Will Barclay is a Pulaski lawyer and Republican who has represented Oswego County in the state Assembly since 2003 and led the chamber’s Republican minority from 2020 until early 2026. He announced in February that he would not seek reelection, and his term ends this year. He is not on the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot.
So who is Will Barclay, what has he done, and what do his critics say? The record runs through a political family in Pulaski, nine years as a rank-and-file member, eight years as deputy leader, six years as minority leader, and a race to replace him between Oswego County Legislature Chairman James Weatherup and Democrat Tim Allers.
Quick Facts
- Party
- Republican (also on the Conservative line)
- Hometown
- Pulaski, N.Y.
- Date of Birth
- Not listed in official biographies reviewed; born in Syracuse
- Current Position
- Assemblyman, 120th District
- Background
- Business lawyer and partner at Barclay Damon LLP; Assembly Minority Leader, 2020 to 2026
- In Office Since
- January 2003
EARLY LIFE AND FAMILY
Barclay was born in Syracuse and is a lifelong Central New York resident from Pulaski, where his Assembly biography says he is the eighth generation of his family to live. His father, H. Douglas Barclay, served 11 terms in the state Senate from 1965 to 1984 and chaired the Senate Republican Conference, as well as the Codes and Judiciary committees.
His mother is Sara “Dee Dee” Seiter Barclay, and his siblings are Kathryn, David, Dorothy and Susan, according to Syracuse University. PagPol could not confirm his exact date of birth. He was 51 in January 2020, according to City & State, which places his birth around 1968 or 1969.
He attended St. Lawrence University and earned his law degree from the Syracuse University College of Law in 1995. He then clerked for Judge Roger J. Miner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Albany and New York City, according to his Assembly biography. PagPol found no record of military service.
Barclay became a partner at Barclay Damon LLP, formerly Hiscock & Barclay, where he practices business law and mergers and acquisitions. He has also served as a director of Pathfinder Bank and Countryway Insurance, according to City & State. He and his wife, Margaret, have two sons, whose names PagPol could not confirm.
A historic bird’s-eye view map of Pulaski, the Oswego County village where Barclay’s family has lived for eight generations. (Map: Lucien R. Burleigh, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
THE EARLY ASSEMBLY YEARS, 2002 TO 2011
Barclay won his Assembly seat on Nov. 5, 2002, representing what was then the 124th District, according to his Assembly biography. From 2003 to 2007 his father served as U.S. ambassador to El Salvador under President George W. Bush. PagPol could not find Barclay’s vote totals or opponents for the 2002, 2004 or 2006 elections.
In November 2008 he beat Democrat Jerome Burns 34,594 votes to 17,198, according to Ballotpedia. In the 2009 and 2010 sessions he sat on the Corporations, Ethics, Insurance, Judiciary, and Ways and Means committees. In November 2010 he won again without opposition, with 31,301 votes.
DEPUTY LEADER, 2012 TO 2019
In 2012 Barclay was named Deputy Minority Leader, according to Spectrum News. That November he won the redrawn 120th District without opposition, with 38,991 votes on the Republican, Conservative and Independence lines. He joined the Rules Committee in 2013 and ran unopposed again in 2014 and 2016.
In June 2018 the state Senate voted 61 to 0 for the Senate companion to his bill A11061A, which lets an Oswego County assistant district attorney live in an adjoining county. On July 5 WRVO reported that Democrat Gail Tosh would be his first challenger in 10 years. Tosh said Democrats “need to put up a candidate that can offer some hope.”
Barclay described his work as opposing “ill-conceived pieces of legislation and policy,” according to WRVO. On July 31, 2018, the measure was signed into law as Chapter 185, according to the state Senate. That November he beat Tosh 31,393 votes to 14,359, or 68.6 percent to 31.4 percent, according to Ballotpedia.
