Democrat Kyle Hill suspends bid to unseat GOP Rep. Nick LaLota in 1st Congressional District

Kyle Hill, a former congressional aide from Port Jefferson, dropped out of the Democratic primary for New York’s 1st Congressional District seat on Wednesday, becoming the latest candidate to suspend their bid to unseat Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Amityville).

Hill’s departure from the race came a day after former State Sen. James Gaughran, a Democrat from East Northport, announced he was withdrawing from the primary after a newly drawn congressional redistricting map split the town of Huntington into two districts. Craig Herskowitz, a former New York City administrative law judge who lives in Northport, has also suspended his campaign.

The Democratic primary field now includes John Avlon, a former CNN political analyst who maintains residences in Manhattan and Sag Harbor, and Nancy Goroff, a former Stony Brook University chemistry department chair. Daniel Peter Foti has filed to run as a Conservative.

Hill, in a statement, said: “I got into this race because more young people should run for public office and because I believe Congress can do great things but only when it's composed of good people. Right now we can do so much better.”

LaLota, a first-term House member elected in 2022, has $1.3 million in cash on hand, according to the most recent Federal Election Commission filings. Goroff had nearly $530,000, and Foti reported $9,200.

Avlon, who entered the race on Feb. 21, has not been required to report fundraising numbers to the FEC, which collects campaign fundraising reports on a quarterly basis. The next filing deadline is April 15.

The primary election is scheduled for June 25.

By Laura Figueroa Hernandez

laura.figueroa@newsday.com@Laura_Figueroa

Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.