Kevin Byrne (New York politician)

Kevin Byrne
Member of the New York State Assembly from the 94th district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 3, 2017
Preceded by	Steve Katz
Personal details
Born	(1984-12-20) December 20, 1984 (age 37) Carmel, New York
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Briana Messina
Children	Braeden
Residence	Mahopac, New York
Alma mater	University of Scranton (B.A.) Marist College (M.P.A.)
Website	Official website Campaign website

Kevin Byrne is a Republican candidate for Putnam County Executive and the current Assembly member for the 94th District of the New York State Assembly. He is a registered Republican who first successfully ran for elected office in 2016 with the Republican, Conservative, Independence, and Reform Party lines.

The 94th Assembly District includes portions of Putnam (where Byrne grew up and resides) and Westchester counties in the Hudson Valley.

Byrne is also the ranking member on the Assembly Health Committee and chairperson of the Assembly Minority Conference Program Committee (2020-Present). Additionally, he serves on the Governmental Operations, Insurance, Labor, and Transportation Committees.^[1]

Byrne also serves as the New York State chair of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).^[2]

Previously, Byrne also served as co-chair of the Assembly Minority Conference Task Force on Critical Infrastructure and Transportation (2018-2019), as the ranking member of the Assembly’s Aging Committee (2017-2018), and as vice chair of minority steering (2019).^[3]

Life and career[]

Byrne was born and raised in the Hudson Valley and attended Carmel High School before enrolling at the University of Scranton. As a high school student, he earned the rank of Eagle Scout. At Scranton, Byrne completed the academic portion of the Army ROTC program supported by an internship with then Congresswoman Sue Kelly. However, was ultimately unable to qualify and serve in the Army due to two previous spinal surgeries.^[4]

Following his graduation from the University of Scranton in 2007, Byrne returned to the Hudson Valley and served as a member of the Putnam Valley Planning Board and as a Firefighter/EMT with the Kent Volunteer Fire Department where he served three terms as the department’s president. He later served as Deputy District Director to Congresswoman Nan Hayworth and then as a Regional Director for the American Heart Association while finishing his M.P.A. concentrating in Healthcare Administration at Marist College.^[5] Prior to running for public office, he also worked in healthcare administration at CareMount Medical, the largest private multi-specialty medical group in New York state.

Byrne won his first bid seeking elected office in 2016 when he was elected as the Assemblyman for New York’s 94th Assembly District.

Assemblyman Byrne lives in Mahopac with his wife Briana, a Physician Assistant, their son Braeden, and their rescued Treeing Walker Coonhound, Tracker.

Legislative Record & Accomplishments[]

During his first term, Byrne voted against every tax increase proposed in the Assembly. This is a primary reason why Byrne was recognized in 2017 as one of five state legislators with the highest rating by the Conservative Party of New York State.^[6]

In 2019 Byrne was honored with the “Defender of Life” Award by the Westchester-Putnam Right to Life Committee.^[7] In 2020 he received the “Guardian of Small Business” Award from the NFIB, in addition to being named as one of GOPAC’s 2020 emerging leaders.^[8][9]

During his first term, Byrne introduced and passed ten bills in the Assembly, eight of which passed the Senate and were signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo, more than most other freshmen members during that time.^[10][11]

Some brief examples of Byrne’s legislation over the years include:

• Honoring the actions of a local Yorktown military hero by designating a portion of state roadway the Major Clayton Carpenter Memorial Highway.^[12]
• Designating various local lakes as inland waterways to improve eligibility for state grants^{[13][14][15][16]}
• Loosening a residency requirement for the town of Somers to help recruitment and retention efforts for specific public employee positions that serve the town.^[17][18]
• Making New York more welcoming to a new business by allowing a potential distillery project to both develop and sell alcohol. The reported planned investment into the district by the businesses is $40 million, and would bring revenue for the county, town, school districts, in addition to jobs and new economic activity to the region. ^[19]
• Granting forgiveness for ministerial errors made by a local school district saving the district millions of dollars owed from penalties and previous school aid (initially vetoed by Gov. Cuomo^[20] but identical bill language was later included and passed in 2020-2021 FY budget which Byrne opposed for unrelated reasons^[21][22])

Some other examples of legislation co-sponsored by Byrne that became law include:

• Strengthened the Clean Indoor Air Act (Byrne was the only GOP Assembly member to co-sponsor this legislation) ^[23]
• Prohibited the practice of conversion "therapy" on minors (Byrne was the only Republican legislator to co-sponsor this legislation)^[24]
• Increased access to Automated External Defibrillators^[25]
• Better benefits for combat veterans^[26]
• Increased access to Epinephrine Auto-injectors^[27]
• Expanded cancer coverage for volunteer firefighters^[28]

2016 New York Assembly campaign[]

In 2016, Assemblyman Steve Katz announced that he would not seek another term. Byrne was one of five Republicans that announced they would seek the nomination to replace Katz.^[29] At the local Republican Convention, Byrne received 14,562 weighted votes (76%) over Somers Town Councilman Bill Faulkner's 3,681 (19%) and Carmel Councilwoman Suzanne McDonough's 974 (5%).^[30] Councilwoman McDonough immediately pledged she would continue a primary campaign.^[31]

A day after winning his party’s endorsement, Byrne was injured in a Brewster auto accident, breaking his right knee and suffering other injuries when another car, traveling at high speed, crossed into his lane, he said, and collided with him head-on.^[32][33] Byrne continued his campaign throughout his recovery and would later be victorious during the Republican primary, defeating McDonough 60% to 40%.^[34] He won the 2016 general election over Democrat Brian Higbie in the 2016 general election with 61% of the vote.^[35]

2018 New York Assembly campaign[]

In 2018, Byrne was challenged by Vedat Gashi, a Yorktown resident and real estate attorney.^[36][37]

During the campaign, a debate at the Putnam League of Women Voters Forum became contentious due to a dispute between the candidates about whether Byrne had supported legislation that would prevent violent domestic abusers from obtaining firearms, commonly referred to as the “Domestic Violence Escalation Protection Act” (Assembly bill A5025).^[38] Byrne voted in favor of the bill in question (A5025) twice.

Throughout the campaign, Byrne argued that his effectiveness was shown by his record of passing more legislation than nearly any other freshmen lawmaker in the state (of the 20+ freshmen legislators only 3 freshmen Democrats passed more).^[39][40] Gashi argued that he could deliver more for the district by being a member of the majority Democratic conference.

Gashi’s campaign outspent Byrne’s campaign by more than four times, spending more than $250,000 compared to Byrne's approximately $65,000.^[41][42]

The same election year, the state Senate flipped to Democratic control. This was in part due to the loss of a Republican held Senate seat that largely overlapped with the 94th Assembly District. In a year that proved challenging for many Republicans across the state, Byrne won his bid for re-election by a double digit margin.^[43]

2022 Putnam County Executive campaign[]

In November 2021, Byrne announced his candidacy for the position of County Executive for Putnam County, running under the Republican Party. In November 2022, current executive Maryellen Odell will be unable to run for re-election after two consecutive terms.^[44][45][46]

References[]

External links[]

• New York State Assemblyman Kevin M. Byrne official site