GUILDERLAND — Dylan Maher, the new chairman of the Guilderland Republican Committee, who is in his 20s now, says he got into politics at age 9.

“When Trump started running, I was 9 years old,” he said.

His maternal grandmother was a Donald Trump supporter leading up to the 2016 election.

“Every day, she would watch Fox News all day long, so that’s what got me into Republican politics, watching Fox all the time with my grandmother,” said Maher.

“She died during the convention when he was getting nominated …. She was convinced he was going to win,” he said.

Maher is now a junior at the University at Albany, majoring in political science.

Raised in Rotterdam, he now lives in Guilderland Center. He served on the Rotterdam Republican Committee, Maher said, and then as second vice chairman of the Schenectady Republican Committee.

The Guilderland Republican Committee had no chairman and did not put up any candidates in last November’s election. In 2023, the Republicans put up two council candidates and a candidate for justice, none of whom fared well in the elections.

The Guilderland Town Board is made up entirely of Democrats and Democrats also hold the post of town clerk and town justices.

Asked about his goals in his new Guilderland post, Maher said, “I’m hoping that we can have a full slate of candidates and raise money for the party and bring some life back in because the party in Guilderland, they’ve been struggling for a few years now.”

A new state law moves most county and town elections to even years to align with federal and statewide races, with the goal of attracting more voters to local elections.

Typically, less than 20 percent of eligible New York voters cast their ballots in odd-year elections compared to more than twice that in mid-term elections and more than three times that in presidential election years.

In Guilderland, Maher said, “We’re expecting that we will have the supervisor, the clerk, and the justice up for election … We are searching actively for candidates, particularly supervisor. We’re going to be running a supervisor candidate in ’26.”

Maher went on, “We’d be happy for anybody that wants to run to reach out to us. And so we’ll keep all options on the table … We’re going to put up a fight at the next election …. There should at least be accountability of the government and options for the voters.”

Maher said that all five town board members in Rotterdam were Democrats when he joined the Republican committee there.

“We reorganized and now we have five out of five Republicans in Rotterdam … It takes dedicated volunteers. It takes energy. It takes a little — how should I say it? — can-do spirit to turn the town committee around.”

Maher said Republican members have to talk to their neighbors but “not shout anybody down.” He went on, “We’re not going to be doing picket lines. But we’ll organize in a way that’s friendly.”

Asked for his thoughts on President Trump, Maher said that a lot of people support Trump’s policies but “they’re a little reserved when it comes to his demeanor …. We’re not going to be too rough around the edges,” Maher said of Guilderland Republicans.

He went on, “We’re going to do it in a more subtle way … The Guilderland committee will be run in a more gentle way than Trump might conduct the White House … We’re not going to get as pugnacious but we’ll advocate conservative policies and non-inflationary policies, low taxes, tough on crime.”

There are 27,219 registered voters in Guilderland, according to the latest enrollment figures from Albany County: 11,461 are Democrats; 5,971 are Republican; 600 are Conservatives; 92 are members of the Working Families Party; while another approximately 9,000 are unenrolled or are enrolled in a party that falls under “Other.”

Vita

Maher’s father, who was a cook, died when he was 12; his mother works as a bartender. He has no siblings.

Maher graduated from Schalmont High School in Rotterdam, where he was a representative in the student council. He made his first run for office in 2018 for president of the student council, a race he lost.

He went on to Schenectady County Community College where he served two terms as president of the student government. 

“At the time I became president, the student government was a mess. We were down to a very limited pool of people … we had a high turnover rate,” Maher said.

The college races were nonpartisan, he said. He was initially elected president because the former president had resigned and the student senate elected him unanimously, Maher said.

The next year, in a four-way race, Maher said, he got 58 percent of the vote.

Because of his recruitment efforts, Maher said, the student government is now thriving.

“I like to go and recruit people and get people involved and persuade people to challenge themselves,” he said. Maher said he recruited the people who are now serving as president and vice president at SCCC.

Maher transferred to the University at Albany last August, he said, and now serves on the student senate there.

“I’m probably going to run for president just because they have a budget of over $3 million and so I think that it should be managed properly,” he said of the UAlbany student senate.

Maher said he knew Mark Grimm, a Republican representing part of Guilderland in the Albany County legislator and a former Guilderland councilman, and he also knows Jim McGaughan, who chairs the county’s Republican committee.

“So, when they sent me an email, saying they were having a meeting to try and reorganize, I said I’d go,” Maher said.

He wasn’t planning on being on the committee, Maher said, when he went to the Dec. 1 meeting; he just wanted to see if he could help. He said about 30 people attended the meeting.

A few people were interested in the leadership role, Maher said. “They conversed about it and they decided that I was the best one to do it because they wanted new energy; they wanted, you know, to think outside the box a little bit I suppose.”

The conversation was followed by a unanimous voice vote, Maher said.