Nate McMurray said it’s been a whirlwind since federal prosecutors announced insider trading charges against Rep. Chris Collins. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Democrats take a new look at Collins' opponent

ALBANY — Last week, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee wasn’t returning Nate McMurray’s texts.

This week, House Democratic whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland called to offer support. "He was very kind," McMurray said.


McMurray, a 43-year-old town supervisor in Grand Island, N.Y., said it’s been a whirlwind since federal prosecutors announced insider trading charges against Rep. Chris Collins (R-Clarence) earlier this week. McMurray is challenging Collins in November.

“None of the Democratic leadership wanted anything to do with me. In some ways they thought I was too conservative; they thought I was too raw,” McMurray told POLITICO. “No support was there before. There was zero. I went to go see the folks at the DCCC, and they were very corporate and it was a very uninspiring meeting. It’s been me at potlucks and picnics up until this point. But that’s changed in the last 24 hours. They suddenly think this is an opportunity.”

He said his campaign, which had $82,000 on hand as of June, raised “tens of thousands” in the 24 hours following Collins’ indictment. Collins, who was first elected in 2012 and was the first member of Congress to endorse President Donald Trump, has pleaded not guilty and says he will push ahead with his campaign.

McMurray said the indictment shows a contrast between a “middle-class” person like himself, one of seven children raised by a single mother, and Collins, a multimillionaire who owned a gear factory before he was elected Erie County executive in 2007. McMurray now works as a lawyer for Delaware North, a major hospitality company.

Collins, speaking to reporters late Wednesday, said he had “lived the American dream” and has touted policies like the new $1.5 trillion tax law — which resulted in an income tax cut for many residents of the district — as evidence of helping middle-class constituents.

On paper, McMurray indeed faces an uphill battle: Republicans outnumber Democrats in the 27th District by more than 40,000, and Trump won the district by 24 points in 2016. It stretches between the Buffalo and Rochester suburbs, encompassing the rural “GLOW Counties” — Genesee, Livingston, Orleans and Wyoming.

“I don’t think they have much of a shot,” said John McLaughlin, a Republican pollster, speaking of the Democrats' chances.

That math explains why McMurray couched the race as “not left-right, it’s power and no power.” He said he wouldn’t support Nancy Pelosi as the Democratic leader if elected, and was against abolishing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency — ICE agents live in Grand Island, which is across the river from Canada.

Asked about renewing an assault weapons ban, McMurray spoke of the need to keep guns out of the hands of criminals. He leaped at a question about Medicare for All — something he supports — and called the new federal tax law a “scam” that explodes the deficit and rolled back the estate tax.

There is debate in Democratic circles about whether candidates on the party’s left flank, energized by Trump's rise, should be its leading edge. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a democratic socialist who defeated Rep. Joe Crowley (D-N.Y.) in a June primary, is a textbook case.

But outside deep blue bastions like New York City, people more tailored to their districts — like Pennsylvania's Conor Lamb and Alabama's Doug Jones — have had success. This week, progressive candidates fell short in gubernatorial primaries in Kansas and Michigan.

McMurray said all labels were relative. In the primary, he was tagged as a corporate lawyer, but “now I’m Che Guevara.” In a press conference after Collins was charged, McMurray said Ronald Reagan’s unifying tones appealed to him as a younger man.

“I think the surge from new ideas and new energy is good for the party,” McMurray said. “Just like it made the Tea Party stronger — you may not like the Tea Party, but all that energy, look what happened. They took over all the houses of government, they took over control. Because when you take things from the top down it doesn’t work. The message has to come from the bottom up.”

Livingston County Democratic Chairwoman Judith Hunter agreed.

“Democrats should be looking for people who understand their districts and will represent their districts,” she said. “Certainly, Chris Collins made his contempt for his constituents clear every day — not just when he was pulling off insider trades.”

McMurray’s relationship with the state’s top Democrat, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, is also thawing. The Queens-born Cuomo epitomizes the kind of downstate Democrat who presents a ripe target for western New Yorkers on either side of the aisle, and McMurray took on Cuomo by calling out the slow pace of putting cashless tolling on major highway bridges in Grand Island.

Local leaders culled a field of candidates and settled on McMurray earlier this year. Then Cuomo, angered by Collins’ support of a Medicaid funding change that would shift costs onto his books, put the incumbent in his cross-hairs.

The governor also saw a looming problem involving his own reelection ticket. It was shaping up that all five statewide officials on the Democratic ballot this year were likely to be white, a racial mismatch that would have been highlighted by a run for lieutenant governor by New York City Council Member Jumaane Williams, who is black.

Cuomo began to push his running mate, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, to consider running against Collins — and his political allies began pressuring McMurray to get off the line. Hochul won an earlier iteration of the seat in a 2011 special election, but lost to Collins in 2012. She was uninterested, and McMurray wouldn’t budge.

But the sudden resignation of Eric Schneiderman as state attorney general earlier this year gave Cuomo the opportunity to endorse New York City Public Advocate Tish James, who is black, for the post. Cuomo and Hochul are happily on the same page, and McMurray was left to linger in a race to which no one was paying much attention.

DCCC spokeswoman Meredith Kelly, in a Wednesday statement, said McMurray had been on the committee's target list since last month and was running a “strong” campaign for a seat that is “firmly in play.” McMurray said he’s been in touch with DCCC operatives and will be reorganizing what had been a shoe-string campaign.

And the candidate said the governor’s aides began reaching out last week. Cuomo’s spokeswoman, Abbey Collins, noted the governor committed $2,700 to each Democratic House candidate earlier this summer.

“As the governor said, Congressman Collins wasn’t fit to represent Western New York before the indictment — always putting his radical political agenda before the people of his district,” Collins stated. “The governor is 100 percent behind Nate McMurray and will continue to do everything in his power to flip the U.S. House and state Senate and fight Donald Trump’s attack on the people and values of this state.”

It’s unclear if that will mean a joint appearance or a fundraiser, or whether that would help McMurray more than it would enervate Cuomo-haters in the district.

McMurray said he was trying to keep his focus on the district, and spoke to POLITICO while driving to a rally in Monroe County.

“I’m excited. I’m excited for the future of our country,” he said. “I’ve been smiling so much my face hurts.”