trade and the war with Iran.
The two candidates met for their only debate on Oct. 6 on WETM in Elmira. According to the Observer-Today, Langworthy said, “We have had very stubborn inflation these last five years,” and argued the country has “to grow our way out of this.”
He defended the administration’s trade policy without hedging. “The tariff is the most pro-worker tool that can be in the arsenal,” Langworthy said. “We have sold out our jobs across Western New York and the Southern Tier through free trade agreements over the last 30 years.”
On the war with Iran, Langworthy said he wanted it over quickly but would not try to restrict the president. “I would like the war in Iran to end at the earliest possible date. But you don’t tie the commander-in-chief’s hands. We have one commander-in-chief at a time,” he said. “I didn’t make the decision to go to war, but we find ourselves in that position now.”
Gies took the opposite view on war powers. “It would not be the Congress tying the hands of the president. It would be the Constitution tying the hands of the president,” he said, according to the Observer-Today. He also argued that tariffs have hurt the region’s relationship with Canada.
The rest of the map
The cash gap is similar one district north. In New York’s 26th District, which covers Buffalo and Niagara Falls, Democratic Rep. Tim Kennedy reported $1,208,991.19 in cash on hand as of Oct. 14, after raising $73,629.62 and spending $156,299.39 during the period. His Republican opponent, Dennis Hannon, has reported $5,525 in receipts for the entire cycle and had $4,438.20 on hand.
In NY-23, the numbers are clear about each side’s position. Langworthy has the money for a full television campaign through Election Day, plus a district whose voters have consistently backed Republicans. Gies has shown he can raise money from small and local donors in a district Republicans have carried comfortably. He goes into the final stretch with far less cash than Langworthy.
NY-23 includes all of Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua and Tioga counties, along with parts of Erie, Niagara, Chemung, Schuyler and Steuben counties. Its largest cities are Jamestown and Elmira. Early voting in New York begins today, Oct. 24, and runs through Nov. 1.
The Chronicle is inviting both campaigns to comment and will update this story with any response.
Photo: Official portrait of Rep. Nick Langworthy, U.S. House Office of Photography (public domain), via Wikimedia Commons.
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