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David Wagenhauser
David Wagenhauser (Democratic Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent New York's 24th Congressional District. He lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Wagenhauser completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
David Wagenhauser was born in Rochester, New York. He earned a bachelor's degree from the State University of New York, Brockport in 1981 and a law degree from Syracuse University College of Law in 1986.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: New York's 24th Congressional District election, 2024
New York's 24th Congressional District election, 2024 (June 25 Republican primary)
New York's 24th Congressional District election, 2024 (June 25 Democratic primary)
General election
General election for U.S. House New York District 24
Incumbent Claudia Tenney defeated David Wagenhauser in the general election for U.S. House New York District 24 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Claudia Tenney (Conservative Party / R) | 65.6 | 235,867 |
 | David Wagenhauser (D)  | 34.3 | 123,317 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 223 | ||
| Total votes: 359,407 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
The Democratic primary election was canceled. David Wagenhauser advanced from the Democratic primary for U.S. House New York District 24.
Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. House New York District 24
Incumbent Claudia Tenney defeated Mario Fratto in the Republican primary for U.S. House New York District 24 on June 25, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Claudia Tenney | 61.1 | 19,485 |
 | Mario Fratto | 38.3 | 12,233 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.6 | 187 | ||
| Total votes: 31,905 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Phillip Gioia (R)
Conservative Party primary election
The Conservative Party primary election was canceled. Incumbent Claudia Tenney advanced from the Conservative Party primary for U.S. House New York District 24.
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Wagenhauser in this election.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
David Wagenhauser completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Wagenhauser's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I went to SUNY Brockport and later to Syracuse University College of Law, spending summers working as a painter and carpenter. Once I earned my JD, I left for Washington, DC, eager to change the world as a First Amendment, public interest attorney.
Soon after arriving in DC, I led a team that sued six of the biggest telecom corps that were gouging consumers. I also took the fight to Congress, where I testified before the House and Senate and worked on crafting a bipartisan bill that would reign in a consumer nightmare. A year later, I was made Executive Director.
Eventually, I answered the call of my family and came home to help my mom’s growing home care agency, helping our neighbors – the elderly and disabled - remain independent in their homes.
While home in Brockport, I was elected Village Trustee. I worked extensively on fiscal, public safety and infrastructure issues, but after four years I decided to “term limit myself.”
Recently, I’ve helped candidates that believe in the working man and woman, in bringing living wage jobs, and protecting seniors and the benefits they have earned and paid for. I believe that holding elected office is a public service - not a golden meal ticket.- We need to make Upstate NY more affordable for working families - at the pump, the grocery store and for our healthcare needs. See more at DaveforUpstate.com
- Medicare and Social Security are threatened. It's not a threat this time, there's a plan. We need to protect and safeguard the agreement made many years ago. In addition to looking out for our seniors, we need to make sure women can make their own healthcare decisions, unimpeded by politicians.
- We need to incentivize and spur development, investment and jobs that create opportunities for our kids here and keep our families together.
We also need to reform Congress: ban stock trading, ban PAC and corporate lobbying money, and enact term limits. Representatives should not go in rich and come out richer.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign website
Wagenhauser’s campaign website stated the following:
| “ |
Reform Congress Ban stock trading: Stock trading is an everyday occurrence for many members of Congress. While politicians may state their stocks or funds are in blind trusts, they are largely aware of what they own since they disclose it at least yearly (see below). How will you know your Representative is voting for your best interests, or their own financial best interest? As your Congressman, I will neither own securities, trade securities or have trading done in my name. Tenney: Active trader of securities while in Congress. Ban Corporate PAC and Lobbyist Money: Corporate money, dark money and special interest influence has corrupted our political system. Bought and paid for politicians repay their gifts with their votes – working for special interests, not Upstate New Yorkers. I will take no Corporate PAC or lobbyist money. I will serve the people of Upstate NY. Tenney: Active Corporate PAC and lobbyist big $$ recipient; Enact Term Limits: They are a positive structural reform to change incentives so politicians think more about their constituents and less about their next campaign, their campaign warchests, and the special interests that fuel them; They bring in generational diversity, fresh blood and new ideas. I will fight for term limits and lead by example. Tenney says she is for term limits but keeps running. We also need to end the practice of partisan gerrymandering and prevent lobbying by ex-politicians (who hopefully go home after they are term-limited). Protect Social Security and Medicare Social Security/Medicare are threatened (and they’re not kidding this time). We must allow seniors to retire with the dignity they deserve and benefits they paid for. Instead of cuts, require the wealthy to pay their fair share into these programs will help to keep our promise to seniors. Tenney is a member of a group (RSC) with a plan released this year to slash SS/Medicare while making permanent 2017 tax cuts that disproportionally benefit the wealthy and big Corporations and add trillions to the debt. Tenney stated she would protect Medicare, but in 2017 she voted for a bill that would have cut Medicare. Get Prescription Drug Costs Down Big Pharma's free ride must end. The buying of Congress and anti-competitive actions must stop. Recent actions to permit negotiations for Medicare recipients are a good first step, giving them more authority would be better. Capping costs on critical drugs is vital. Tenney voted with big pharma and opposed Medicare negotiations that will save seniors real money (billions) and make Medicare stronger. Tenney takes money from Pfizer, Amgen, et.al. Tenney voted NO on a bill to cap insulin costs at $35 per month and introduced a bill that would give more tax incentives to Big Pharma to produce products in the US. Jobs Rebuild upstate with policies and legislation that spur investment and make Upstate once again a manufacturing hub – semiconductors, batteries, solar technologies. Legislation like 2022’s “CHIPS and Science Act” will bring billions of dollars in investment and thousands of jobs and careers to Upstate (Micron, for example) that will help Upstaters have careers that provide strong financial security for our young people and their families. Tenney voted NO on “CHIPS and Science Act.” Support Our Working Men and Women Support our working families. While Corporations make record profits, Upstate families struggle to make ends meet - 60% of whom live paycheck-to-paycheck. While Districts around ours are thriving, we are spinning our wheels. We need careers, not jobs. We need workforce development, training and education in the trades and we need Livable wages.