MINORITY LEADER, 2020 TO 2021
On Dec. 31, 2019, Minority Leader Brian Kolb was charged with driving while intoxicated in a state vehicle, and he then resigned as leader. Barclay said he was “saddened and disappointed,” according to WSHU. On Jan. 7, 2020, the conference chose Barclay as leader in a closed-door meeting that lasted less than an hour.
His Assembly biography says the vote was unanimous. Days into the job he addressed the state’s new bail law, telling WSHU that Republicans were “open to amending it in any way.” That November he beat Tosh again, 43,412 votes to 18,519, or 70.0 percent to 29.9 percent, according to Ballotpedia.
In February 2021 Assembly Republicans advanced impeachment articles against Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and on March 8 they announced a resolution. “We won’t be able to force a vote, but we’re going to keep pounding on this issue,” Barclay said, according to WMHT. He argued impeachment could proceed alongside the attorney general’s inquiry: “I don’t see why it’s mutually exclusive.”
Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes and nearly two dozen women in the Assembly asked that the attorney general be allowed to finish first. “We request that she be allowed the appropriate time to complete her investigation,” they said, according to WMHT. On March 14, 2021, Doug Barclay, of Pulaski, died at 88, according to Syracuse University.
The New York State Capitol in Albany, where Barclay led the Assembly’s Republican minority from 2020 to 2026. (Photo: Navya Sriramaneni, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
MINORITY LEADER, 2022 TO 2025
In November 2022 Barclay won reelection without opposition, with 37,663 votes, according to certified state results. The conference then kept him as leader for the 2023 session. “I am profoundly grateful to the members of this Conference for the confidence and trust they’ve placed in me,” he said, according to CNYBJ.
“The failed polices [sic] of One-Party Rule need to be changed and challenged, or else that trend will continue,” he added. On Jan. 24, 2023, he was excused as the Assembly passed the Equal Rights Amendment, A1283, 97 to 46. In May the Senate passed the companion bills to his Oswego sales tax extensions, A6498 and A6519, 55 to 6 and 54 to 7.
On June 9, 2023, he voted no on the Clean Slate Act, A1029, which passed 82 to 65. In July Republican legislators sued in federal court over a 2022 law capping lawmakers’ outside income at $35,000 a year, according to Spectrum News. He was not a named plaintiff in that suit, but NNY360 reported he was among the lawmakers who brought a separate state case.
On July 28, 2023, his bills extending the extra 1 percent sales tax in Oswego County and the City of Oswego through Nov. 30, 2025, were signed as Chapters 265 and 266, per the Senate bill record. In July 2024 a state judge temporarily blocked the cap in the state case, and Barclay said the effort to disqualify citizen legislators “raises serious constitutional questions.”
In November 2024 he won reelection without opposition, with 48,550 votes, according to certified state results. After Gov. Kathy Hochul’s State of the State address in January 2025, he said, “I think the governor can read a poll,” according to WRVO. “I think she needs to go a little further on criminal justice.”
The Oswego West Pierhead Lighthouse at the Port of Oswego on Lake Ontario. Barclay carried three extensions of the extra 1 percent sales tax for Oswego County and the City of Oswego. (Photo: Harini Rath, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
In March 2025 the same judge upheld the $35,000 cap, striking down only a provision that would suspend violators’ voting rights, and Republicans appealed. Barclay and Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt asked the court to delay the limits until Jan. 1, 2027, according to the Post-Journal.
On April 29, 2025, he voted no on the Medical Aid in Dying Act, A136, which passed 81 to 67. On May 7 he voted yes on the public protection and general government budget bill, A3005, which passed 104 to 46. The next day he voted no on the revenue bill, A3009, which passed 103 to 46.
On May 27, 2025, the Senate voted 51 to 8 for the companion to his bill A5621, another extension of Oswego County’s extra 1 percent sales tax. It was signed on Aug. 7 as Chapter 311, according to the state Senate. PagPol could not find named supporters or opponents of any of his sales tax bills.
