While most political candidates fear the “October Surprise” — an unplanned or unexpected event shortly before an election that can change public opinion or shake up a political contest — Democratic congressional candidate Chris Gallant got his a month early.
In September, the right-wing tabloid The New York Post revealed that Gallant, 37, had appeared in varying degrees of undress while modeling fetish gear in promotional photos for Mr. S Leather, a San Francisco-based leather and fetish retailer.
The photos, taken in early 2010, showed the then-20-year-old Gallant in various gear, including a black leather posture collar with a chain and a padlock, and in a cage, wearing a harness and a muzzle. In one photo, another man is behind Gallant, performing a sex act on him. In another, Gallant, fully clad in leather, is seen above the same man, receiving oral sex.
While the Post declined to publish more risqué photos from that shoot, it did publish two pictures of him in the collar, as well as two unrelated photos, one showing Gallant in a leather harness with blue hair at the Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco, and another depicting him in white aussieBum boxer briefs at an LGBTQ event on Fire Island. Conservative groups seized upon the photos, sharing the pictures of Gallant on social media, in an attempt to paint him as a sexual deviant and unserious candidate unfit for office.
But unlike how such a political scandal might have been handled in the past, Gallant has embraced the photos, telling The New York Times: “I mean, all my friends know I’m kinky…. I make Christian Grey look like amateur hour.”
Speaking with Metro Weekly, Gallant recounted that he and his former partner, whom he was dating at the time, were friendly with the owners of Mr. S Leather, and that the photo shoot was an impromptu activity. Afterwards, the owners asked him if they could use the photos, to which he consented. Years later, after someone mentioned that his photos were still being used on the business’s website, Gallant messaged the owners to ask for the photos to be taken down, which they were, in 2020, well before Gallant launched his congressional campaign. But as a millennial, Gallant is well aware that the internet is forever.
“We live in a digital age,” he says. “I mean, the fact of the matter is that my generation, we’ve always had cameras, we’ve always had the internet, we’ve always had this kind of thing.”
Gallant says people have also stolen his photos from Facebook or Instagram, or from gay apps like Grindr, and used them to catfish other people on hookup apps.
“One time, my photos were being used on Grindr in five states in a matter of three hours,” he recalls. “I had people message me from Texas, California, Florida, Minnesota, and New York. They were like, ‘Oh, you’re here in town?’ I said, ‘No.’ And they showed screenshots of my pictures and I was like, ‘Oh. Interesting.’
“I would get messages regularly about people using my military photos on Facebook,” he continues. “People would write to me and say, ‘Oh, I was talking to you and I sent you money,’ and I was like, ‘Who are you?’ I didn’t realize this had been going on for years. I started searching through Facebook, and I found, within a matter of 20 minutes, 35 Facebook profiles with my pictures on them.”
He also rejects assertions by Republicans that posing for the photos was a violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, saying he wasn’t on active duty at the time. But he hopes that weathering the experience will provide a lesson for others who wish to get involved in the political arena but are reticent because of their past or because of unflattering photos or videos of themselves online.
“No matter what, win or lose this election, I want to advocate for our community, the LGBTQ community, because I think having something like this happen to me in general is nerve-wracking,” he says. “I literally became international news almost overnight, which is crazy.
“But I think I would advocate for anybody who wants to get into a position of public service,” he adds. “There’s good people who are afraid to be part of public life because of pictures they have in their past, and that is not the world I think we should be a part of, or that I want to live in.”
Born in Smithtown, N.Y., as the youngest of four in a blended family, Gallant was raised on Long Island before moving to the Poconos when he was in sixth grade. He would ultimately move back to New York after graduating from high school.
“I got into the military, in the Army, at 17, between my junior and senior year of high school, and then I actually deployed in 2012 as an air traffic controller,” he says. “After that, I got picked up by the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] in 2014, and after that, in 2020, I went through flight school, and deployed again in 2022 as a Black Hawk pilot, which is what I do now still in the Army National Guard.”
