It was in both 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, as well as 2021, that “Fanatical Republican Extremist of the Day” had its first profile of the U.S. House Representative from New York’s 22nd Congressional District, Claudia Tenney, currently in Congress after serving three terms in the New York State Assembly from 2011 through 2017. It’s somewhat of a miracle that Tenney’s career has lasted as long as it has, or that she has elevated herself to Congress, considering back in October of 2013, she went to a press conference where members of the Oneida Native Americans and while a representative of the tribe, Ray Halbritter was speaking about negotiations with the NFL to change the name of their Washington franchise, when Tenney stood up on a chair screaming that “he wasn’t actually an Indian” before threatening to sue Halbritter on behalf of a member of the Oneida Nation who said Halbritter was “stealing his land”. She was eventually escorted out after a bizarre spectacle. To this day, she has no apologies, and still smears Halbritter, calling him “Spray-Tan Ray”, indicating she thinks his pigmentation is enhanced (which is f***ing AMAZINGLY RACIST).
And yet, her career has continued. Which probably has a lot to do with the fact that the Fox News Family often gave her a platform on their networks when possible, including this delightful appearance on Fox Business when she argues against the minimum wage. Her voting record as a state legislator shows not just her willingness to vote against the minimum wage, but she has voted against Equal Pay for women, early voting, and conveniently is absent every time a vote comes up to ban gay conversion therapy.
Tenney failed to unseat tenured Congressman Richard Hanna for his seat in 2014, but when he announced his retirement in 2016 she gave it another shot. She won with only 45% of the vote, in spite of polls having her listed by far as the most disliked candidate, because the vote was split between Democrat Kim Myers and Martin Babinec, who thought he would be helping by going “third party” and creating the Upstate Workers Party. Well, thanks a f***ing lot, Martin, because you only helped a racist get elected to Congress. Tenney, as you might expect from someone who would show up to a press conference and get on a chair to claim someone was faking their race is highly contentious on the campaign trail, as she also claimed Kim Myers, who worked for her family’s Dick’s Sporting Goods before starting her own business was “more of a housewife”.
Her first term in Congress saw her to vote for bills to allow veterans deemed mentally incompetent to continue to own firearms, and not have them taken away without a judge’s written order, to allow internet providers to sell the data information of their customers’ internet usage to businesses, to repeal Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform, the GOP Tax Plan/Scam, and to vote for the House GOP’s healthcare plan, that would kick roughly 24 million people off their health insurance plans, allow up to 28,000 more people to die a year, give $50,000 in tax breaks to millionaires, and would eliminate coverage for pre-existing conditions which would include such medical conditions as pregnancy (current or past), post-partum depression, or prior sexual assault.
Tenney quickly drew massive amounts of criticism from her constituents (only 45% of whom voted for her), could tried avoiding confrontations with them by hosting “telephone town halls” where her aides can screen calls, and actually tried defending her vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act by saying the law was “denying people the right to have an existence, to work and to have a chance.”
By February of 2018, when she had three gaffes over the span of three weeks. Her first was on February 6th, when she claimed that it was “Un-American” that Democrats didn’t rise and give a standing ovation to Donald Trump’s State of the Union Address, and proof that “they don’t love our country”. Then, on February 16th, for whatever reason, Tenney defended the White House for not firing Rob Porter, a staffer who could not pass his background clearance checks because he had abused two separate wives he’d been married to. Tenney claimed that Porter’s repeated spousal abuse did not qualify as“crimes of character”.
But perhaps Tenney’s dumbest re-write came on February 21st, 2017, where she commented on the Parkland shooting and various other mass shootings by outright lying and claiming they were being carried out by Democrats:
“It’s interesting that so many of these people that commit the mass murders end up being Democrats. But the media doesn’t talk about that either.”
(For the record, Nicholas Cruz, the shooter at Parkland was NOT a Democrat, and in fact, had photographs of himself on social media accounts in a “MAGA” hat.)
Tenney’s 2018 challenger was Democratic New York State Assembly member Anthony Brindisi, and damn, did she take a bigoted approach to running against him. Tenney campaigned by attacking Brindisi’s father. For a few years in the late 1970s and 1980s, the elder Brindisi worked as a defense attorney and defended members of New York crime families in court. Now, it should be noted that John Adams once defended the men who perpetuated the Boston Massacre, and that doesn’t state to his character as a Founding Father. We should also note that Brindisi’s father stopped working criminal defense cases in 1983. We also should note that there’s a whole “sins of the father” thing that should be taken into account… but it’s amazing to see Tenney’s first response to be to smear the Italian-American candidate for having suspicious mob ties.
