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Mitrano plans run for 23rd Congressional District

Tracy Mitrano has announced her campaign for New York’s 23rd Congressional District.

“After eight weeks of exploring a campaign for the congressional 23rd district seat, I have decided to file for candidacy with the Federal Election Commission. I would like to share my thinking with all of you about this next step.

My concern with the political climate in the aftermath of the Trump election generally, and the cybersecurity issues that contributed to that outcome, prompted me to think about running for elected office. I have chosen the congressional seat because of my life-long experience in this district and because my professional expertise comports with federal issues that include foreign policy, tax policy, economic development related to the internet for agriculture, small and large businesses, universal health care (including the opioid crisis), maintenance of Medicaid and Social Security as a government program, the environmental protections, balanced gun laws, immigration reform, civil rights, including for transgender and same sex relationships, and education support, both K-12 and higher ed.

“I have formed positions on many of these matters, much of which can be accessed on my website. At the time of this announcement, I would like to speak on a quality that transcends specific policy issues and touches the heart of what I have learned in the last eight weeks.

“This district is hurting, unnecessarily, and in large part because of poor congressional leadership. At the bottom of that analysis lies a lack of compassion for the people affected by policies that neglect the needs of the middle and working classes. Enormous potential exists in the 23 by virtue of the independent and robust spirit of its people, its vast and abundant land resources, its natural beauty, and not least the educational resources that, if properly connected with its communities from Johnson City to Dunkirk, could provide opportunities that today do not exist, but would not be too difficult to create and support for a ‘lifting of all boats.”’

“Given my life and career experience and education, I believe I am the best candidate for this district. I have worked intensively with policy as a matter of formulating needs into programs that work and make sense. I am intimately familiar with issues of national scope and significance that can be brought back productively for this district. I have created a public-private partnership — a vision of the future that we might create and support in the 23rd, whether it be for training in trades or in discrete areas such as information technologies. Finally, in addition to that which I can offer from my head in terms of education and experience, this district has my heart. To date, I have devoted myself to the service of higher education. Going forward, I would like to give back to this land that nurtured me, and, if we give it a chance, can nurture all of us.”

Mitrano has lived her entire life in the Central, Western, and the Southern Tier New York. She grew up in Rochester where her father owned downtown restaurant that she worked at. She graduated with a bachelor’s in English and history from the University of Rochester in 1981, Binghamton in 1989 with a doctorate in American history, and a law degree from Cornell Law School in 1995.

She raised her family in Ithaca and worked as a professor and a lawyer before taking the position of director of information technology policy at Cornell in 2001. Nationally, Mitrano worked on matters of internet policy including government surveillance, intellectual property, privacy and security, information literacy and management. In 2014, she created a successful consulting company, Mitrano & Associates. Between 2016-17, she was the Academic Dean of a cybersecurity certificate program for the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is currently the interim director of the executive master’s program of the Park School of Communications at Ithaca College.

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