Gallant has been a volunteer firefighter since he was 15. As a civilian air traffic controller, he worked at Northeast Philadelphia Airport, Republic Airport in East Farmingdale, and ultimately JFK Tower. He also served as the local union president for the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.
He has since mounted one of the biggest undertakings of his life, challenging incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Nick LaLota, who was elected to Congress four years ago.
Throughout his tenure in Congress, LaLota has attempted to cultivate an image as a moderate Republican, a reputation that Gallant says is undeserved, given LaLota’s fealty to President Donald Trump. Gallant characterizes Trump’s administration as “the most corrupt in the history of the United States.”
“I got so sick and tired of the political bullshit,” Gallant says. “I think we all, as Americans, are just exhausted. We’re exhausted of the corruption. We’re exhausted of the noise. We’re exhausted of just politicians not working for the American people at all.
“We’re looking at a Congress that has its lowest approval rating ever in probably the history of the United States — they’ve seemingly had more time off in this session than ever before,” he says, referring to an analysis from the group No Labels finding that the U.S. House of Representatives held floor votes on only 65 days, the fewest of any midterm year since 1994.
“When I see something that’s not working, I say, ‘Okay, how can I fix it?’ And so I decided I could do much better than the representative that I’m running against, so I decided to step up and try to build something that I think is going to work for the American people.”
Because the Hatch Act barred him from running for partisan office as a federal employee, Gallant had to resign from his job to pursue his congressional run.
“I’ve been living on savings since last August, and with all the craziness that’s going on and how expensive it is to live, it’s been not so easy, to say the least,” he says. “But you know what? The sacrifice is worth it. It’s what this moment called for. I just felt I needed to step up and just change the uniform and serve my country in a different way.”
METRO WEEKLY: Let’s start with why you decided to join the military.
CHRIS GALLANT: I was in middle school when 9/11 happened. Actually, I had just moved to Pennsylvania when it happened, and so it was this weird, surreal feeling just being a New York kid — I had that really thick Long Island accent, and everybody kind of turned and looked at me as we were sitting there watching on TV as the World Trade Center fell. So that was in sixth grade. Then I was in high school when we were invading Iraq, and I remember sitting in the lunchroom watching it happen on TV and saying, “Okay, well, in a year or so I’m going to join the Army National Guard,” and I did.
I also had this fear. I was like, “Oh, we’re going to get drafted.” So instead of getting drafted, I’d rather just sign up and do my duty. It wound up being the best decision I ever made. I mean, I love my military career. When I first got in, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was still a thing, and then on my first deployment in 2012, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” had just been repealed. Since then, I’ve been out and open, and most people look up to me for that as well.
MW: What was military life like under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”?
GALLANT: I’ve always looked at it as a protection for me. As a gay man, as long as nobody questioned me or pried about anything — and they couldn’t and they weren’t allowed to and if they did, they were the ones who’d get in trouble. So as long as I didn’t say anything about it to anyone, that was it. It was kind of billed as a protection. It was a step into the direction to where we are today, where now it doesn’t matter.
MW: Tell me about your coming out experience.
GALLANT: I was 16, and I was seeing somebody at the time, and I told my friend Tony, who was the gay kid in school. He was like, “Oh, this is great.” And then he told one person and then it spread through my school like wildfire. We had almost 1,900 kids in my graduating class. It’s Pennsylvania, so our district covered 30 square miles or something like that. And so, within a week, everybody knew, and then even in that realm, nobody cared.
I had a really large friend group in general, so nobody gave a shit. So I kind of just kept rolling from there. And then eventually I finally came out to my parents, who were very accepting of it. And then my entire family found out not too long after that, and since then, I’ve always just lived as I live. I was very fortunate to surround myself with really great people. I was 18 years old, working in New York City, and so having that level of acceptance and being in a comfortable place where you can be yourself allowed me to grow in the world, where I’m continually and unapologetically myself.
