Skoufis launched a campaign to become chairman of the Democratic National Committee at the end of last year, despite having few connections outside New York state. Skoufis said he wanted to bring the party back down to kitchen table issues, and pull from his experience winning in the largely red 42nd District.
“When you outperfrom the top of the ticket by 24 percent, you know a thing or two about brass-tacks campaigns," said Skoufis in an ad for his campaign.
Voting members are set to elect a new leader on February 1, but Skoufis ultimately pulled himself from the running. Speaking with WAMC, he says his reasons were pretty simple.
“I’ve been involved in politics long enough to know how to count votes," he says. "At the end of the day, I was not interested in staying in a race that I did not have a meaningful path to victory, to the finish line.”
Skoufis has endorsed Ken Martin, Chairman of Minnesota’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, in the race. And shortly into New York’s legislative session, Skoufis picked up a new leadership position in the Senate. In addition to chairing the Senate’s Investigations and Government Operations Committee, Skoufis has been appointed deputy majority leader for state federal relations.
"I look to amplify the voice that I've been on behalf of working class people," he says. "And we continue to be laser-focused on the kitchen-table issues that matter most to folks."
Looking ahead, Skoufis say he’s pleased with a lot of the proposals laid out in Governor Kathy Hochul’s budget for 2026, including plans to cut taxes for the middle class, expand the child tax credit, provide universal school meals, maintain school funding, and offer grants to first-time homebuyers.
But he says the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's congestion pricing plan in New York City conflicts with that message of affordability, and he still wants to see Orange and Rockland County residents exempted from the toll. The MTA began charging most drivers $9 to enter lower Manhattan earlier this month, in an effort to raise money for the MTA and encourage people to take trains and buses instead. But Skoufis says it unfairly targets commuters west of the Hudson, who don’t have a direct train line into Manhattan.
“In Orange and Rockland, we continue to face a value gap, that for every dollar we put into the system as riders and taxpayers, we get a fraction back in services. 70, 80 cents on the dollar," he explains. "And until that is addressed, and it is no where close to being addressed, then there should be no expectation that Orange and Rockland County residents ought to be paying any new or increased fees or taxes.”
The MTA has said Orange and Rockland Counties contribute less than 2 percent of the roughly 1.2 million commuters who regularly travel to lower Manhattan. Hochul’s budget proposes multiple investments to upgrade Hudson Valley transit, but most of the projects are on the east side of the river.
Skoufis says he’d also like to allocate more money toward repairing state roads and bridges. While he’s glad Hochul’s budget provides an additional $800 million toward the effort, he says many state roads in Orange and Rockland Counties are in dire need of attention. He’d like to see a “multi-billion” increase in the state’s infrastructure budget, and he’d like to pull funds from programs like New York’s film tax credit — which Hochul has proposed extending — to do it.
“I’m OK with forgoing additional subsidies to Hollywood elites in order to repave some more roads in New York state," says Skoufis.