The current boundaries of New York Senate District 44 date to the state’s 2022 redistricting. In that district, Republican incumbent James Tedisco is seeking another term against Democratic challenger Sarah Rogerson, an Albany Law professor who served on the Niskayuna school board from 2020 to 2023. The district includes all of Saratoga County and parts of eastern Schenectady County; the general election is set for November 3.
Tedisco is running on the Republican, Conservative and Independent Vote Affordable lines, while Rogerson appears on the Democratic and Working Families lines, according to Times Union reporter Tyler A. McNeil and poststar.com. Democrats have never defeated Tedisco in the district. Since the 2022 remapping, Democrats have considered the seat winnable, and the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee has targeted it in its effort to flip a Senate seat and secure a legislative supermajority.
Tedisco’s electoral record and the district’s changing boundaries
Tedisco’s legislative career began with his election to the State Assembly in 1982, after entering politics in 1977, according to the Times Union. He entered the State Senate in 2017. He lost a 2009 congressional bid, but has since won five Senate terms. His Senate victories have been by double-digit percentage-point margins, including an 18-point win over Michelle Ostrelich in 2022.
Tedisco told the Times Union that his last race, in 2024, was decided by more than 25,000 votes — a figure corroborated by news10.com. That matches separate reporting from the Daily Gazette, which found Tedisco secured 57% of the vote against Democratic challenger Minita Sanghvi that year.
Rogerson's Path From Immigration Law to the Campaign Trail
Rogerson, 45, works as an immigration attorney and Albany Law School professor, directing the school's Edward P. Swyer Justice Center. She founded the school's Immigration Law Clinic in 2011, shortly after joining the faculty, per the school's faculty directory. She moved to Niskayuna in 2010 and later served on the Niskayuna school board from 2020 to 2023, though the Times Union's reporting notes she has no direct lawmaking experience. Decades earlier, she volunteered for Cory Booker during his unsuccessful 2002 mayoral campaign in Newark, New Jersey.
Rogerson won the Democratic primary in June, defeating Stillwater village trustee Patrick Nelson to secure the nomination, a result the Daily Gazette also reported at the time. If elected, she says she would keep her job at Albany Law School during her two-year term but would not teach or receive pay from the school while serving. Her campaign presents her as an advocate who has opposed the MAGA movement in New York, according to the Times Union.
Affordability, Immigration and Dueling Explanations for the Cost of Living
Rogerson has said federal actions are affecting New York constituents, including cuts to SNAP and Medicaid, and she wants to protect immigrants from federal immigration agency tactics under President Donald Trump. She told the Times Union that urgency and a sense of shared struggle feel more acute upstate than they used to. If elected, she said she hopes to invest in climate change initiatives, pass single-payer health care and cap utility bills.
Tedisco, for his part, said Rogerson is focused on President Trump rather than state issues, and he instead blames Gov. Kathy Hochul's agenda and Democratic majorities in both legislative chambers for New York's rising cost of living. He believes repealing state energy mandates, delivering large tax cuts and giving elected officials authority to approve utility rate increases would ease affordability pressures on constituents.
Tedisco's Legislative Record Draws Scrutiny
A Center for Effective Lawmaking analysis ranked Tedisco 20th among 21 Republican state senators and 61st among all 63 senators for the 2023-2024 legislative term. The Daily Gazette reported that the center rated his productivity second-to-last among Senate Republicans that session. Tedisco disputes the characterization that he is ineffective, telling the Times Union that listening to voters and helping solve their problems matters most to him.
Two of his bills remain stalled. Jacobe's Law, which would require schools to notify parents of bullying, is named for a 13-year-old Saratoga County boy who died by suicide in 2015 after being bullied at school, but it has not reached the Senate floor. The Safe Pet Boarding Act, which would regulate pet boarding services and businesses, has also not advanced to a floor vote.
Campaign finances and voter enrollment offer contrasting signals
Financially, Tedisco holds a clear edge. His campaign reported $120,168 in cash on hand as of Aug. 12, compared with $57,848 for Rogerson's campaign, per the Daily Gazette's review of filings. Voter registration tells a different story: Democrats held a slight enrollment advantage in the district with 80,508 enrolled Democrats compared with 75,824 registered Republicans, and 74,223 voters registered as unaffiliated.
How to read the district and productivity numbers
New York State Geospatial Services says the state Senate district boundary layer is based on the Legislative Task Force redistricting in 2022. That establishes the basis for the current district map, but does not specify which communities shifted compared with earlier lines. Election results from before and after the remapping should therefore be compared cautiously, since they may reflect different district boundaries. The Center for Effective Lawmaking says its State Legislative Effectiveness Scores consider how many bills a lawmaker sponsors, how far those bills advance and the substantive significance of the proposals. The ranking reported above is thus not simply a count of bills passed. The center’s methodology combines those measures of legislative activity and progress.
Rogerson has said she believes she can serve constituents without surrendering her values, and has identified affordability and the border as top priorities, according to news10.com’s earlier coverage of her campaign launch. The district’s voter enrollment advantage for Democrats contrasts with Tedisco’s fundraising lead and record of winning Senate races by double-digit margins. Voters will decide whether Rogerson can turn that enrollment advantage into a victory on November 3.