MW: What is New York’s 1st Congressional District like and who are the types of voters you’re trying to appeal to?
GALLANT: I would say that we have the largest number of independent voters in New York State in the district, and we are probably pretty evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. I think the number is 38% independents, and that’s where I kind of see where the flip could be here. I consider it very “purple,” even though Cook calls it heavy Republican or solid Republican.
The reality is that I think that this district is very unique and interesting. You do have a very diverse area. You’ve got the West Side, which is more suburbia. You’ve got Smithtown and Brookhaven. It’s a little bit more built up — there’s a lot more small businesses. And then out on the East End, you’ve got the farmland, on the North Fork, a lot of wineries, a little bit more spread out, and then on the South Fork, you’ve got obviously the Hamptons, which is very affluent. And you have a lot of seasonal people out on the East End as well, so the East End is full of people that are only there during the summer, and then during the winter, they snowbird elsewhere or whatever.
So there’s a really big diversity, but I think overall, whether you’re living in the most affluent place in New York or you’re living in Smithtown, affordability is still a problem. I mean, costs of things that are skyrocketing so significantly affect everyone, and we’re seeing that people are getting priced off Long Island. I mean, my mom even got priced off Long Island. You were looking at median household prices that are $800,000, and my mom is 76, and she just had to move to North Carolina because she was spending $4,500 a month for a two-bedroom apartment. She just built a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house [in North Carolina], and she’s spending $3,000 a month.
So the costs are affecting everyone, and people don’t think about it at all, but the fact is that there’s a lot of homelessness in the Hamptons. There’s a lack of workforce housing. There’s issues with housing. Now we’re talking about knocking people off their healthcare. Healthcare costs are going through the roof. So I think these are the issues that are really affecting us here on Long Island. That’s sort of the makeup.
Another issue is that we live on an island, and infrastructure is a huge problem. We’re just not ready or prepared for that next storm. Superstorm Sandy was 13, 14 years ago now, and we’re still seeing effects of that, whether it’s beach erosion or dams that are still washed away or that continue to break down. So infrastructure’s a real problem here. We have to be prepared for that next storm, because if we had a Category 2 or Category 3 hurricane hit Long Island –- which is very possible now as storms are getting stronger, climate change is a real issue — the effects of that would be devastating.
MW: What’s the principal difference between you and the incumbent, Nick LaLota?
GALLANT: The difference between LaLota and myself is that Nick LaLota considers and tries to call himself a moderate, but the reality is that he does everything Donald Trump tells him. He’s a MAGA Republican. He was just recently endorsed by Donald Trump, which is good for me, I think.
LaLota has voted for things that really affect his constituents. He gets forced by his party to vote in certain ways, whether it’s the Big Beautiful Bill or… I mean, that’s probably the biggest one, kicking 63,000 Long Islanders off their healthcare and making life more unaffordable in general. And he doesn’t show up in the district. I mean, they call him “No-Show Nick” for a reason. That’s where a lot of my focus is: showing up in our district, holding town halls, and meeting people where they’re at.
MW: Since 2016, we’ve seen increasing numbers of working-class people –- from firefighters to policemen to nurses to union workers — shift their allegiance from Democrats to Republicans. What has led to that drift away from Democrats, and how do you win back these former Obama voters who are now three-time Trump voters?
GALLANT: Whether you like him or you hate him, Trump is a communicator and can reach people that you may not necessarily agree with, but the thing is he was able to reach them in a unique way by promising them the world and making everything he said sound believable, and a lot of people got on board with it.
But you talk about three-time Trump voters — well, I just sat in a room yesterday with someone who’s voted for Trump three times, who has seen me speak and brought two lawn signs home. I’ve had people in the military and in the fire department, where people lean heavily to the right, telling me that I’d be the first Democrat they’d ever vote for. I walked up to a Republican’s door in Northport and knocked on the door, told him who I was, told him what I wanted to do and what I stand up for, and he walked inside and walked out with a check.
