When her Democratic Party colleagues sat motionless last week during President Donald Trump’s address to the joint chamber of Congress, Rep. Laura Gillen stood up and applauded for an honored guest who is battling cancer.
“Joining us in the gallery tonight is a young man who truly loves our police. His name is DJ Daniel. He is 13 years old,” Mr. Trump said.
The young Texan was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in 2018 and given five months to live, but as he fights against the odds, his dream of earning a Secret Service badge was granted by the president as he sat among other honored guests at the Capitol last Wednesday.
In their effort to discredit the president, House Democrats wore pink suits in support of abortion rights, held paddles with protest messages, jeered when the opposite side of the aisle applauded, and sat when their Republican colleagues stood.
“I’ll stand up for what’s right,” Gillen later tweeted. “I was proud to stand up and honor childhood cancer survivor DJ Daniel during the Joint Address, but I’ll also stand up and fight back against attempts to cut life-saving cancer research that helps children like DJ across America beat the odds.”
On social media, her statement received praise from conservatives, who praised Gillen’s empathy for Daniel. For the rest of her party colleagues, the reaction was harsh, as viewers felt that they put political posturing over any effort at bipartisanship on a matter as straightforward as honoring a cancer survivor. California Rep. Ro Khanna got the message from a flight attendant in Chicago, recording the conversation on his social media.
“Jim Barrett, a flight attendant, politely chased me down at Chicago Airport,” he tweeted. “Sir, I am a Democrat, but the way the party behaved was embarrassing. Made us look heartless. I don’t care who is up there, you stand for the boy with cancer. Be more rational & get your act together.’”
In an interview with News12 Long Island, Gillen said that her party’s “anger at some of the actions that have happened over the past month-and-a-half have prevented some of my colleagues from being able to stand up to support little DJ Daniel.” She expressed disappointment they did not rise for the occasion.
Last November, Gillen won her seat by two percent, in New York’s Fourth District, which includes the Five Towns, Long Beach, Oceanside, and West Hempstead. Although voters here favored Trump, many of them split their tickets in favor of Gillen, who previously served as Hempstead Town Supervisor.
Further distancing herself from the party’s progressive wing, she joined the Republican majority alongside nine of her Democratic colleagues in censuring Texas Rep. Al Green, who was escorted out of the chamber during Trump’s speech for disrupting the speech with heckling, despite repeated warnings from Speaker Mike Johnson.
“There is a certain level of decorum and civility that should be adhered to on the floor. If Democrats want Republicans to adhere to those standards, then we have to make sure our own colleagues adhere to the same standards,” Gillen said on NewsNation. She noted that Green’s behavior contributed to the low approval rating for Congress in opinion polls.
“They want to see us working together and actually getting things done to improve their lives,” she said. From the neighboring district on the north shore of Nassau County, Rep. Tom Suozzi also voted to censure Green.
When asked whether her party’s leadership decided on a policy of protest, she said that litigation, messaging, and mobilization were the official strategies, rather than “rowdy behavior” and “hyper partisanship.”
Gillen also expressed disappointment that her colleagues did not stand in respect of the widow of NYPD officer Jonathan Diller, who was killed on duty last March. His funeral in Massapequa was attended by Trump, who promised to make cop killing a federal capital offense.
Gillen later summarized her reason for serving in Congress. “Priorities that matter to Long Islanders: tackling our cost of living crisis, fixing our broken immigration system, and keeping our communities and law enforcement safe.”
“I’m ready to work with the President when it helps my constituents, but I’ll always fight back against policies that hurt Nassau County.” Her guest at the Joint Address was constituent Ricky Sanchez, an army veteran who was laid off from his Department of Homeland Security job by DOGE.
“No matter your political background, we can all agree that the veterans who bravely served our country deserve better than to be fired without cause,” she wrote.
Her predecessor, Anthony D’Esposito, remains politically active, writing a weekly column in a Five Towns newspaper, and routinely appearing as a guest on conservative radio and television shows. On his social media, he shared points that resonate for his party, such as combating campus protests, opposing transgender athletes, supporting Israel, and DOGE as an effort towards “efficient government.”
Having run in two elections against Gillen, winning in 2022 and losing in 2024, D’Esposito has not indicated whether they will have another rematch next year. What is certain is that Gillen and Suozzi have defined their political identities not so much by their party, but by taking a stand.
In an age of social media and 24-hour news cycles, politicians try to emerge from the crowd as individuals. Some of them heckle, others sneer, or walk out of the chamber. But there are a few Democrats who recognize reality, in which the Republicans have the White House and both chambers of Congress. To solve problems on behalf of their districts, they cooperate with the president and Republicans, receiving scorn from party activists and praise from independent voters.
By Sergey Kadinsky