Tenney does not support minimum wage or a livable wage. Organized labor must be supported. Unions built the middle class in this country. It shouldn't be hard to organize a union or easy to break one. The PRO ("Protecting the Right to Organize") Act is a bill that is long overdue to be passed. Tenney voted NO on the PRO Act. Cut Taxes for the Middle Class Not Billionaires and Big Corps. Cut taxes for middle class households, not for the wealthy and big corporations. The rich got richer from PPP, the 2017 tax cuts and during the Pandemic. The rich and big Corporations need to pay their fair share to reduce the deficit/debt and invest in needed infrastructure improvements. Tenney voted YES for 2017 tax cut that benefitted the rich and big Corporations while leaving little for the Middle class. Tenneywants these cuts - which run out in 2025 - to be made permanent. Support our Farmers Support our Family Farms. Bigger is not better and ultimately, consolidation kills competition. We need to listen to farmers not just pose with them in a field. Among other things, we must ensure John Deere adheres to the right to repair MOU and that farmers aren’t turned into serfs by Big Ag – a Big Ag that has gotten too big and needs to be broken up. Resources for Mental Health Care and Addiction Mental and physical illness need to be treated with similar respect and resources. Nearly half of all Americans will suffer through some mental health issue in their lifetime, whether a debilitating illness such as depression to a substance abuse problem. Yet, we have a significant scarcity of health care providers, which is even worse in rural districts such as ours. I will work to create incentives, insurance parity, and make training and education more accessible. I have seen first hand the impact mental illness and suicide can have on our families. I will work hard to ensure our neighbors and family members get the help they need. Advocate for Veterans We must honor our debt to those Veterans who served. My Father served in the Navy and I still use the duffel bag he gave me as a child. While increasing support and cutting red tape at the VA are important, we must continue our work to ensure that access to VA facilities is expanded and that healthcare needs – especially mental health care – are thoroughly addressed. Providing recruitment incentives to combat VA staff shortages is a good policy. Tenney voted NO on the PACT Act. Her NO vote on the bill providing critical care for Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who were exposed to toxic burn pits is unacceptable. Guns
Choice
Tenney voted NO on a right to contraception and NO on a woman's right to make her own health care decisions, including abortion. Fix Our Roads and Bridges Invest in infrastructure and needed tech improvements including high-speed internet to rural areas. Tenney voted NO on the infrastructure bill. Health care While the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is not perfect, it has helped tens of millions of people to obtain health insurance, enabled children to be covered under their parent's plan until they reach 26 years old, and ensured coverage of pre-existing conditions. Adding a "public option" would increase competition and likely bring costs down further. Tenney voted to repeal the ACA and it's pre-existing condition coverage requirement that would have left millions of Americans without coverage. Environment As a district that is rich with incredible bodies of water, environmental issues affect us all. We rely on our fragile lakes for our drinking water, recreation (fishing, swimming) and tourism. We need to protect our water systems from the harmful/toxic effects of landfills and from fracking - which can introduce toxic chemicals into our water systems and cause other environmental problems. Tenney: Introduced Federal legislation to force NY to accept fracking in the Finger Lakes - despite NY's ban.[2] |
” |
| —David Wagenhauser’s campaign website (2024)[3] | ||
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
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Candidate U.S. House New York District 24 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on May 19, 2024
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ David Wagenhauser’s campaign website, “Issues,” accessed September 27, 2024