So I think people understand that they’ve been hoodwinked over what’s actually been going on in this country. Donald Trump ran on this entire platform, where the first words out of his mouth were, “I’m going to drain the swamp.” Okay, well now we’re looking at a swamp that is three times larger than it ever was, and it’s 10 times worse than it ever was, so he didn’t drain the swamp. He made his own.
And so when we look at what the reality is, today, and why he has his lowest approval rating ever, we’re seeing a tremendous shift in thoughts about what people think about Donald Trump, and we are even seeing Republican representatives start to step away from him.
I also use this as an example. We go train in Fort Rucker, Alabama, so Lower Alabama; they call it “LA” down there. So I was down there before Trump got elected, and there were Trump flags and there were banners being waved on trucks, and, I swear, one guy had a crop circle that said, “Donald Trump” in his corn. I was there not two months after he got elected in 2024 and into office, and those flags were either gone or upside down, and that crop circle was mowed over. So if they’re realizing and they’re feeling the hurt in Lower Alabama, when you talk about farmers and everyday working-class citizens realizing that they made a mistake, yeah, it’s a problem.
MW: Have Democrats done things that have assisted or given a permission structure for working-class people to embrace Trump and MAGA?
GALLANT: I mean, I’ve always said that the Democrats’ messaging was always terrible. They just don’t message well, and so I hope that we’ve turned the page.
I know, at least in my campaign, we’re trying to do something unique. We’re standing here alone in New York’s 1st Congressional District because that’s our focus, but we’re utilizing messaging and platforms to reach people. I think being clear, concise, and consistent is going to win. But the messaging of Democrats hasn’t been there for a long time.
The other thing is, Democrats are so ready to cut each other’s throats, and the Republicans fall in line. The Republicans just unify better. If they have someone, regardless of what they did, they’ll surround and support them one hundred percent.
MW: Republicans historically love to find a bogeyman that they can tie to their Democratic opponents to make them seem extreme, and in New York, those two favorite targets seem to be New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. Are Mamdani, Hochul, or anyone else on the left half of the political spectrum making it harder for your campaign and stopping voters from hearing your message?
GALLANT: So Nick LaLota talks about Mayor Mamdani more often than I have ever seen him talk about literally anybody else, as if he’s running a race against him. New York City politics is extremely different from the politics happening in New York’s 1st Congressional District. We are separated by fifty-something miles. There is zero connection to any policy that Zohran Mamdani makes that has any effect in New York’s 1st. But LaLota talks about him all the time.
I’ve always said that as long as the mayor of New York provides a safe environment for my constituents, I’m happy. I really didn’t get involved in or weigh in on the mayor’s race last year, because I was so focused on trying to figure out how I was building my own campaign. You had Cuomo, who was a Democrat, lose the primary, then run as an independent, which obviously didn’t work. But I see Mamdani as reaching out to his constituents. He’s open about what he’s actually doing. He’s honest with the people that he’s working for. But they label him as a DSA [Democratic Socialists of America], and now the Republicans are trying to make it as if he’s our party’s leader. I don’t find that to be true at all.
MW: Given your recent experience with the leak of your fetish gear photos, do you believe there’s an implicit “tax” that a gay or LGBTQ candidate pays by being a fully rounded person and embracing their sexuality?
GALLANT: We live in a different world today than we might have in the past. However, I say that with a grain of salt, because before I launched my campaign, the DCCC went through my Instagram and my social media and they saw pictures of me in a Speedo or whatever. I was wholly unafraid of it, and now it doesn’t even matter because it doesn’t get any worse than what we got, quite literally. But my profile picture was me in a pink Speedo in Mykonos, and they were like, “Well, you’ve got to take that off,” and I said, “Well, why? Who cares?”
When we talk about the future of being unapologetically yourself, and why I am scrubbing my life in order to present myself to the world, the argument always was, “Well, you’re going to look like an unserious candidate.” And I said to them, “Well, why?” We want authentic people. We want regular people.
