NY-17 race: Davidson attacks Conley over “ICE ties” while investing in major federal contractors
For those of you following the NY-17 race and receiving campaign mailers, you’ve probably seen the recent negative attacks from the Davidson campaign accusing Cait Conley of having ties to what Trump’s ICE is doing.
But when you actually look at what’s being alleged, the connection is extremely tenuous.
From what’s publicly been described, Cait did freelance work related to counter-drone and public safety systems for New York-based companies: the kind of technology used to prevent attacks at stadiums, public events, and crowded civilian spaces.
There’s no evidence she was personally involved in immigration enforcement policy or ICE operations, and a lot of people online seem to be making sweeping assumptions about technical work they don’t actually understand.
What makes the attacks especially hard to take seriously is that Davidson herself has disclosed investments in companies with much more direct ties to the same surveillance, AI, and federal contracting ecosystem she’s criticizing.
According to Davidson’s own disclosures (public as of yesterday):
- She held Oracle stock, despite Oracle’s well-documented work supporting DHS/ICE infrastructure
- She invested in Vertiv, which profits heavily from AI and data-center expansion
- She owned large positions in healthcare and pharmaceutical giants deeply tied to federal contracting and lobbying
(Source disclosure filing: https://disclosures-clerk.house.gov/public_disc/financial-pdfs/2026/10076946.pdf | Her 2025 filing showing big health insurance investments: https://disclosures-clerk.house.gov/public_disc/financial-pdfs/2025/10063522.pdf)
You can absolutely have a broader debate about AI surveillance, government contracting, or the national security industry. Those are legitimate issues. But it’s difficult to view these attacks as principled when Davidson’s own household investments are far more financially connected to that ecosystem than the freelance work she’s attacking Cait over.