CD 19 candidate Erin Collier: A fresh face with deep roots

COOPERSTOWN — No one can call Erin Collier an outsider.

The 34-year-old economist running in the Democratic primary for Congressional District 19 has roots in the area that go back eight generations, and her family has owned a farm in Cooperstown, New York for five. There is even a hamlet called Colliersville in the Otsego County town of Milford, N.Y., named for her ancestor Isaac Collier, who settled there after the Revolutionary War.

There are few places in New York where the label "carpetbagger" is used as effectively as it is in the 19th Congressional District. Republicans have already lobbed the term at Collier's opponents in the crowded Democratic primary for the seat of Republican Rep. John Faso, and Collier knows her background is an asset.

"In a district were roots are very important, no one can outdo me in that area," she said.

She notes that that she is the only candidate who lives in a swing district, Otsego County, which would be valuable in the general election. Her own working-class family is split between Republicans and Democrats and she believes her narrative resonates across party lines in the closely divided district.

"Farmers, who tend to lean conservative, are telling me, 'Erin, I'm conservative, but you are listening to me and you get it and you have my vote,'" she said.  "As an economist, I am all about evidence-based policy...  it's making sure that we are talking about things and finding solutions that will actually work for everyone."

After high school, she worked as a waitress and took out student loans to put herself through Cornell University, where she studied agricultural economics, and later, the University of Michigan, where she earned a masters degree. She has since worked for the United Nations in Thailand and as an agricultural economist for the Obama administration.

While this is her first foray into politics, she has gained valuable experience in public policy through her current work on a USAID project that focuses on food security.

"Instead of going to work on Wall Street or at some lucrative job, I'm working on food security and making sure that people around the world have food to eat," Collier said.

She said the election of President Donald Trump motivated her to get into politics.

"For me it started with the first Woman's March in 2017 right after Trump was elected. I was like everyone else completely horrified by what we had just done," Collier said.

At the March she met organizers who signed her up for workshops and classes on running for office. She thought she might run Congress in two years, but experts urged her to get into the congressional race immediately.

Having launched her grassroots campaign in February, Collier may lag behind the other candidates in fundraising and name recognition, but as the only woman in the race she has scooped up endorsements from Sen. Gillibrand and Emily's List, and other organizations that aim to advance women in government.

Her eye-catching slogan "I won't let those boys beat me," and garnered some national press coverage, including from magazines not known for their local political coverage, like Teen Vogue and celebrity gossip mag People.  It has also drawn criticisms in the district that she is leaning to heavily on her gender.

The campaign trail has been rocky, but Collier, who happens to also be a triathlete, says she is competitive by nature. When her opponent Pat Ryan challenged her signatures and nearly succeeded in knocking her off the ballot, Collier says she became even more determined to cross the finish line.

In Congress, she says, she would fight for publicly financed elections so that people like herself who are not born into privilege can run for office. She says she also hopes to be a champion for worker's rights, affordable health care, closing the gender wage gap, and environmental issues, issues she says crosses socioeconomic and political lines.

"(Congress) is dominated by wealthy elites and the majority of the population are not elites," Collier said. "I think its important to have more middle- and working-class people in Congress, because how can anyone fix a problem if they have never lived it themselves?"