Claudia Tenney

On October 1, 2019, Tenney announced that she would seek election to Congress in New York's 22nd congressional district once again in 2020.

In November 2018, Tenney lost her congressional re-election bid to Democrat Anthony Brindisi. In October 2019, she announced that she would seek her former congressional seat in 2020.

Tenney scheduled an announcement party for March 3, 2018 to confirm that she would seek re-election in 2018. New York State Assemblymember Anthony Brindisi of nearby Utica, who had served alongside Tenney in the Assembly, announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination to challenge Tenney. Brindisi outraised Tenney by $100,000 in the last quarter of 2017. In the first two quarters of fundraising since July 2017, Brindisi raised $18,000 more than Tenney. At the end of 2017, Tenney had $573,486 in cash on hand, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), but still owed $170,000 from her previous campaign. Brindisi ended the year with $581,851, per the FEC.

In March 2018, The Hill wrote that Tenney was "embracing President Trump's confrontational style." On election night, Brindisi narrowly led Tenney by 1,293 votes, and several news organizations called the race for Brindisi that night. However, Tenney refused to concede until absentee ballots were counted. By November 20, Tenney's deficit grew to over 3,900 votes, and there were not enough outstanding absentee ballots for Tenney to close the gap. On November 21, Tenney told local radio station WUTQ-FM that it was unlikely she would overtake Brindisi, and agreed to help with the transition. However, she stopped short of conceding, saying that she wanted to see every ballot counted. She conceded defeat a week later, on November 28. Her defeat made New York's 22nd congressional district the most pro-Trump congressional district in the nation to be won by a Democrat in 2018 (as mentioned above, Trump won the 22nd District with 55 percent of the vote in 2016—a 15-point margin over 2016 Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton).

In a radio interview shortly following the February 2018 Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, Tenney said, "It's interesting that so many of these people that commit the mass murders end up being Democrats". In a follow-up interview, Tenney added, "It isn’t just Republicans who commit all these terrible crimes. ... All I’m saying is everybody is guilty equally". She then shouted "Fake news" and ended the interview.

In April 2018, Tenney signed a letter calling for criminal investigations into a number of former Obama administration officials and high-ranking Justice Department officials. The letter accused former FBI Director James Comey of leaking classified information, 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton of concealing payments for the Steele Dossier and Loretta Lynch of threatening whistleblowers who had anti-Clinton information. The letter also accused former acting attorney general Sally Yates, former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe, former acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente, former senior counterintelligence official Peter Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page of criminal wrongdoing.

In March 2017, Tenney voted to reverse the FCC privacy rule that blocked ISPs from selling customer browsing history without customers' permission.

Tenney was a co-sponsor of legislation that would substantially eliminate National Firearms Act restrictions on obtaining or possessing gun silencers. After the 2017 Las Vegas shooting, Tenney said she still planned to support the bill.

In November 2017, Tenney announced that she had introduced the No Pensions for Corrupt Politicians Act, which would "close a loophole that has allowed corrupt members of Congress to collect federal pensions after they are convicted of crimes."

On May 4, 2017, Tenney voted in favor of the American Health Care Act (AHCA), a bill that passed the House of Representatives and died in the Senate. This bill would have rewritten many regulations of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including the elimination of the individual mandate and the removal of federal protections for pre-existing conditions in favor of high-risk pools. Tenney also voted for a portion of the AHCA that targeted Medicaid funding by prohibiting Medicaid-related property taxes. The provision only applied to New York State, and only to counties outside of New York City. Tenney argued the overall bill would lower insurance costs, including insurance premiums and related taxes, for consumers.

On December 17, 2017, Rep. Tenney voted in favor of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which passed both houses of Congress and was signed into law by President Donald Trump. The main provisions of the new law include a reduction of the top personal income tax rate from 39.6% to 37%, the elimination of the individual mandate created by the Affordable Care Act, the limitation of the state and local tax deduction to $10,000 of taxable income, an increase in the standard deduction, and a reduction in the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. The reduction of the corporate tax rate is permanent. The personal income tax cuts are temporary. In October 2017, Tenney joined other Members of Congress and Ivanka Trump at an event to advocate for the doubling of the child tax credit; this provision was included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Tenney won a three-way Republican primary on June 28, 2016. She faced Democrat Kim Myers and Independent Martin Babinec in the November general election. Tenney prevailed, receiving 44% of the vote to Myers' 39% and Babinec's 13%. She likely benefited from the coattails of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who carried the district with almost 55 percent of the vote.