THE FINAL SESSION, 2026
On Feb. 5, 2026, Barclay announced he would not run again and would step down as leader. “Earlier this week, after much consideration, I decided I will not be running for reelection in November,” he said in his retirement statement. “As such, I will also be stepping down from my role leading the Assembly Minority Conference.”
On Feb. 9 the conference chose Assemblyman Ed Ra of Franklin Square, ranking member on Ways and Means, as leader. “I congratulate Ed Ra on his election as the next Assembly Minority Leader,” Barclay said in a statement. “He’s been a trusted friend and colleague who represents the best of what it means to be a public servant.”
On Feb. 17 Weatherup announced a campaign launch in Fulton, and the Oswego County Republican Committee voiced support for him on Facebook, according to Spectrum News. In May Barclay voted no on the 2026 public protection budget bill, S9005, which passed 93 to 47, and on the revenue bill, S9009, which passed 91 to 52.
On June 23 Allers, an Oswego County businessman running as “a political outsider,” narrowly won the Democratic primary over Jim Cannon, a Fulton resident and former Army captain, according to CNYCentral. Election night and certified totals reported by different outlets varied by a few dozen votes.
THE DISTRICT AND THE PARTY MATH
The 120th District covers all of Oswego County, the Cayuga County towns of Ira, Sterling and Victory, and the Jefferson County towns of Adams, Ellisburg, Lorraine and Worth. In February 2026 Oswego County had 34,610 active enrolled Republicans, 16,279 Democrats and 19,330 voters with no party, out of 75,179, according to PagPol’s Data Spine.
In his races from 2008 on, Barclay faced a Democrat three times and won each by more than 33 points: 33.6 points in 2008, 37.2 in 2018 and 40.1 in 2020, according to Ballotpedia. Democrats have controlled the Assembly since 1975. In late 2022 Republicans were outnumbered more than two to one, according to CNYBJ.
LEADERSHIP ROLES
Barclay led the Republican minority from January 2020 to February 2026 after eight years as Deputy Minority Leader. His Assembly biography also lists him as assistant minority leader, chair of the Minority Joint Conference Committee and chair of the Minority Hunting and Fishing Task Force, without dates. He was the top Republican on Ways and Means as of January 2020.
Since 2021 his only standing committee has been Rules, according to Ballotpedia. City & State describes a friendly relationship with Speaker Carl Heastie, who called Barclay “a good friend and partner in government,” according to City & State. Barclay thanked Heastie for their mutual respect in his farewell statement.
Barclay was the prime sponsor of 54 bills and a cosponsor of 65 in the 2025 and 2026 sessions, according to PagPol’s Data Spine. His 54 prime-sponsored bills ranked third among the 12 upstate Assembly Republicans PagPol compared, behind Scott Gray with 65 and Phil Palmesano with 56. For the Senate’s Republican leader, see PagPol’s profile of Rob Ortt.
Bills prime-sponsored in 2025 and 2026, upstate Assembly Republicans
BarclayOther upstate Republican members
Bills each member introduced as prime sponsor in the 2025 and 2026 sessions. Source: New York State Assembly data, compiled in PagPol’s Data Spine.
WHY HE RAN AND WHAT HE BELIEVES
PagPol could not find a statement explaining why Barclay first ran in 2002, though he followed his father into state politics. In his farewell statement he listed affordability, lower taxes, small business, job creation, public safety, education and health care as priorities. He has long framed his leadership as a challenge to what he calls “One-Party Rule.”
He has pushed for tougher criminal justice laws, telling WRVO in 2025 that Hochul “didn’t really address” crime and bail. He has also cast himself as an ethics reformer, calling for Speaker Sheldon Silver to resign and for a stronger Assembly Ethics Committee, according to his Assembly press releases.
