BUFFALO, N.Y. — With just three weeks until the special election, Republican candidate Gary Dickson told 2 On Your Side in an exclusive interview that he’s not discouraged in his race for the 26th congressional district seat.
The West Seneca supervisor is facing an uphill battle taking on democratic state senator Tim Kennedy in a district where Democrats outnumber Republicans two-to-one and have won the last five elections.
“There's no argument that this is a challenging race, but so was David Goliath and we know how that ended,” Dickson said. “I've had that experience before.”
Dickson had to overcome a similar challenge just to get to where he is now.
Back in 2019, Dickson became the first republican town supervisor in West Seneca in 50 years despite the initial scale tipping in Democrats’ favor by 5,000 voters.
He also said that he’s focusing his campaign on crime, immigration, and education but kept it vague when it comes to his plans for action.
Dickson: “Everybody, regardless of their party, can get behind policies that increase safety, that control spending, that controls immigration and increase education.”
2 On Your Side: “Do you have any set concrete plans right now that you would bring in to try to address these issues?
Dickson: “Nothing particularly concrete right now. You know, I did get into it relatively late. It's working with people to achieve the goals and identifying who in Congress is interested in actually working to solve problems.”
But with only five years of political experience compared to his opponent’s two decades, some question if he’s ready to work to solve those problems.
2 On Your Side: “What is it that you feel makes you more qualified than Mr. Kennedy to represent this district?”
Dickson: “I think differently. I'm not a career politician. And that puts me in a good situation because I can do what I think is right, not what I think I have to do to satisfy my party to keep getting reelected.”
The special election is set for April 30 and early voting will begin on April 20.
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