While he earned his second term on the village board in 2023, Nelson has his eye on higher office and he’s hoping the third time is the charm after a pair of previous runs for Congress and the State Senate fell short. The Saratoga County Democrat is making another attempt to crack the state legislature, with Nelson challenging five-term Republican incumbent James Tedisco in the 44th State Senate District. Nelson, 36, will first face a contested Democratic primary on June 23 against Niskayuna immigration law professor Sarah Rogerson, a former member of the Niskayuna school board. A year prior to his election as a Stillwater village trustee, Nelson launched a 2018 bid for the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, with Nelson finishing fifth out of five contenders in a Democratic primary won by Tedra Cobb, with Nelson only securing 9% of the vote. Nelson now calls the bid “quixotic” and notes that he was young and ambitious and took a swing at competing for a seat in Congress after he was dismayed by the election of President Donald Trump in 2016. In 2020, Nelson challenged former Republican State Senator Daphne Jordan in the 43rd District in 2020, with Nelson falling short with 47% of the vote and Jordan re-elected. Nelson, a registered U.S. Patent Agent and lifelong Stillwater resident who graduated from Stillwater High School, said that he sees an opening in challenging a long-tenured candidate in Tedisco who Nelson criticizes for his lack of production in the State Senate. “Jim is happy to show up and pass out certificates and come to ribbon cuttings, but he oftentimes wasn’t that involved in making the project happen,” Nelson said. Tedisco’s campaign cited his role in securing a $1 million grant in 2020 for a new fire truck for the Schenectady Fire Department and a 2019 grant for $250,000 for the Clifton Park Town Center Park as examples of Tedisco obtaining funds for local municipalities. Democrats captured the majority in the State Senate in 2019 and have controlled the chamber since. The Center for Effective Lawmaking, which is run by the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt University, ranked Tedisco 20th out of 21 GOP lawmakers in the State Senate in effectiveness in getting his bills passed in the 2023-2024 legislative term, with Tedisco ranked 61 out of 63 senators overall. In the 2021-2022 term, Tedisco ranked 10th out of 20 Republican State Senators in the organization’s effectiveness rankings and 54 out of 64 overall. Tedisco noted that his office was cited as the lowest spending Senate office for its administrative costs in the 2023-2024 legislative term, according to a 2025 report by the non-partisan Empire Center. “My potential opponent’s critiques are laughable, as the Empire Center has shown, I’m the lowest spending state Senator in the state in terms of legislative operations,” Tedisco noted in an email. “If several of the bills I’ve authored were not held up by the majority, we wouldn’t have the exodus out of our beautiful state because of the policies and agenda they have put in place and that my potential opponent also embraces.” Nelson previously served as a staffer in the state legislature for Assemblymember Phil Steck and State Senator Jabari Brisport. “I’ve seen how things operate firsthand and I know what setting up a Senate office looks like in the first term,” Nelson said. “So I’m prepared to do the job.” Nelson is prioritizing driving down the cost of living in his Senate campaign, aiming to lower utility and health care costs, noting that health care expenses are driving up property taxes with rising premiums for municipal workers. “It’s the largest growing portion of most public sector balance sheets,” Nelson said. While the Village of Stillwater’s allocation for employee medical insurance remained flat in its 2026-2027 budget at $84,500, the town saw its employee health costs rise from $309,370 in 2025 to $365,200 in 2026. A field organizer in New Hampshire for U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, Nelson is a self-described progressive Democrat who supports a proposed bill in the State Senate to create a single-payer health care program that would ensure universal coverage statewide. “It’s the single-greatest thing that we can do to reduce the cost of living throughout the state,” Nelson said. Rogerson is also a supporter of the proposed New York Health Act, which would create a single-payer system in the state. Nelson launched his State Senate bid in February, with Rogerson jumping into the race days later. Rogerson works as a law professor and is the director and founder of the Immigration Law Clinic at Albany Law School. “When she announced, if I thought she had the better chance of beating Jim Tedisco and providing the necessary representation in this district, I