CAMPAIGN FINANCE
PagPol could not find Barclay’s state Board of Elections filings for this profile, and he received no public matching funds in 2026 because he did not run. The money in the 120th District this year belongs to the two candidates seeking to succeed him, who have both drawn on the state’s public campaign finance program.
2026 public matching funds paid in the 120th District race
Republican nomineeDemocratic nominee
Public matching funds paid to the two candidates seeking Barclay’s open seat in 2026. Source: New York State Public Campaign Finance Board.
Weatherup received $181,050.54 across six distributions from May 19 to Oct. 5, and Allers received $86,310.50 across five from Aug. 21 to Oct. 13, according to the Public Campaign Finance Board’s distribution reports. Any later payments would add to those totals.
CONTROVERSIES AND CRITICISM
PagPol found no ethics complaints, investigations or lawsuits against Barclay personally. The sharpest criticism has concerned his conference’s fight against the outside income cap. City & State reported in 2020 that he earned $96,000 to $155,000 a year from his law firm and his seats on the boards of Pathfinder Bank and Countryway Insurance.
Senate Democratic spokesman Mike Murphy, speaking of the Republican plaintiffs generally rather than Barclay by name, said, “Public service should be just about that, serving the public not lining one’s pockets with outside money,” according to City & State. A state judge upheld the cap in 2025, and the Republicans’ appeal is pending.
His push to impeach Cuomo in 2021 also drew resistance from Democrats who wanted the attorney general to finish her investigation first. Barclay countered that the two efforts could go forward together. He took over as leader after Kolb’s arrest, but PagPol found no reporting that tied Barclay himself to that episode.
CLAIMS VERSUS THE RECORD
Barclay has presented himself as an ethics reformer, calling for a stronger Ethics Committee and for the resignation of Speaker Sheldon Silver. Yet he has opposed the outside income cap, calling it an attempt “to disqualify citizen-legislators” that “raises serious constitutional questions,” while his own outside income ran well above it.
In 2020 he reported $96,000 to $155,000 a year in outside income, well above the $35,000 limit later adopted. Supporters of the cap, such as Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, have called outside income “a potentially corrupting influence on legislators,” according to City & State.
The Oswego County Courthouse in the City of Oswego, built in 1860. Local officials asked Barclay to carry the county’s sales tax extensions. (Photo: Calvin Beale, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
He lists lower taxes among his priorities, and he voted against the 2025 and 2026 revenue bills. He also sponsored three extensions of the extra 1 percent sales tax in Oswego County and the City of Oswego, which local officials requested. He backed the 2025 public protection budget bill but voted no on its 2026 version.
STATE COMPTROLLER AUDITS IN THE DISTRICT
In November 2024 a comptroller Volney audit found the Town of Volney supervisor did not keep accounting records or present them to the town board. The board adopted 2023 and 2024 budgets not based on prior-year results, so the town may have levied more taxes than needed.
The town also did not file its 2021 to 2023 annual financial reports with the comptroller. Earlier audits examined the Town of Oswego’s financial condition and technology in 2018 and the Oswego City School District’s finances in 2016. PagPol did not review those findings and could not find fiscal stress scores for the district.
WHY HE IS LEAVING
Barclay said in his statement that he decided “after much consideration” and that “this is the right time to step aside and move on.” He told reporters he wanted “a smooth transition to new leadership early in the legislative session,” according to Spectrum News. For another departing upstate lawmaker, see PagPol’s profile of Bill Magnarelli.
NNY360 noted that his law firm income conflicts with the outside income cap but did not say that was his reason. Regional Republicans were surprised because they had not been told in advance, the paper reported. He has not said what he will do next.
LOOKING AHEAD
Barclay’s term ends at the close of 2026. On Nov. 3 voters in the 120th District will choose between Weatherup, the Oswego County Legislature chairman, and Allers. PagPol could not find polling or confirm third-party lines in the race. For more, visit PagPol’s Oswego County page or subscribe to the Oswego County newsletter.
