In the race for a coveted House seat in New York’s Lower Hudson Valley suburbs, the two rival candidates are accusing each other of embracing extremism, even as they have both largely tacked to the center on a range of key issues — including Middle East policy.

Former Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY), a Democrat looking to reclaim his old House seat after running in New York City last cycle, is now mounting a comeback campaign against freshman Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), one of the most vulnerable House Republicans up for reelection.

In an interview with Jewish Insider, Jones, 37, reiterated his claim that Lawler has “leaned into MAGA extremism” during his first term — citing his recent defense of former President Donald Trump’s widely criticized warning to Jewish voters that it will be their fault if he loses the election later this month.

“I got so many text messages from people who were angry and fearful after Trump did that,” Jones said last week. “Many of those constituents watched in real time as Lawler went on CNN and NewsNation to defend those comments, and they wanted me to do something about it.”

Meanwhile, Lawler, 38, characterized Jones as a far-left radical aligned with the Squad. “He voted against Iron Dome,” Lawler alleged in an interview with JI. “This is someone who supports cashless bail and defunding the police and open borders.”

But while Lawler has not actively distanced himself from Trump’s polarizing rhetoric in a district that President Joe Biden won by 10 points in 2020, he has also been among the few Republican lawmakers to publicly speak out against Tucker Carlson, an ally of the former president, for amplifying a Holocaust denier on his show last month.

For his part, Jones has been a reliable defender of the Jewish state, even if he is now more outwardly emphasizing his support for Israel compared to his last campaign in a deeply progressive district covering parts of Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan.

In June, for instance, Jones endorsed Westchester County Executive George Latimer over Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) in a neighboring district, crediting his decision to Bowman’s hostile positions on Israel. The announcement drew ire from the left, including the Working Families Party, which said it would no longer work to help elect Jones in his race against Lawler.

Even as they are not in agreement on Israel, the far-left group is now urging constituents in the district to vote for Jones on the Democratic line after an alleged GOP spoiler candidate secured the Working Families line in the primary this summer.

Following the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week, Jones renewed his call for the immediate surrender of the terrorist group and said that the hostages still being held in Gaza “must be released.”

In the interview with JI, he said he had not himself read a recent letter signed by the U.S. secretaries of defense and state warning that Israel could face the possibility of losing military assistance if it did not take steps to expedite the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

But he countered that “we have to continue to provide Israel with the resources to obtain the release of the hostages and to defeat Hamas once and for all.”

Jones said that he has been “pleased to see the Biden administration provide support to Israel in its efforts to defeat Hezbollah and other proxies of Iran in the region,” even while adding that he is “very concerned about a broader regional war breaking out — and want to avoid that as Israel rightfully defends itself.”

Both candidates, who traded barbs in their first debate last week, are aggressively courting the sizable population of Jewish voters who could be decisive in a closely contested race. The district is among a handful of GOP-held New York swing seats that Democrats are now seeking to flip to win back the House.

Despite their claims to the contrary, Lawler and Jones are largely aligned on Israel, a top issue for many single-issue voters in the district, which is home to a large Orthodox constituency that helped the first-term incumbent claim an upset over Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) in the 2022 election. 

Speaking with JI, Lawler called Sinwar’s death “an important step in hopefully bringing this conflict to a resolution,” accusing the Biden administration of “continuing to undermine Israel’s ability to ensure their safety.”

“Frankly, if the Biden administration had its way, I don’t know that Sinwar would be dead today,” he told JI on Friday. “This administration needs to wake up and realize that Israel is not a problem here.”

In recent weeks, Lawler has faced scrutiny over an unearthed photo showing him dressed in blackface as Michael Jackson in college. He has apologized for the costume, saying it had been intended as a “form of flattery” and as “a genuine homage to my musical hero.”

To Jones, the costume underscored what he described as his opponent’s “failing the test of leadership when it comes to issues of race and antisemitism.”

“You can think that Mike Lawler is better than Marjorie Taylor Greene, so long as you understand that he empowers Marjorie Taylor Greene,” Jones said, referring to the right-wing congresswoman from Georgia. “The only way to restore women’s reproductive freedom, protect Social Security and Medicare” and “secure our Southern border,” he added, “is by defeating Mike Lawler and electing a Democratic Congress.”

The first-term Republican said he expected the Orthodox community would again turn out for him in the election, where recent polling has shown he maintains a slight edge over Jones. “No question,” Lawler told JI, touting his constituent services in the district as well as his record promoting bipartisan legislation relating to Israel and antisemitism.

“The issues that people are focused on, from the affordability crisis to the migrant crisis to the crises around the globe — including the conflict in the Middle East — are issues that I’ve been heavily focused on and done a lot of work on in Congress,” he said, predicting “very strong support within the Jewish community” across the district.

He voiced confidence about his chances heading into the final stretch of the race, saying “no one can question” his “commitment” to addressing issues of concern to a district in which Democrats outnumber Republicans by a margin of 80,000 voters. 

“We have strong support, even among Democrats,” Lawler said, arguing that Jones “is not someone who I think appeals to the vast majority of voters in this district.”

Jones, who said he was “feeling very good about the race,” acknowledged that he was unlikely to receive meaningful support from Orthodox voters who had backed his first campaign for Congress in the 202o election.

“In 2020 I was proud to get significant support in the Orthodox community, and I am seeking the support of all communities in this district,” he told JI. “I’m proud that even those individuals in the Hasidic community who are currently planning on supporting Mike Lawler don’t have negative things to say about me, because they know I’ve delivered.”

A Republican operative familiar with the race said that Lawler “is up outside the margin of error in” internal party polling, but a Democratic strategist told JI that even as Lawler has been leading, “it is not a huge gap,” and Jones “can absolutely close it.”

“This is a tough, tough race — hand-to-hand combat, almost,” said a Democratic leader in the district, who spoke anonymously to discuss the election. “If we have a good Democratic turnout, then we’ll be OK. It’s definitely doable.”