John Mannion taught high school science for nearly 30 years and led his local teachers union before entering politics. He lost his first State Senate race in 2018, won the seat in 2020, held it by 10 votes in 2022, and in 2024 unseated Republican Rep. Brandon Williams in the 22nd Congressional District.
So who is John Mannion, what has he passed, and why have opponents called him the “Albany abuser”? The record runs through a state chip factory tax credit, a reading bill that passed the House, votes against the Republican tax law and the Farm Bill, workplace allegations a Senate investigator found broke no policy, and a Nov. 3 race against Republican Kailee Buller.
Quick Facts
- Party
- Democratic (also on the Working Families line)
- Hometown
- Geddes, N.Y. (raised in Syracuse)
- Date of Birth
- Not listed in official biographies reviewed (born in 1968)
- Current Position
- U.S. House of Representatives, New York's 22nd District
- Background
- Former state senator; former high school science teacher; former president, West Genesee Teachers' Association
- In Office Since
- January 2025 (Congress); State Senate from December 2020
EARLY LIFE AND FAMILY
Mannion grew up on Syracuse’s Tipperary Hill, the grandchild of Irish immigrants. His mother worked for New York Telephone and his father for the New York Central Railroad, according to his House biography. He earned a biology degree from Binghamton University in 1990 and a master’s degree in education from SUNY Oswego, according to Ballotpedia.
He taught science for nearly 30 years, including 21 years of Advanced Placement biology and chemistry in the West Genesee School District, and coached soccer, basketball, and baseball. He and his wife, Jennifer, an elementary school reading teacher, live in Geddes and have three children.
FROM THE CLASSROOM TO ALBANY, 2018 TO 2020
Mannion served eight years as president of the West Genesee Teachers’ Association, which represents about 400 teachers, nurses, and psychologists, according to his House biography. In 2018 he ran for the State Senate’s 50th District and lost to Republican Bob Antonacci, 62,330 to 59,998, a margin of 2,332 votes, according to Ballotpedia.
When Antonacci resigned, Gov. Andrew Cuomo canceled the special election and the seat sat vacant until November 2020. Mannion then beat Republican Angi Renna 82,955 to 74,873, or 52.5 percent, according to Ballotpedia, and was sworn in on Dec. 16, 2020, according to his Senate biography.
IN THE STATE SENATE, 2021 TO 2022
In March 2021 Mannion voted for S854A, the law legalizing recreational marijuana, which passed 40 to 23. As founding chair of the new Senate Committee on Disabilities, he passed S6294A, which ordered a review of the state’s COVID response for people with developmental disabilities. It passed 60 to 3 and became Chapter 711 of 2021, according to the Senate bill page.
His S6779, extending an upstate flood mitigation task force, passed 63 to 0 with Republican Sen. Pamela Helming as a co-sponsor and became Chapter 164 of 2021. “The regular flooding of homes and business along Cross Lake and the Seneca River is unacceptable and demands a real solution from the State of New York,” he said in 2022, according to a Senate release.
In 2022 he co-sponsored Sen. Jeremy Cooney’s Green CHIPS Act, S9467, which opened state tax credits to large chip plants. It passed 61 to 2 and became Chapter 494 of 2022, according to the Senate vote record. That year 29 of his nearly 50 bills passed both houses, though his tax credit for disability care workers died in committee, as did later bills to raise their pay.
Mannion, then a state senator and chair of the Senate Disabilities Committee, speaks at a rally for people with developmental disabilities in Albany in September 2021. (Photo: NY Senate Photo, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
That November he faced Republican Rebecca Shiroff. After a hand recount and court rulings on contested ballots, he was declared the winner on Dec. 19, 2022, by 10 votes, 61,579 to 61,569, according to Spectrum News. His win preserved the Senate Democrats’ two-thirds supermajority. “With no more votes left to count this race is over,” he said in a campaign statement.
