“Northern New York deserves a representative who will put partisan politics aside and fight to reduce the cost of health care, protect our air and water, improve our infrastructure and economy, and reduce the influence of corporations and billionaires in Washington,” said Cobb.

Stefanik, a Republican from Schuylerville, defeated Cobb, a Canton Democrat, last November to earn her third term in the House of Representatives.

According to a press release, Cobb has a 30-year history of service in northern New York, much of it on improving access to quality healthcare. After graduating from SUNY Potsdam in 1989, she worked at Riverview Correctional Facility as a Spanish-speaking corrections counselor. She then worked for North Country AIDS Outreach, providing HIV/AIDS testing and education in rural communities. In 1999, Cobb founded St. Lawrence Health Initiative, a nonprofit that secured state and federal dollars to provide access to critical health screenings and treatment to thousands of people. Before Cobb left the agency and started her own small consulting business, she grew the non-profit with a $19,000 grant to an organization with a budget of $500,000 and eight permanent staff.

Cobb served two terms in the St. Lawrence County Legislature, where she worked to pass a ethics law. She was appointed to the NYS Committee on Open Government where she worked to improve local government’s transparency and openness to constituents. She continues this work as a recent appointee to a joint Town and Village of Canton committee that is developing a new ethics law and Board of Ethics. As part of her platform to reduce the influence of corporations in Washington, Cobb has pledged not to accept corporate PAC contributions.

“Congress is broken, and Northern New Yorkers are paying the price. When it comes to the issues that matter most to families in our region, we need more than talk. We need action. I’ve spent my life fighting for my neighbors in the North Country. I worked to connect them to the healthcare they needed, worked to open the first safe house in the region for domestic violence survivors, and led the fight to increase transparency and accountability in local government. In four and a half years in Congress, Representative Stefanik has voted five times to kick tens of thousands of her own constituents off their health care, voted against the Violence Against Women Act, and voted against a bill that would have increased transparency and reformed our broken campaign finance system. Meanwhile, Rep. Stefanik’s campaigns have been bankrolled by the very industries she is supposed to protect Northern New Yorkers from,” Cobb said.

“It’s time for a change. Over the next 18 months, I will have conversations with people across this district about what they need and deserve from their next member of Congress. I hope to earn their votes.”