The following message is from Ryan Taughrin:
I want to thank Chairwoman Lynn Dearmyer and the Cheektowaga Democratic Committee for sharing this space so I can introduce myself to my neighbors across the 143rd District.
Shirley Chisholm, a former New York State Assembly member and the first Black woman elected to Congress, said that “service is the rent we pay for living on this earth.” I’ve carried that idea with me because it captures how I’ve tried to live, and why I’m now asking to serve you in Albany.
My name is Ryan Taughrin. Before I was a candidate, I was a kid raised by a struggling single mother in South Cheektowaga, where I learned the hard way what it meant to live paycheck to paycheck. I started working at 14 to help pay the bills in our apartment, and without the support of public school teachers and friends in my community, I’m not sure I would have made it through high school, let alone become the first person in my family to earn a college degree.
That experience set the course for everything since. For more than 15 years, I’ve worked in higher education, helping students, many of them first-generation, many of them parents and working adults, find their own path forward. At the University at Buffalo, I’ve built leadership skills, managed budgets, and learned how to cut through bureaucratic red tape, always trying to open doors for folks the same way they were opened for me.
I’ve been paying the rent, in Chisholm’s words, by serving the students who needed someone in their corner.
I’ve tried to pay that rent outside of work too, as a Big Brother through Big Brothers Big Sisters, on the founding committee that brought the Tunnel to Towers 5K to Western New York, and as a parent volunteer through the PTO at my children’s schools here in Lancaster. I’ve always been drawn to the behind-the-scenes work. I’m the first one in and the last one out, making sure things go as planned.
Running for the Assembly is the next way I want to serve. Too many families here are doing everything right and still falling behind. Utility bills keep climbing. Child care can cost more than rent. A single denied insurance claim can upend a family’s life. Since announcing my campaign, I’ve listened to neighbors looking for someone to speak loudly and clearly for policies that improve their lives.
My priorities are straightforward. I want to bring down the cost of energy through public power that keeps dollars in our community. I want affordable, quality child care so parents aren’t forced to choose between a paycheck and their kids. I want our public schools fully funded, health care treated as a right, and our unions protected and strengthened.
Over the coming months, I’ll be out at community events, knocking on doors, and listening to your concerns while sharing my vision for this seat. It would be an honor of a lifetime to serve the community that raised me.
Service is the rent we pay. I’ve spent my career paying it gladly, and I’m all in to keep paying it.
You can reach me at taughrinfor143assembly@gmail.com or learn more at ryantaughrin.com.
Please also join us as we march in Cheektowaga’s Fourth of July parade by reaching out to me or Chair Dearmyer at CheektowagaDemocrats@gmail.com.
