Given the leftward tilt of the progressive groups that have sprung up across Central New York in the wake of the Trump presidency, Anthony Brindisi would seem an imperfect choice as their Democratic candidate for Congress.

After all, Mr. Brindisi has an A rating from the National Rifle Association. He has already forsworn his support for Representative Nancy Pelosi’s leadership, should Democrats flip the house in November. And he devotes more airtime to burnishing his bipartisan credentials than he does to criticizing President Trump.

But those qualities — in a district where Republicans outnumber Democrats by 30,000 voters — are precisely why many progressive groups upstate have given their stamp of approval to Mr. Brindisi, 39.

They believe he is the kind of moderate Democrat who can unseat the Republican congresswoman, Claudia Tenney, an unabashed supporter of President Trump whose fiery rhetoric has become both a lightning rod locally and a late-night television punch line nationally.