When we talk about people in Congress, do we want someone who literally groomed themselves from day one to be a prude or not literally live life or not do anything or experience any of the things you do as a normal 20- or 30-year-old? We want real people, and if you have to scrub your entire life because you need to present yourself as some perfect, model person that’s going to try and run for political office, I think that’s disingenuous to the American people.
MW: Even within the LGBTQ community, there’s been criticism of openly gay candidates like Pete Buttigieg for being “too vanilla” or “too perfect” that leads some people to think he’s robotic or not being “real.” Is there a backlash if you’re not authentic, or not perceived as authentic even if you’re trying to be?
GALLANT: Yes, I do. I think people really understand bullshit when they smell it, when they see it. And so, if you are not being authentic when you meet people in person, or your presence online, or whatever it might be, people can see that and they can tell.
I think the only things that we removed from my social media were pictures of me in Speedos or what have you — that was the extent of what was really on my Facebook anyway. I take pictures on vacation all the time. That’s the only thing I ever use social media for, so it wasn’t like I was doing anything crazy with my social media. I hardly used it.
But now, moving forward, I’ve always been authentically myself, particularly on the trail and when I’m holding town halls and when I’m meeting people and whenever we have meetings or anything like that, and I think that always comes through as just me being me. And the fact that I’m not a politician, and I never was before this entire foray into politics, shows [to voters] as well.
MW: Just as an aside, now that they’ve allowed TMZ to do Washington-based political celebrity coverage, if you win, you’re going to get “papped” at some point. You’re going to go on vacation at the beach, and they’re going to be like, “Sexy Congressman Shows Too Much Skin.” You know that’s coming, right?
GALLANT: Oh, of course. But you know what? I don’t care. If anything, it’ll probably maybe gain me a vote or two, so whatever.
MW: Moving on to more pressing issues, the top campaign issue that we hear from every candidate we’ve interviewed this year is cost of living, affordability. It can feel like people are parroting the word “affordability” mindlessly, without explaining what it means. What are your specific prescriptions for tackling affordability?
GALLANT: Affordability is this huge umbrella term for various issues, and sometimes it seems like such a misnomer. So when I talk about affordability, I always try to describe what it means here on Long Island. I try to focus on what our next generation is feeling, getting priced off Long Island, or even our seniors getting priced off Long Island, because my mom has left because it’s too expensive.
But I really want to focus on our kids, our future. High school and college students are trying to leave the nest, get a job, and afford a home. When you talk to somebody who’s 35 years old, a married couple spending $4,500 a month for a two-bedroom apartment, and they can’t afford to go buy a home — that’s why we’ve seen the first-time homebuyer age jump from 20 to 40. And that to me, is an affordability problem. It’s being able to survive daily life, putting food on the table, gas in your car, and a roof over your head. Those are the main issues.
And health care can be wrapped into affordability as well. I’ve got another friend in the district who pays $3,500 a month for his health insurance, and this is after the ACA credits got kicked. So it’s an overarching issue — an issue that affects so many different aspects of your life.
MW: What other issues are being brought up organically on the campaign trail by people, besides those that fall under the umbrella of affordability?
GALLANT: Corruption, and that’s universally across the board. I hear it from Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. I think the number-one issue becomes affordability because it’s what hits your pocket and it’s what affects you on an everyday basis, but the second thing in mind is corruption, whether it’s Donald Trump making billions of dollars off the backs of Americans, manipulating the stock market, imposing tariffs. Why are we becoming enemies with Canada? What are we doing? And the grift. When you say one thing in 2016 and all of a sudden, in 2024, similar behavior is okay, people feel that the corruption is insane and that nobody’s doing anything about it.
And the problem is that the elected Republicans are just saying, “Oh, it’s okay” when it’s Trump — and it’s not. A lot of Republican voters right now are looking at what’s going on, saying, “This is wrong. This is not what we stand for. This is not the American thing.” And life is not better. It’s not more affordable. We’re involved in war. We’ve lost troops over it, billions of dollars being spent, national debt climbing through the ceiling. These are issues that aren’t getting fixed, and it’s only getting worse every day.