Tenney was a member of the Climate Solutions Caucus. In 2016, she cast doubt on the scientific consensus on climate change, saying, "The science is not determined. It’s not certain." In 2017, she supported Trump's decision to abandon the Paris Climate Accord.

On November 17, 2015, Tenney announced that she would again seek election to Congress from the 22nd District in the 2016 elections. Hanna announced his retirement weeks later, denying that the prospect of a primary rematch with Tenney was a factor. Tenney was endorsed by the Conservative Party of New York State, the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, the Citizens United Victory Fund, and New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms PAC. Hanna did not endorse Tenney.

New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) claimed Tenney had missed 480 votes, which was the third-highest number of any Assemblymember, in 2014. Tenney called the NYPIRG report a "hit job". She said, "I missed about 5 days of session all year. What people don't know is that we typically do half the bills we pass in an entire year in the last week. Most of them are one house bills and repeats." Tenney said the votes she missed were due to caring for her dying mother. Her campaign added she had a 96% attendance record while serving in the Assembly. WRVO, a public radio station based in Oswego, fact-checked NYPIRG's allegations against Tenney and found that she had a 95% attendance record from 2011–16 and had missed just six percent of the votes taken during that period.

In 2014, Tenney announced that she was running for Congress in New York's 22nd District. She ran against incumbent Richard L. Hanna in the primary on June 24, but lost by 6 points, 47-53%.

According to Syracuse.com, "Tenney was a vocal critic of a revenue-sharing deal the resort signed with New York state in 2013, in which the Oneida Indian National won exclusive rights to run casinos in a 10-county region of Central New York." Later, a super PAC "with ties to the Oneida Indian nation" opposed Tenney's 2014 and 2016 congressional bids. Tenney voted against the 2013 state constitutional amendment that authorized full-fledged casinos on non-Indian lands.

In 2012, Tenney was one of 18 cosponsors of the Internet Protection Act. The bill, which did not pass, would have required anonymous posts to be deleted by administrators of New York-based websites under certain circumstances. The bill was intended to fight online bullying. Under the act abusive posts could be reported to site administrators would then verify the name and address of the poster; posters who failed to cooperate would have their posts removed.

Tenney represented the 101st Assembly District from 2011 to 2017. In 2012, The Conservative Party of New York State gave Tenney an award for being the most conservative legislator in the state. In 2011, Tenney voted against the Marriage Equality Act. Tenney voted against the 2013 gun control law known as the NY SAFE Act, which she described as an "assault on upstaters."

After Assemblyman Townsend announced in 2010 that he was running for Oneida County Sheriff, Tenney decided to run for Townsend's Assembly seat. Tenney defeated Oneida County Legislator George Joseph in a Republican primary in September. She was unopposed in the November 2010 general election, becoming the first woman to represent the district.

In 2009, Tenney ran for Oneida County Surrogate Court Judge. She ran as a Republican against incumbent Democrat, Louis Gigliotti. Tenney was defeated, receiving 45% of the vote to Gigliotti's 55%.

Tenney is a resident of New Hartford. She and her former husband, Wayne Cleary, Jr., have one son, Wayne "Trey" Ralph Cleary III. In 2009, the younger Cleary received an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy. He was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps in May 2013.

In 2002, New York State Assemblyman David R. Townsend Jr. won reelection and asked Tenney if she would become his legal counsel and chief of staff. Though she was going through a divorce at the time, she agreed to take the offered positions part-time so she could continue operating her law practice and her family-owned newspaper.

In January 2001, she began co-hosting "Common Cents", a radio and television program that airs weekly across Oneida and most of Herkimer County. In February 2010, Tenney began co-hosting "First Look" on WIBX 950 Radio.

Early in her career, Tenney was the only American employed by the Consulate General of Yugoslavia. She acted as intermediary between ABC Sports and the Yugoslavian government leading up to the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo.

Tenney is a native of New Hartford and the daughter of former New York State Supreme Court Justice John R. Tenney. She graduated from Colgate University in 1983 and received her law degree from the Taft College of Law at the University of Cincinnati.

Claudia Tenney (born February 4, 1961) is an American attorney, publisher, and politician who represented New York's 22nd congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2017 to 2019. Tenney previously represented the 101st Assembly District in the New York State Assembly from 2011 to 2017. She is a Republican.

Tenney was a co-owner of Mid-York Press, a commercial printing company started by her mother's family in 1946. Mid-York Press is located in Sherburne in Chenango County.