Mike Lawler Fact Sheet

Mike Lawler was a political consultant and lobbyist for the fossil fuel industry before being elected as a Republican in 2022.  He was the founder of Checkmate Strategies, a political communications firm.

Fact: Lawler’s claim of being “bi-partisan” is pure spin from a former spin doctor.  Mike Lawler plays a reasonable, bi-partisan kind of guy on CNN.  But he’s rubber-stamped every extreme policy the Trump White House has pushed.  From the “Big Beautiful Bill” to tariffs to the war against Iran, Lawler has been a vocal cheerleader for the Trump agenda. (Congressional Integrity Project; Cook Political Report.  Source list at end)  

Fact: Mike Lawler has a 100% MAGA voting record:  Lawler has voted 100% of the time for Trump’s Project 2025 agenda for America. Lawler has been described as a "loyal minion of Donald Trump" and is an enthusiastic Trump cheerleader.  Lawler’s perfect MAGA score includes cutting foreign aid to disaster zones, de-funding PBS, and voting for the “Big Beautiful Bill,” which is projected to kick 7.8 million people off Medicaid by 2034.  (Congressional Integrity Project; Cook Political Report; (CapAction, Votehub)

Fact: Everything’s more expensive.  After running on an empty promise to lower costs, Mike Lawler’s support of Trump’s tariffs and needless wars has everything costing more.  Gas, housing, healthcare, groceries. . . . the Iran war is costing trillions that could be spent meeting  our needs here. Trump and Lawler ran on 2 promises:  I will make life more affordable, and no more foreign wars.  Neither were true.  

Fact: Heathcare costs continue to skyrocket.  Donald Trump and Congressional Republicans have launched an all-out assault on our health care system.  By slashing Medicaid, driving rural hospitals off a cliff, and ending healthcare tax credits, they’ve created a disaster for working families and helped billionaires get even richer. 

New Yorkers who buy insurance on their own will see dramatic increases: 

• The average couple in the Lower Hudson Valley will pay $2,472 more a year in health insurance – a 31% increase.  (Associated Press, 1/2/26)

• 18,000 people in our district will lose their health insurance because of Mike Lawler, and we’ll have 800 fewer nurses.  

• A 45-year-old in New York making $62,000 will see their average annual premium costs rise by $4,508 to hit $9,948 annually.

• A 60-year-old couple in New York making $82,000 will see their average annual premium costs rise by $12,671 to hit $19,896 annually.

• A family of four in New York making $126,000 will see their average annual premium costs rise by $17,132 to hit $28,352 annually.

• 860,000 New Yorkers will lose their health care coverage entirely thanks to Republican premium increases and the Big Ugly bill.

Hospitals and clinics across New York are already struggling to stay open after Republicans passed the largest health care cuts in history. Now, thanks to Republicans gutting premium tax credits while hiking premiums – a double punch --  health providers in New York will lose an additional $213 million in funding.  

Fact: Billionaires get tax breaks while healthcare premiums go up and Medicaid is slashed.  The richest 1% got 1 Trillion in tax cuts while American families have to spend an extra $2,000 a year for the same things they had last year.  With Lawler in power, the ultra-rich like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk will never pay their fair share in taxes.

Fact: Mike Lawler supports the costly war against Iran:  Lawler voted against the War Powers Act that gives Congress control over the U.S. going to war.  Once again, despite Trump’s threats to make “a whole civilization disappear,” Lawler give him a blank check to commit war crimes and send gas prices over $4 dollars.  

Fact: Mike Lawler voted in favor of Warrantless Surveillance. Lawler voted in favor of the FISA act that gives the government broad powers to spy on Americans whenever they want, without needing to prove cause or get a warrant.  This is part of the surveillance state that threatens our freedoms.

Fact: Mike Lawler called the Epstein Files “a colossal waste of time” and said we should “move on” from the investigation.

Sources:

Associated Press

NBC

Congressional Integrity Project 

Cook Political Report 

CapAction

Votehub