MW: What specifically is upsetting people about corruption? Are there specific actions or policies or programs they’re suspicious of, or is it just a general feeling that there is corruption in Washington?
GALLANT: I think it’s just the general feeling of corruption. I think it’s an amalgamation of everything. I think the biggest thing is when people realize how much money Donald Trump has made as the president of the United States, people are like, “What?” If anybody else was in that position and did that, they would’ve been fired a long time ago. He’s like Teflon. Nothing sticks. So I don’t know. But I think it’s the overall overarching idea of corruption in general.
And I said this a little while ago, but that’s what Donald Trump ran on. He ran on draining the swamp, and he created his own swamp three times as large, ten times worse. And this is why Congress has its lowest approval rating ever, because they haven’t stood up to any of it, nothing. They’ve just let it all happen. Whether it’s rebuilding the White House and building an arch and doing all these other things in Washington, or the tariffs, the war, it all kind of falls under the same umbrella of a total lack of regard for the three branches of government and checks and balances.
MW: What bills would you specifically sponsor if elected?
GALLANT: Well, I think having Medicare cover dental, hearing, and vision. I think that’s one way to lower costs and make sure things are covered. People are very concerned with their health care. I think that helps the affordability side of things.
I would be all for focusing on how do we actually maneuver ourselves out of Iran, so actually taking war powers back into the hands of Congress. Taking the powers of the purse, so making sure that we’re not putting tariffs on our closest allies, like Canada. Taking back those kinds of powers. And, again, I think rooting out corruption is going to be something we’re working towards. Holding accountable people who are not doing their jobs. I would go so far as to say figure out how to put an actual four-star general in the position that Hegseth’s in, get somebody who actually knows what they’re doing, because what’s going on right now with this administration on the world stage is just insane.
We need to build up our alliances and actually make friends with our allies again, and this administration has done everything to essentially cut off our allies or make enemies of our friends, and that’s a problem. So hopefully we can maybe strengthen those relationships as a new congressional body. Now, I know that’s difficult, but sure we can try.
MW: Is there a particular caucus that is either backing you electorally or financially or that you would consider joining?
GALLANT: We’ve met with a couple of them. I mean, even the Blue Dogs, because I feel like they’re very independent. But I find myself to be more of a Pat Ryan Democrat. I lean on Pat Ryan quite a bit just because he’s from my state. We have very similar backgrounds. He’s endorsed me as well. So I think leaning on him and things that he’s a part of would probably be my focus and goal. But we have not been necessarily formally endorsed by any particular group.
MW: Have any veterans groups backed you?
GALLANT: Yes, we’ve been endorsed by VoteVets.
MW: Have you been attacked either because of your sexual orientation or over LGBTQ issues? The big attack being used by Republicans this year is transgender issues. Has anybody, any third-party groups come into the district attacking you on that front?
GALLANT: No. Not yet.
MW: Really? That’s interesting.
GALLANT: I thought so, too. I also think it’s New York. If I was in “LA,” Lower Alabama, maybe. But, no, I think it’s New York. I think that falls flat.
MW: Except Bruce Blakeman’s certainly getting some traction on that in the governor’s race.
GALLANT: I just think there are so many other issues that the trans issue is just not top of mind. And I think that’s burnt out by now. They used that card before — I don’t think it works again. I always laugh, because my opponent calls me “weak and woke.” Yeah, well, I can sure as shit run into a burning building faster than he ever could, so I think that attack falls flat, too. But regarding the LGBTQ stuff, I don’t think it works in this district. I think attacking a gay man for running may have worked 10 or 15 years ago, but it just doesn’t work today. And I look at that as like, “Look at where we’ve come in the last ten years.” I mean, I consider that to be progress.
Source: Metro Weekly – www.metroweekly.com