Tenney was swept out of office by the 2018 Blue Wave, losing by about 4500 votes. Even with higher Democratic voter turnout expected in a presidential year than a mid-term year in 2020… Tenney decided to try and avenge her loss, and barely managed to, missing the first few weeks of this sessions of Congress during various recounts that resulted in her victory by all of 109 votes out of almost 320,000 cast. And so… she was back.
Her voting record does not indicate she’s aware she’s been in a swing district.
- February 4th, 2021: Claudia Tenney votes to keep Marjorie Taylor Greene’s committee assignments, because he wouldn’t want her to be accountable for all the bigoted remarks and conspiracy theories she’s spread online (probably because she’s a kindred spirit).
- February 25th, 2021: Tenney votes against HR 5, the latest version of the Equality Act, that would provide workplace protections for LGBTQ Americans.
- March 3rd, 2021: Rep. Tenney votes against HR 1, a bill created to prevent the corruption of money in politics, and protect voter access to the ballot box.
- March 3rd, 2021: Claudia Tenney votes against the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021.
- March 10th, 2021: Tenney votes against the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, because he feels people deserve to die in poverty during a pandemic.
- March 17th, 2021: Rep. Tenney votes against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
- May 19th, 2021: Claudia Tenney votes against HR 3233, the creation of a commission to investigate the Capitol Attack.
- November 5th, 2021: Claudia Tenney votes against HR 3684, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
- March 31st, 2022: Tenney votes against HR 6833, the Affordable Insulin Now Act, which would limit the cost that drug companies could list insulin at to $35 and make sure no diabetic was priced out of surviving their condition. Claudia Tenney would rather they be gouged by pharmaceutical giants and/or die.
- May 18th, 2022: Claudia Tenney is one of 192 Republicans who vote against HR 7790, to create supplemental funding for infant formula (while claiming to be pro- life).
- May 18th, 2022: Rep. Tenney votes against HR 350, the Domestic Violence Prevention Act, because these days, a plank of the Republican Party is ostensibly domestic terror.
- May 19th, 2022: Tenney votes against HR 7688, a bill which would help prevent gas companies from gouging customers on prices.
- July 15th, 2022: Claudia Tenney votes against House Amendment 262, which would require the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and Secretary of Defense to publish a report on the infiltration of American law enforcment by Neo-Nazis and white supremacists, offer measures to be taken to remove them from their ranks, and prevent further infiltration by others.
- July 13th, 2022: Tenney votes against the Honoring Our PACT Act, to provide healthcare to veterans affected by toxic burn pits while serving in the War on Terror that leave them more susceptible to forms of cancer.
- July 19th, 2022: Rep. Tenney is one of 157 Republicans who vote against the “Respect for Marriage Act”, which would codify same sex marriage into law nationally.
- July 21st, 2022: Tenney is one of 195 Republicans who vote against the Right to Contraception Act, which codified the right of Americans to have access to birth control.
Claudia Tenney’s decided that New York’s redistricting didn’t do her any favors, and in 2022, is running in New York’s 24th Congressional District, instead of the 22nd or 23rd. That gives her a +11 Republican lean to work with, instead of being in an almost swing district that New York’s 24th has been for her. Still, New York’s a blue state, and her extremism does not jibe well with its progressive tendencies, even in western parts of the state. Just, for example, consider that when the House voted to codify same sex marriage rights should Obergefell v. Hodges be overturned by the Supreme Court in the future… Claudia Tenney was the only member of the New York delegation on EITHER side of the aisle to vote against it.
Her main talking point currently is to, what else… demonize the FBI for conducting a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, and with any luck, her Democratic opponent Steven Holden will call her own on offering up stochastic terror triggers to Trump supporters who just might go and attack FBI agents or offices to show their support for their “Dear Leader”.
One Year Ago, August 25th, 2021: Claudia Tenney (NY)… 2021 Update
Two Years Ago, August 25th, 2020: Claudia Tenney (NY)… 2020 Update
Three Years Ago, August 25th, 2019: Claudia Tenney (NY)… 2019 Update
Four Years Ago, August 25th, 2018: Claudia Tenney (NY)… 2018 Update
Five Years Ago, August 25th, 2017: Claudia Tenney (NY)… Original Profile
Six Years Ago, August 25th, 2016: Kyle Tasker (NH)… 2016 Update
Seven Years Ago, August 25th, 2015: Kyle Tasker (NH)…2015 Update
Eight Years Ago, August 25th, 2014: Kyle Tasker (NH)…Original Profile