would have dropped out,” Nelson said. “But I just don’t see her giving us the best shot of winning in November.” Rogerson outpaced Nelson in fundraising through the March 16 state filing deadline, with Rogerson reporting $51,133 in cash on hand and Nelson accumulating $14,165. Rogerson has received a pair of $10,000 campaign donations from a single residence in Stanford, Calif. from entrepreneur Mark Jacobstein and Stanford Medicine professor Natalia Gomez-Ospin. “The Silicon Valley venture capitalist that wrote a $10,000 check to my opponent has a different set of interests, especially sending that money all the way across the country,” Nelson said. “I don’t know anybody, even folks who’ve known me since I was a child and love me dearly, that can afford a $10,000 check.” Rogerson said that married couple Gomez-Ospin and Jacobstein are longtime friends, with Rogerson first meeting Jacobstein while she worked on U.S. Senator Cory Booker’s 2002 Newark mayoral campaign. “They've seen firsthand how I’ve grown as a movement lawyer and developed my leadership style,” Rogerson noted in an email. “They’re deeply engaged in supporting Democratic candidates they believe in, and I’m especially grateful to have their support in this race.” Nelson’s campaign has received a trio of $500 campaign donations from outside the state, with Nelson receiving $500 contributions from Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. Tedisco had $65,554 in cash on hand as of March 16, with Tedisco’s campaign reporting a $1,000 contribution from Albany-based Hoffman Car Wash Inc. and $500 donations from political actions committees [PAC] including the Auto Dealers of NY PAC, the Newburgh-based Construction Contractors PAC and the Committee for Medical Eye Care PAC. Tedisco, R-Ballston Lake, secured 57% of the vote to defeat Democratic challenger Minita Sanghvi in the 2024 election to earn his fifth straight term, but Nelson sees an opening against the longtime state representative in a midterm cycle where Democratic voters could be motivated to turn out. Nelson noted that in the middle of his first term on the Stillwater board, he supported enacting term limits on village board members, with the council passing a three-term limit for its members. “I think folks shouldn’t be elected officials forever,” Nelson said. “They consolidate power and it starts becoming about them and their job more than the people they were elected to serve.” While giving a tour of downtown Stillwater, Nelson stops into Big Tony’s Kitchen on the River to grab a soda, giving him a fortuitous chance to discuss the rising utility costs the restaurant has faced since it opened in September. Owner Tony Schunk noted that the restaurant’s electric bills have skyrocketed from $600 per month in September to $1,500 currently with the same equipment. “It’s absurd,” Schunk said. Nelson said in the short term, he’d push for the state to enact a utility rebate program for residents while renewable energy output increases. “Long term, we need to be increasing energy generation,” Nelson said. “Increased supply reduces cost.” Democrats hold a voter registration advantage in the 44th District, which encompasses Saratoga County, the City of Schenectady and Niskayuna. As of February, there were 80,508 registered Democrats, 75,824 Republicans and 74,223 unaffiliated voters in the district. Nelson, who supports the abolishment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE], noting the government should run its immigration system “more like the DMV and less like the Marines,” criticized Tedisco for not publicly acknowledging ICE operations in the district or the Iran war and its impact on oil prices. “The leader of his party and the President [Trump] he supports is actively attacking our communities in a way that is seen and felt and he wants to think that every challenge we’re facing in New York is somehow Kathy Hochul’s fault,” Nelson said. Tedisco countered that he supports legal immigration and that without a process for becoming a legal citizen that the state will become a “magnet for those here illegally.” “Perhaps my potential opponent is confused about what job they’re running for! This is the New York State Senate…not the U.S. Senate!” Tedisco noted in an email. “We are a state and a nation of laws, whenever we exempt people from those laws, it creates chaos.” While Nelson notes that serving in the Democratic majority in the State Senate could have benefits, including funding for projects in the district, he adds that he’s gained experience sitting on a Republican-majority board in Stillwater. “I know what it’s like to be in the minority, but if you put in the effort, get along together and put together coalitions, you can get things done to advance causes to help the community,” Nelson said.