It has been under 100 days since the new session of Congress began. But already, both sides of the aisle in New York are looking ahead to 2024.
The National Republican Congressional Committee has released a list of 37 districts across the country they believe can be flipped red.
New York's 18th District was on the list, the district Rep. Pat Ryan represents, which includes Orange County and parts of Dutchess and Ulster Counties in the Hudson Valley.
"So last year, I had two races six months in two different districts, and they threw the whole kitchen sink, millions of dollars and Super PAC spending," Ryan told Errol Louis on "Inside City Hall" Tuesday night. "And I think people saw it through the BS, frankly, and so I don't I don't mind being on these lists. It just motivates us."
A political action committee aligned with Democrats is setting up a "war room" in New York that will defend Democratic incumbents and attempt to flip seats the party lost in the 2022 midterm elections.
"We're fighting for reproductive rights, voting rights, to protect our climate, to stop gun violence. And, you know, that is a fight that we're certainly gonna have to dig even deeper in. So we'll welcome all the help from whoever wants to help us," Ryan said.
Ryan, who is a graduate of the United States Military Academy and served two tours of duty in Iraq, believes that "doing the job well as the best path to reelection and keeping the job."
Ryan is on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and said he's recently been fighting for "common sense rail safety."
"Right in the Hudson Valley, right along our Hudson River, there's hundreds of miles of [CSX Transportation] train line, where we've had decades of issues. We just had somebody tragically killed in Kingston in my district over the weekend," Ryan said.
In the wake of the Norfolk Southern derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, Ryan wrote a letter to the president of CSX and demanded they "take immediate action to ensure that we can address public safety concerns and prevent future disasters."
"Do the right thing. Step up. Put in place common sense safety measures, more engineers to staff the trains, notifying local officials when toxic chemicals are coming through, common sense stuff," Ryan said. "And so far, we haven't seen them do that."
Ryan is also a fierce advocate for reproductive rights, which have been making headlines recently. A federal judge in Texas scheduled a hearing in a case that seeks to overturn the Food and Drug Administration's approval of mifepristone. Mifepristone is the first of two medications used in a medication abortion, according to Planned Parenthood.
"So to be clear, this is a back door attempt at a national abortion ban. This would affect millions of people across the country, including in New York," Ryan said. "We actually introduced legislation last Congress specifically in anticipation of this."