RUNNING FOR CONGRESS, 2023 TO 2024
Mannion launched his House campaign on July 13, 2023. “I know that we are a down-the-middle district,” he told WRVO. That September, a leaked video showed him calling some residents’ fears of migrant buses “ignorance.” In December, Williams’s campaign released a video of Mannion cursing at a man he said had disrespected his wife.
In June 2024 three former Senate staffers accused him of creating a hostile workplace, two of them saying he screamed at them. His primary rival, DeWitt Councilor Sarah Klee Hood, called the allegations “incredibly concerning.” Mannion called them “a coordinated effort to use smear tactics.” On June 25 he beat Klee Hood 16,624 to 10,373, or 61.5 percent, though she won Oneida and Madison counties.
In August 2024 an outside investigator hired by the Senate found no violation of Senate policy, according to Spectrum News. On Nov. 5 he beat Williams 194,450 to 161,939, or 54.6 percent, a margin of 32,511 votes, according to Ballotpedia, flipping the seat.
2024 general election vote share, upstate New York House Democrats
MannionOther upstate House Democrats
Winner’s share of all votes cast in the November 2024 general election. Mannion was the only one of these Democrats to flip a Republican-held seat. In his State Senate races he took 49.0 percent in 2018, 52.5 percent in 2020, and won by 10 votes in 2022. Sources: certified results compiled by Ballotpedia; Monroe County Board of Elections (Morelle); NBC News election returns (Kennedy).
THE DISTRICT AND THE PARTY MATH
The 22nd District covers Onondaga, Oneida, and Madison counties and part of Cortland County, including Syracuse and Utica. The Cook Political Report gives it a partisan lean of D+4, according to its race page, which says Mannion “shouldn’t face any serious competition this cycle.” Joe Biden won the district’s current lines with 54.6 percent in 2020.
Mannion serves in the minority of a narrowly divided House. Buller says Democrats have a 30,000-voter edge in the district, a claim PagPol could not verify against state enrollment data. The DCCC still lists the seat among its Frontline districts, according to Central Current.
COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS
Mannion sits on the House Agriculture Committee, on its subcommittees on commodity markets and rural development and on conservation and research, according to the House Clerk. He also sits on the Education and Workforce Committee, on its subcommittees on elementary and secondary education and on health, labor, and pensions.
He holds no party leadership post. His Agriculture seat matters in a district with dairy farms, and his Education seat reflects his teaching career. In the State Senate he was the founding chair of the Committee on Disabilities, which oversaw care for people with developmental disabilities.
WHAT HE HAS DONE IN CONGRESS
Mannion’s first bill, H.R. 2333, introduced in March 2025 with Democrats Jahana Hayes and Lucy McBath, would bar the Education Department from dismantling its special education offices, according to WAER. It has not moved. He was also an original co-sponsor of the BASIC Act, a chip investment tax credit later folded into the Republican tax law.
In March 2026 the Education and Workforce Committee unanimously approved H.R. 7890, the Science of Reading Act, sponsored by Republican Erin Houchin with Mannion as a co-sponsor. “As a teacher for nearly three decades, I know that strong reading skills are foundational to a student’s success,” he said, according to his House office. It passed the House on Sept. 16, 2026.
On Sept. 3, 2026, Mannion introduced H.R. 10232 with Democrat Bobby Scott and Republican Brian Fitzpatrick to protect Education Department offices. The reading bill has critics. Researcher Timothy Shanahan wrote in Education Week on Sept. 23 that its language “is so sloppy it even appears to ban phonics.”
The ice rink at Clinton Square in downtown Syracuse, the largest city in Mannion’s 22nd District. (Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
HIS VOTING RECORD IN CONGRESS
In January 2025 Mannion voted for the Laken Riley Act, which passed 263 to 156. In April he voted against the SAVE Act, which passed 220 to 208. “People who are not citizens are not voting in elections,” he said in 2026. In July 2025 he voted against the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed 218 to 214, according to the House Clerk.
“The American people didn’t vote to raise health care costs, close hospitals, cut food assistance,” he said of that law. In November 2025 he voted against the bill ending the government shutdown, which passed 222 to 209, and for the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which passed 427 to 1.
