A Westchester County businessman plans to stop in Syracuse today as he kicks off a campaign to unseat U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in 2024.
Josh Eisen, 51, of Harrison, said he is making a swing across Upstate New York to announce his candidacy for the Republican nomination.
Eisen planned to stop at Syracuse City Hall at 2 p.m. today to outline his campaign priorities. He made earlier stops in Buffalo and Rochester.
“I plan to spend way more time up here than I’ve ever done before,” Eisen told syracuse.com | The Post-Standard. “I’m basically going to be traveling the state for the next couple of months.”
Eisen said he plans to make government overreach and regulation a centerpiece of his campaign, advocating for fewer federal regulations on homeowners and small business owners.
He said he owns and invests in multiple companies that primarily focus on background checks.
Eisen, a prominent Republican donor whose campaign describes him as a billionaire, said he initially self-funded his campaign with $400,000 to $500,000. He said he plans to invest an additional half million dollars over the next year.
He is the first Republican candidate to commit such a large sum to a 2024 campaign against Gillibrand, D-N.Y., who will be seeking her third full term.
Eisen previously campaigned for public office in 2020, seeking to fill the 17th Congressional District seat left open by the retirement of Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y.
He put his campaign on pause after City and State NY reported that Eisen was sanctioned by judges on two separate occasions for harassing legal opponents and their families and had been fined $20,000 by the court.
Eisen said he has an MBA from Columbia Business School and a Ph.D. in religion from Columbia University.
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