Democrat Chris Gallant, a Black Hawk pilot and volunteer firefighter, challenges LI Rep. Nick LaLota

WASHINGTON — Democrat Chris Gallant — a Black Hawk pilot and volunteer firefighter — announced Tuesday his bid to challenge Rep. Nick LaLota (R-Amityville) for New York’s 1st Congressional District seat.

Gallant, 36, an Amity Harbor resident who serves in the Army National Guard and has worked as an air traffic controller at local airports, is running to represent a Suffolk County district that stretches from Melville to Montauk.

"My goal is to run as a bipartisan politician, someone who can listen to both sides," Gallant said in a phone interview where he listed as top issues the rising cost of living on Long Island and concerns about the impact on health care access of the massive tax and budget bill Congress passed in July.

Gallant, a political newcomer who enlisted in the National Guard at age 17, is running against LaLota, 47, a two-term incumbent and Navy veteran who previously served as a Suffolk County elections commissioner.

Asked about Gallant’s entry into the race, LaLota’s spokeswoman Mary O’Hara said in a campaign statement that LaLota "has won three straight elections by double digits," and touted his work negotiating an increase to the state and local tax deduction cap from $10,000 to $40,000 under the new tax bill. The cap was first established under the Trump-backed 2017 tax bill.

"Now, with SALT quadrupled to deliver an average of $2,800 more to Long Island families and real border security, we’re on track for an even bigger win in 2026," O’Hara said.

LaLota has $1.7 million in campaign contributions to wage his reelection bid, according to the latest Federal Election Commission filings.

LaLota, a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, holds a seat that has been in Republican hands for the past decade after Republican Lee Zeldin defeated Democratic incumbent Tim Bishop in 2014. LaLota was elected in 2022 after Zeldin, the Trump administration’s current Environmental Protection Agency administrator, decided to run for governor, ultimately losing to Gov. Kathy Hochul.

LaLota won last year’s closely watched race against Democrat John Avlon, a former cable news political analyst and author with wide name recognition whom LaLota cast as a "carpetbagger" from Manhattan looking to win the seat by claiming his East Hampton home as his main residence.

LaLota, whose home actually sits in the 2nd Congressional District, has also faced criticism that he does not live in the district he represents. But he has defended his status, arguing that he has long-standing ties to Suffolk County that allow him to recognize the needs of the region.

The Constitution only requires House members to live in the state they represent, not their specific district.

Gallant, born in Smithtown, currently lives in Amity Harbor with his fiance, Mike Ingram, who also serves in the National Guard. Their home lies outside of the district, but like LaLota, Gallant is looking to tout his ties and service to Long Island. He grew up in Smithtown but moved with his family during middle school to Bucks County, Pennsylvania, before returning to Long Island to attend college — first taking classes at Farmingdale State College before enrolling at Dowling College in Oakdale, where he graduated with an aviation management degree in 2014.

He currently volunteers as a firefighter for the Copiague Fire District and said he previously volunteered as a firefighter in Fire Island Pines and for Bay Shore-Brightwaters Rescue Ambulance. He also serves as a National Guardsman based at Long Island MacArthur Airport where he flies Black Hawk helicopters.

Gallant said he previously worked as a Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controller at Republic Airport in East Farmingdale and most recently at Kennedy Airport, where he also served as a union representative for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. He said he left his federal government job to run for Congress.

"My life has sort of been grounded in service — service to my community, service to my country," Gallant said of his decision to run for public office for the first time.

Gallant said he is concerned by changes to the federal student loan programs included in the megabill signed into law by Trump on July 4. The bill caps the amount college, graduate and doctoral students can take out for certain classes of loans that previously allowed students to request a loan for the entire cost of attendance.

"You're going to have these students that just are not able to get those better educations, get those better jobs and be able to afford, just actually, to live," Gallant said. "So it's kind of like this cascading effect that really just affects everybody. Increasing our education really is important, because we need nurses, and we need teachers, and these students are not going to be able to afford to go to college to get there."

By Laura Figueroa Hernandez

laura.figueroa@newsday.com@Laura_Figueroa

Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.