Former Democratic Rep. Max Rose during interview with Staten Island Advance at Jody's Club Forest, West Brighton, on Oct. 17, 2022. (Tom Wrobleski/Staten Island Advance)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – In the first House rematch seen here in 26 years, former Democratic Rep. Max Rose is looking to regain the seat he lost to GOP Rep. Nicole Malliotakis in 2020.
When asked why the outcome will be different this year, Rose told the Advance, “That’s for the voters to decide.”
He said, “I’ve lived my entire life in service and that’s never changing. I have very little interest in thinking about yesterday. I have much more interest in thinking about tomorrow and talking about the issues that are important to me.”
During a lunchtime meeting with the Advance at Jody’s Club Forest in West Brighton, Rose said he would make sure that voters “understand the stakes of this race. Understand the stakes around guns, understand the stakes around the affordability crisis in the United States of America, understand the stakes in and around a woman’s reproductive health rights.”
Rose and Malliotakis have clashed over abortion during the campaign, and Republicans have said that Democratic candidates nationwide have focused too much on abortion at the expense of other issues, including the economy and crime.
“That’s what politicians do when they know the facts are not on their side,” Rose said. “We’re focused on a myriad of issues, but I wouldn’t understate this as an issue of freedom and, quite frankly civil rights, a woman’s right to make her own decision about her reproductive health.”
Rose said he “understands the stakes of the conversation.” The former congressman and his wife, Leigh Byrne, adopted a baby boy, Miles, two and a half years ago.
“I understand that my son’s birth mother could have made a very different decision,” Rose said. “But I do believe down to my core that that was his birth mother’s decision to make.”
DON’T COUNT OUT DEMS
The last time two House candidates went at it in back-to-back cycles here was in 1994 and 1996, with GOP Rep. Susan Molinari besting Democratic challenger Tyrone Butler both times.
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A decorated U.S. Army combat veteran of the Afghanistan war, Rose won the House seat in 2018 when he beat GOP incumbent Rep. Daniel Donovan. Rose lost his re-election bid two years later.
When asked about losing a campaign, Rose with a laugh said, “It sucks.”
“You leave it all on the court,” he said. “Your staff and your team leave it all out on the court. Winning feels better than losing. You feel utter exhaustion as well. I was proud of what we did and what we accomplished. And proud of the way we went out too. But I’m really proud of the fact that I picked myself up and served again.”
Following the loss, Rose served in the Biden administration as senior advisor on COVID-19 to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. As a deployed member of the National Guard while still in office, Rose was at the forefront of the effort that increased hospital capacity on Staten Island during the pandemic.
Rose said he didn’t agree with those who say that the Democrats will lose control of the House in the upcoming midterm elections.
“I wouldn’t count the Democrats out,” he said.
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Rose said that the GOP House leadership had shown a “complete disdain for governing” in order to damage President Joe Biden and to improve Republican chances to take back the White House in 2024.
“That to me isn’t commensurate with what the American people deserve,” he said. “So I have faith that people will see that.”
As for who will control the Senate, Rose said, “The Republicans have really nominated some jokes. But your guess is as good as mine on that front. It’s going to be very close. Everything is going to be very, very close.”
Rose said he wasn’t concerned about a recent Spectrum News/Siena College poll that had him down 6 points to Malliotakis.
“I’ve been in this too long to let my emotions sway with the whims of the latest poll,” he said. “There’s no doubt we’re closing the gap. There’s no doubt momentum is on our side.”
He said, “There’s a profound energy that you’re going to see actual robust statistical evidence of on Election Day. So I’m excited for that.”
NO TO BIDEN, TRUMP AND PELOSI
Rose said he doesn’t think that Biden should seek a second term in office in 2024 and that Donald Trump shouldn’t run either.
“And that’s not to take away from what Joe Biden has accomplished,” he said, “but there’s a need for a wholesale generational shift in this country.”
Rose said that that also included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
But Rose said didn’t have any favorites when it came to potential Biden successors.
“It’s way too far away,” he said.
FREEDOM, SAFETY, INFLATION
Rose said that when he talks to voters, issues of freedom, safety and inflation are “all kind of interwoven.”
He said, “People have a real concern that we have elected officials that are just playing politics with people’s lives. Playing games and just thinking about the next election. There’s a real disdain for that.”
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Rose said that the U.S. faces a “crisis of capacity” that encompasses affordability, including the cost of health care, energy and child care; economic growth, and safety that’s “connected to out-competing our adversaries to make sure our quality of life and our well-being increases and doesn’t decrease.”
He said, “It should be easier, not harder, to raise a family. I say that as a family guy myself.”
To tame inflation in the U.S., Rose said that the Federal Reserve should continue to raise interest rates in the short term.
Rose said that the current inflation, which he said is a worldwide problem, was in the U.S. the result of not being able to withstand the global supply chain shock driven by the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns.
In the long-term, Rose said the U.S. needs to address high pharmaceutical drug prices and “price-gouging” by oil companies, and to transition to net carbon-neutral sources of energy.
Said Rose, “It was my honor to serve this district. And I genuinely, sincerely hope that I can earn the trust and confidence of the people of this district once again.”
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