In April 2026 he voted against the Farm Bill, which passed 224 to 200 with 14 Democrats in favor. The AFL-CIO gave him 92 percent for 2025, below the House Democratic average of 97 percent that year, according to the AFL-CIO scorecard. PagPol could not find his stated reason for opposing the Farm Bill.
WHY HE RAN AND WHAT HE BELIEVES
Mannion said he ran because of “the divisiveness and honestly, dysfunction” in national politics, according to Spectrum News. “I carry myself in a very non-toxic way, in a very bridge-building way,” he said. When he was sworn in, he pledged to “work with everyone, across the district and across the political spectrum.”
His priorities are schools, Micron, child care, and infrastructure. In March 2026 he called U.S. military action against Iran a “war of choice,” and at an Auburn town hall he asked, “Do we have a clear strategy and a clear objective and exit strategy?” according to CNY Central.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE
Mannion has raised about $3.14 million for the 2026 cycle through Sept. 30, 2026, and had about $1.39 million in cash on hand, according to his FEC filings. About $938,000, or 30 percent, came from political action committees, and about $2.03 million from individuals through June. In the 2024 cycle he raised about $4.16 million.
Buller said she raised more than $200,000 in her first weeks, according to the Rome Sentinel. PagPol could not retrieve her later totals. In mid-2025 Mannion trailed six other New York battleground incumbents in quarterly fundraising, with $484,551 raised, according to Spectrum News.
2026 cycle campaign receipts, upstate New York House members
MannionDemocratsRepublicans
Total campaign committee receipts for the 2025-26 cycle. Report dates differ: Tenney and Langworthy had not posted their Sept. 30 reports when PagPol checked. Source: Federal Election Commission.
CONTROVERSIES AND CRITICISM
The 2024 workplace allegations followed him into the general election. “The ethics charges against my opponent are absolutely true and they’re absolutely serious,” Williams said in an October debate, as Republican ads called Mannion the “Albany abuser.” Mannion called the ads “a cowardly act,” according to WRVO. The Senate declined to release the investigator’s report.
Of the cursing video, Mannion said he had “echoed what he said to her,” repeating words a man had used toward his wife, according to CNY Central. In 2026 Buller said, “Mannion has delivered nothing, but empty promises and Central New Yorkers are fed up.” PagPol found no ethics complaints or lawsuits against him in Congress.
CLAIMS VERSUS THE RECORD
Mannion promises to work with everyone, and his reading bill and education offices bill have Republican partners. On the biggest partisan bills, the tax law, the SAVE Act, the shutdown bill, and the Farm Bill, he voted with his party. Buller told WRVO he “has really party line voted and not voted with the district.”
He champions Micron, and he backed both Green CHIPS and the federal chip credit, but he voted against the law that carried that credit. His disability record in Albany includes several signed laws, while his care worker pay bills never reached a floor vote. For another upstate Democrat’s record, see PagPol’s profile of Paul Tonko.
Genesee Street in downtown Utica. Utica and the rest of Oneida County are part of the 22nd District. (Photo: Andre Carrotflower, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
STATE COMPTROLLER AUDITS IN THE DISTRICT
A July 2026 comptroller Whitestown audit found the Town of Whitestown could not account for about $172,588, or 85 percent, of its fuel and oil purchases from January 2024 to October 2025. Another found the Town of Paris charged water rates its board never authorized.
A September 2026 fire department audit found the North Brookfield Volunteer Fire Department invested $77,200 through promissory notes from a local tax preparer and lost $45,758 of that principal. A separate September audit found the City of Oneida did not properly reconcile its bank accounts or its property tax and water and sewer receivables.
LOOKING AHEAD
Mannion faces Buller, a former chief of staff to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, and independent Will Staton on Nov. 3, 2026. “This is a seat we have to have if we are going to take back the majority,” Mannion told Central Current. For more, visit PagPol’s Onondaga County page or subscribe to the Onondaga County newsletter.
