GOP may end up with no candidate in vital Congressional election after legal challenge

In a new headache for New York Republicans, a legal challenge has been filed that could result in the party fielding no candidate for the 18th Congressional District.

According to The Highlands Current, the complication started with the GOP's nominee for the district, currently represented by combat veteran and former Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan, dropping out of the race. Sharanjit “Sunny” Thind, a Manhattan businessman and former Nassau County human rights commissioner, abandoned his campaign and endorsed a new candidate to replace him on the ballot.

"Jackie Mary Auringer, 29, who grew up in Kingston, filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on April 10," said the report. "According to her campaign website, she earned a marketing degree from Florida Gulf Coast University and is a project manager and accountant for her family-run construction business. While living in Florida, she founded Palm Beach Conservatives and served as an officer of the Palm Beach Federated Republican Women, according to The New York Post."

The problem, said the report, is that Thind may have been ineligible for the ballot in the first place — and because the deadline for nominating petitions has already passed, the GOP can only use Thind's paperwork to get Auringer on the ballot.

But that could be a problem, the report continued, because "on Monday, the Ulster County clerk, Taylor Bruck, said in a news release that he had filed a challenge with the state Board of Elections to Thind’s nominating petitions. Bruck, a Democrat, alleged that Thind falsely claimed to live at an address in Lagrangeville and that his petitions did not include line numbers for each signer, which 'prevents proper review of signatures and undermines the ability of election officials to evaluate the petition.'"

If the challenge is successful, it would mean Republicans could not field a candidate in the 18th District at all, giving Ryan, who represents a fairly competitive district that only voted for Democrats by 3 points at the presidential level, a glide path to re-election.

All of this comes after Republicans' efforts to mount serious opposition to Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul fell apart, with Rep. Elise Stefanik's hotly anticipated gubernatorial campaign collapsing early, despite direct pleas from President Donald Trump to stay in.