John Mannion

Washington – A Central New York native who served in both of President Donald Trump’s administrations plans to launch a campaign today to unseat Rep. John Mannion in the 22nd Congressional District.

Kailee Buller, 37, a Republican who grew up in Auburn, told syracuse.com that she resigned from her job as chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Agriculture so that she could campaign for Congress.

Buller’s decision to return to her roots after almost 15 years in Washington, D.C. ends a last-minute scramble by local Republican leaders to recruit a candidate to challenge Mannion, a first-term Democrat.

Republican committee chairs in the 22nd District spent almost two months searching for a candidate after John Lemondes, a state Assembly member, abruptly ended his campaign on Jan. 9.

Lemondes cited undisclosed personal reasons for his decision. Local Republican leaders had been discouraged by his inability to raise large sums of money for the campaign.

Now the five Republican county chairs in the district have quickly lined up to endorse Buller. She also has the backing of the state Conservative Party.

Besides Lemondes, two other Republicans who declared their candidacy with the Federal Election Commission have since dropped their bids for the nomination. That leaves Buller as the only GOP candidate for the November election.

For Buller, it will be her first political campaign. She has spent her career in Washington, with most of her experience coming as a lobbyist for the food industry and working in senior posts at the USDA in both of Trump’s terms in office.

Until two weeks ago, she was chief of staff for USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, directly supervising 70 senior deputies at an agency that has 100,000 employees. The agency oversees federal farm policies, food stamp and nutrition programs, and conservation programs that protect forests and other natural resources.

Buller said she is in the process of selling her house in the Washington suburb of Alexandria, Va. She plans to move her family of five to Central New York this spring.

Buller said she decided to campaign for Congress because she didn’t want to see Mannion go unchallenged in the November election.

She plans to campaign for policies that would lower costs for Central New Yorkers and help the community thrive. Buller said she wants her children to be able to remain in the region when they start their careers and not – like she did – leave in search of better opportunities.

“I truly believe the right person as our representative can help build Central New York for a generation that doesn’t have to leave,” Buller said in an interview with syracuse.com.

Buller celebrated her 37th birthday Wednesday. She shares the same March 4th birthday with the youngest of her three children, a 2-year-old son, Crew. Buller and her husband, Eric, also have a son, Conrad, 5, and a daughter, Blair, 3.

In 2011, Buller left Auburn for Washington after becoming the first person in her family to receive a four-year college degree.

She was raised by a single mother, Debbie Tkacz, who worked as a nurse. Her father, Brian Ingerson, retired last year after working 43 years as a prison guard at Auburn Correctional Facility.

Buller said her working-class background taught her about the importance of hard work and the struggles faced by many Central New Yorkers at a time of rising costs and affordability problems.

She plans to make those issues – especially rising energy, housing and food costs – the focus of her campaign. Buller said she will advocate for an “all-of-the-above” approach to lowering energy costs through the development of more fossil fuel, nuclear and renewable energy projects.

Buller said she will also consider whether to support fracking for oil and natural gas to boost energy supplies. Fracking has been banned in New York state since 2014.

A motivating factor behind her decision to run for Congress, Buller said, was her perception that Mannion has not delivered on his promise to represent Central New York in a bipartisan manner.

Buller said she was disappointed last year when Mannion unleashed a verbal tirade on the House floor directed at Rep. Mike Lawler, a New York Republican.

“One of the things that actually struck me – one of the most viral moments we all watched – is him screaming at another member on the House floor,” Buller said. “That’s not Central New York. That’s not who we are. So, I’m frustrated by his leadership.”

Buller said she would seek to work in the bipartisan manner of former Reps. John Katko and the late Richard Hanna, Republicans who built bipartisan brands while representing Central New York.

“I’m a registered Republican but I’m very pragmatic,” Buller said, adding she would make decisions in the best interests of Central New York, not through a political lens.

Buller said she doesn’t always agree with Trump and his policies, including some of the deep cuts his administration made to the federal workforce.

Last year, Buller said, she personally led the effort to keep open a USDA office in downtown Syracuse that the Department of Government Efficiency wanted to close. She said it made no sense to close the office, which serves all of New York state.

“The whole DOGE effort was well intended, and we found a lot of fraud, waste and abuse,” she said, adding some mistakes were made. “The amount of fraud we were presented with was way more than we could keep up with, frankly.”

Buller said that’s one reason why Rollins suspended more than $129 million in USDA aid to Minnesota in January, drawing criticism from local officials.

Buller said the suspension did not affect financial aid for farmers or federal nutrition programs like SNAP.

Before returning to the USDA last year, she served as president and CEO of the National Oilseed Processors Association, a national trade association that represents the U.S. soybean, canola, and sunflower seed industries.

Buller also spent three years as president of the Edible Oil Producers Association, another organization that lobbies Congress and federal officials.

In Trump’s first term, Buller served in various senior roles at USDA that included chief of staff to agency heads in charge of biofuels and the USDA’s research, education and economics department.

Buller began her career at USDA as a policy adviser in its Office of Congressional Relations in July 2017.

Before joining the agency, she worked in Washington for other food trade organizations, including the Corn Refiners Association, the Snack Food Association and the National Grocers Association, representing independent grocers.

Buller will begin her congressional campaign with an uphill battle to gain traction against Mannion.

Most political analysts in Washington have predicted that any bid to unseat Mannion this year is unlikely to be a competitive election. In January, the Cook Political Report changed its rating for the 22nd District seat from “likely Democratic” to “solid Democratic.”

Mannion defeated former Rep. Brandon Williams, R-Sennett, by more than 10 percentage points in the 2024 election.

Mannion began the year with $1.3 million cash on hand for his campaign. Lemondes had only $15,000 in his campaign account, according to reports filed by the campaigns with the Federal Election Commission.

It’s not yet clear whether Buller will receive financial support from national Republican groups or GOP-aligned political action committees.

In previous years, the race for the Syracuse-based House seat has been among the most competitive elections in the nation, but redistricting in 2024 gave Democrats a larger voter enrollment advantage.

The 22nd District now has about 30,000 more registered Democratic voters than Republicans.

The district spans all of Onondaga and Madison counties, and parts of Cayuga, Cortland and Oneida counties. About 70% of the district’s voters are in Onondaga County.