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Patrick Madden, 50, of Vestal, will seek the Democratic nomination for Congress in the 22nd Congressional District. The computer scientist at SUNY Binghamton is making his first run for public office.

(Provided photo)

WASHINGTON -- A computer scientist at SUNY Binghamton plans to announce today that he will challenge Rep. Claudia Tenney in the 2018 election because he wants to bring "facts back to Congress."

Patrick Madden, 50, of Vestal, becomes the first Democrat to challenge Tenney, R-New Hartford, in the 22nd Congressional District race.

Madden said in an interview this morning that he decided to make his first run for political office because he's concerned about "an all-out attack on the very idea of facts" since Donald Trump's campaign in the 2016 presidential election.

"The ramp-up of fakes news and out-and-out lying just went off the rails in this last election cycle," Madden told syracuse.com. "It seems like we have less hesitation to tell bald-faced lies, or to actively distort things."

Madden, an associate professor of computer science, has taught at SUNY Binghamton since 1998, specializing in integrated circuit design.

He said he never considered entering politics prior to last year, but decided to run for Congress with the encouragement and backing of 314 Action, a nonprofit (named after the mathematic ratio for pi) that wants to elect more scientists to public office.

Madden said he is running as a progressive Democrat who is willing to work across the aisle, and is less tied to ideology than facts.

"I don't want to look at this through a partisan lens," he said. "I'm an engineer and a scientist."

If he receives the Democratic nomination, he would take on Tenney, a first-term Republican who supported Trump in the presidential election. Trump cruised to an easy victory in the 22nd District in November, winning its largest county, Oneida County, by 21 percentage points.

Madden, who first supported Bernie Sanders and then Hillary Clinton for president, said he's confident that he will pick up support from some disappointed Trump voters.

"I think a lot of the Trump win was an anti-Hillary vote," Madden said. "A lot of criticism of her was unfair, but she was a polarizing and mobilizing figure. So I don't blame the Trump voters for not preferring Hillary Clinton."

On his campaign website, Madden said he's disturbed by an attack on the idea of facts. "Scientists. Journalists. Every honest person is threatened, with the president leading the charge," Madden wrote.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in Washington has made Tenney's seat one of its top two pickup priorities (along with the seat held by Rep. John Katko, R-Camillus) in New York state for the 2018 election.

The 22nd Congressional District covers all of Madison, Oneida, Cortland and Chenango counties and a portion of Oswego, Broome, Herkimer and Tioga counties.

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