On October 15, Democratic congressional candidate Tracy Mitrano spoke to IHS seniors enrolled in Government and Economics about her life, civic engagement, and her campaign against Republican representative Tom Reed. Mitrano, a cybersecurity expert and political newcomer, is running in New York’s 23rd Congressional District, home to Ithaca as well as more conservative areas in New York’s Southern Tier.
The event, which was held in Kulp Auditorium, began with Mitrano telling students about her own life. She emphasized her roots in Upstate New York, as the child of parents who owned a restaurant in Rochester. She then described her experience as the first in her family to go to college, at the University of Rochester, and she went on to receive a PhD in history and a law degree, from Binghamton University and Cornell University respectively. In addition to working as a professor for many years, Mitrano served as Cornell University’s Director of Information Technology Policy from 2001-2014. After her introduction, Mitrano left most of the period for answering questions from students in the audience.
One point, brought up by multiple students, was the challenge Mitrano faced in uniting Democrats in the district after only narrowly winning a primary in a field with numerous candidates. When asked how she would be able to address this, Mitrano emphasized the value of having lifelong roots in Upstate New York and, to much applause from the audience, embraced a common goal of getting Tom Reed out of office. In responding to other audience questions, Mitrano expressed support for a variety of policies, from campaign finance reform to legalization of recreational marijuana to the implementation of universal healthcare. One issue where she deviated somewhat from traditional progressive orthodoxy was that of gun rights, where she holds a more nuanced position. While explaining her support for comprehensive background checks, Mitrano also made clear her skepticism of some gun restrictions and disappointment in New York State’s SAFE Act.
After speaking to the senior class as a whole and answering the questions of some individual students, Mitrano was able to take the time to talk with us at the Tattler for a brief interview.
Julian Perry ‘19: What made you decide to run for office?
Tracy Mitrano: Politics, democracy, and citizenship have always been the focus of what I’ve done, whether as an American historian, a policy analyst, or even in internet and cybersecurity policy. I got involved because I was concerned about Russian interference in the election, and I looked to see if anyone in Congress has a background in cybersecurity currently—they don’t. I thought about offering my thoughts to my congressman, but I realized that Tom Reed wouldn’t want to talk with me because he makes fun of people who live in Tompkins County and he routinely pays no attention to people who disagree with him. After considering my children, who have both graduated and left the home, I decided it was time to throw my head in the ring.
JP ‘19: Much of your career has been spent working with or at institutions of higher education, and you seem to strongly value education. How do you think we should deal with existing barriers to education?
TM: We have to get rid of the usurious interest rates of college loans, and we have to provide better preparation so that students can navigate their way to college. This isn’t as true for Ithaca, but it’s very true for the majority of students in other schools in our congressional district. Educational institutions beginning with pre-school and elementary are where the problems of society come to light—the poverty, the lack of medical care, the lack of adequate parenting, the drug problems—they’re all part of the parcel when kids enter the classroom. If we don’t start to address these problems, we’re not going to effectively address the problems that more disadvantaged students face, and these kids won’t be effectively prepared to enter higher education.
JP ‘19: You are one of a record breaking number of women running for Congress this year. Still, men outnumber women at seemingly all levels of elected office. How do you think this impacts the state of politics, and what is your message to women thinking of getting involved?
TM: I think it’s a good idea for us to be thinking about people in families and in neighborhoods and communities instead of always making it seem like a contest between men and women. If we did it that way, men would understand the effects of discriminating against their mothers or sisters, or of sexual assault against their mothers or sisters. If we thought this way, voters would be more inclined to believe that politics aren’t a contest of men versus women, but that it’s a contest about all of our humanity. For example, if a male loses his job and his family is now relying on the salary of his wife, do you think he’s in favor of her being discriminated against? No! So we need to start thinking of ourselves in our relationships with other people, beginning with our children and our spouses, and in our larger families and communities. Otherwise, it seems like a zero-sum game, which it’s definitely not.
JP ‘19: The opioid overdose crisis is one that significantly affects this community. Ithaca’s mayor, Svante Myrick, has been at the forefront of the fight to promote clean injection sites for addicts, while your opponent believes harsher criminal sentencing for some drug offenders is part of the solution. How do you think we should deal with the opioid crisis?
TM: There are a lot of spokes to this wheel—I think we should be bringing legal action against pharmaceutical companies that knowingly pumped out substances that are highly addictive. I think we should be revisiting the role of the DEA and investigating how they’ve failed to control a 50-year plus drug epidemic that’s only gotten worse. With the marriage of legal opiates and illegal ones, I think we need to try to think ahead of the game. Every time that we try to plug a hole, like two decades ago when airline employees were stuffing drugs in hidden parts of planes, another one emerges, like fentanyl coming in illegally via the mail from China—a wall won’t stop that. So I believe we should have actions against pharmaceutical hearings, hearings on why the DEA hasn’t been able to stop this epidemic, healthcare and publicly funded help for recovering addicts so they’re not left on the streets, and devoting funding to finding the best and most effective treatment methods for opioid addictions. Overall, poverty, a lack of community, and a lack of education are all issues that relate closely to this one, and in the long run, we’ll need to solve these to fix the overall problem.
JP ‘19: Recently, parts of the country have faced some of the most devastating natural disasters to date, and report after report has shown the increasing severity of the effects of global climate change. How do we as a nation balance our energy needs, while also ensuring that our generation inherits a clean planet?
TM: The first thing is getting back to the Paris Climate Accords. More generally, we need to keep our eyes on the ball, not only in terms of how we can reduce our footprint, but also how we can help other industrializing countries, particularly India and China, to be in a position to move towards renewable energy sources over fossil fuels. As a more local matter, I think we need to have a more responsible EPA and FEMA, both of which need to think more proactively instead of retroactively. We have once-in-500-year events happening every other year, and once-in-100-year storms happening multiple times a year. I’ve seen in various areas in our own district—Lodi and in parts of Cattaraugus County—the effects of climate change, and we need desperately to work with civil engineers to clear streams and build infrastructure, because when our waterways are backed up, we get tremendous flooding. So, in addition to national steps that we need to take, there are a lot of steps that we can do to prepare ourselves here in our community.