Nearly 75 passionate Democrats showed up at Anna Price’s stunning home in Stanford on April 21, 2024, to welcome Congressman Pat Ryan and support his bid for a second term representing CD18 in the House of Representatives.

Stanford Town Supervisor Wendy Burton served as master of ceremonies, welcoming the attendees and introducing Millerton Town Supervisor Chris Kennan, who in turn introduced the guest of honor. Also present were several local officeholders and Daniel Aymar-Blair, Democratic candidate for Dutchess County Comptroller.

The congressman provided a rousing critique of Republican dysfunction in the House, beginning with the behavior of Speaker Mike Johnson and filtering down to local congressmen Marc Molinaro (CD17) and Mike Lawlor (CD19). He reminded the attendees that he won by just over three thousand votes, Molinaro won by about six thousand, and Lawler won by about 1,600. So one could say that the Democrats lost control of the House by about 7,500 votes, and that the outcome of the three elections this year could very well determine which party ends up with a majority in the next Congress.

In response to a question from the floor, Ryan checked off a litany of initiatives on which he and other Democrats in the House are working: expanding the Green New Deal, strengthening Social Security and Medicare, repealing the Trump tax cuts, lowering the cost of prescription drugs, guaranteeing housing and health care for poor and working-class people, and ensuring international peace and stability through a reliable American presence on the world stage. He noted that Democrats are committed to solving problems but that Republicans are only interested in using them to divide the country.

In a particularly rousing moment, Ryan quoted from a letter written by Ulysses Grant to his father in 1861 in which the general noted that there were only two parties—the traitors and the patriots. The congressman concluded to the cheering audience, “We are the patriots!”