Radio Catskill continues its Election 2026 coverage with interviews featuring candidates running in the June 23 primary election.
Lisa Kaul, a Democratic candidate for New York State Senate District 39, says she is running to bring new leadership to Albany and focus on issues she hears about across Dutchess, Orange and Putnam Counties: the cost of living, housing, health care, utilities and childcare.
Kaul currently serves in the Dutchess County Legislature. She described herself as a mother, an immigrant and someone who has spent years organizing locally before running for elected office.
“Our nation is really at a crossroads,” Kaul said. “The cost of living is crushing our families.”
Kaul said her background shapes how she views government and public service. She grew up in India, where her father served in the army and her mother worked as a schoolteacher. She said her early life taught her the importance of basic infrastructure, including clean water, reliable electricity, housing, health care and education.
Kaul later studied at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. She moved to the United States in 2004 after marrying her husband, who is American, and became a citizen in 2008.
Her first involvement in local politics, she said, came through the PTA at her son’s school. Kaul helped organize parents to stop the school from closing and moving to a location that would have been harder for many families to reach.
“A lot of the parents walked to school,” Kaul said, adding that public transportation was limited. She said keeping the school open helped parents remain involved in their children’s education.
Kaul later served on the school board and helped organize the Poughkeepsie Women’s March across the Hudson in 2017. She said the event drew more than 7,000 people. She also organized the Dutchess Activist Fair to connect residents with local advocacy groups.
In 2022, Kaul ran for the Dutchess County Legislature against a longtime Republican incumbent. She said she won that race with 58 percent of the vote.
As a county legislator, Kaul said she has worked on housing, transportation, services for youth, seniors and veterans, women’s rights, immigrant rights and workers’ rights. She also said she has passed bipartisan legislation while serving in the minority.
Kaul said the top issue in Senate District 39 is affordability.
When voters talk about the cost of living, she said, they are often talking about housing, health care, utilities and childcare.
On housing, Kaul said the district needs more units, but not necessarily large developments that overwhelm local roads and infrastructure. She said the state should support more accessory dwelling units, mixed-use housing and smaller-scale options.
She pointed to strip malls with unused space above single-story businesses as one possible opportunity for housing. She also said communities should revisit older models, such as boarding houses or single-room occupancy housing, as a way to support seniors, young people and intergenerational living.
Kaul also said she supports the New York Health Act, which would create a single-payer health care system in the state.
“It is unconscionable that in the world’s richest nation, people do not have access to health care,” Kaul said. She said families should not have to choose between prescriptions, groceries or other basic needs.
On utilities, Kaul criticized Central Hudson, saying many customers are struggling to pay their bills. She said she supports stronger oversight of corporate utilities and would like to see a public utility model, including what she called a Hudson Valley Power Authority.
Kaul also said New York should expand renewable energy, including solar, while working to lower utility bills.
Childcare is another major issue, Kaul said. She called universal childcare a “no-brainer,” saying high costs are pushing parents, especially women and women of color, out of the workforce.
Kaul also connected affordability to climate change. She said extreme weather is increasing the cost of maintaining roads, bridges and culverts. She also pointed to concerns over water quality, including salt levels in the Hudson River affecting communities that draw drinking water from it.
Asked how she would balance the needs of a district that includes rural, suburban and small-city communities, Kaul said the same core concerns are coming up everywhere.
“People are feeling the same set of issues in different ways,” Kaul said. “The cost of living is crushing everybody.”
If elected, Kaul said success in her first term would include advancing the New York Health Act, expanding solar energy, lowering utility bills, investing in housing, supporting public transit and protecting immigrants. She also said she supports the Invest in Our New York package of bills, which would raise taxes on wealthy New Yorkers to fund public programs.
Kaul said voters she meets are angry and worried about the direction of the country, but also motivated to vote.
On why Democratic primary voters should choose her, Kaul pointed to her record in local government and organizing.
“I’m the candidate who has a record of delivering,” Kaul said. “When stuff needs to get done, I’m the person who will step up and do it.”
Kaul said she believes her campaign has built support across the district, including from progressive groups, unions, sustainability advocates, seniors and immigrant communities. She also pointed to endorsements she said she has received from Congressman Pat Ryan, 1199 health care workers, CWA, nurses, and the Dutchess Democratic Committee.
The Democratic primary election is June 23.