ALBANY, New York — Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan wants to build a bench of patriot-leaders — and is planning to raise millions of dollars to do it.

The two-term House lawmaker is launching a political action committee today to elect candidates with public service backgrounds, including those with experience in the military, teaching or as first responders. The new group, called Patriot PAC, has the goal of raising more than $2 million for candidates this election cycle.

If successful, the project would help a national Democratic Party struggling to build back support among voters following Republican President Donald Trump’s return and a disastrous 2024 election cycle in which the GOP took total control of the federal government. Ryan wants Democrats to be seen as “the patriotic party, the party of service.”

“The Republican Party cannot make a claim on it anymore,” he said in an interview. “That creates not only an opportunity, but a need for the Democratic Party to assert what has always been foundational to us, which is that we are that party of selflessness and the common good.”

The group’s launch is spurring talk among his supporters that Ryan, a West Point grad and Army veteran, is eyeing statewide or federal office in the coming years after representing a purple-hued swing seat in New York’s Hudson Valley since 2022.

National Democrats are also taking notice of Ryan’s effort.

“People who have worn the uniform, who have worked in classrooms or hospitals, know what it means to sacrifice for something greater than themselves,” said Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a retired Army officer and potential presidential candidate, in a statement. “Our country needs more patriots in elected office, at every level.”

The PAC’s formation arrives at a precarious time for Democrats — especially in deep blue New York. Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani’s shocking primary win has sharply divided the party as left-leaning Democrats pressure moderates — including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries — to endorse. Some centrist Democrats worry Republicans will effectively leverage Mamdani’s hard-left policies against them in crucial races next year.

Ryan’s new group seeks to sidestep the ideological debate as Democratic voters urge their leaders to take an aggressive approach with Republicans.

Building broad support in the Empire State’s Democratic Party can be tricky, especially for upstate politicians who are relatively unknown in New York City. Ryan, though, is accustomed to making gutsy moves — comfortable with campaigning alongside lefty Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and working with centrists like Gov. Kathy Hochul.

A moderate, Ryan endorsed the front-running Mamdani’s mayoral campaign weeks before Hochul — a nod that included a fiery denunciation of Andrew Cuomo, who is polling consistently in second. Ryan was also among the first Democrats nationally to publicly urge Joe Biden to drop out of the presidential campaign following a disastrous debate performance last year.

Speaking with Blue Light News this week, Ryan demurred when asked if he has ambitions outside of his House seat.

“I really am worried and focused about the moment we’re in where there’s tremendous harm being done to my community, my district, my state and to my country,” he said. “The only way I know how to stop that is to put forward the best people. Literally, these elections in 2025 are going to be critical, the midterms are going to be important to check a lot of the overreach and the harm being done.”

Ryan’s PAC plans to endorse 50 New York-based candidates around the state. They include Hempstead Supervisor candidate Joe Scianablo, a Marine veteran and retired NYPD officer. In the Buffalo suburbs, he’s backing Amherst town supervisor candidate Shawn Levin, who serves in the Air National Guard. Another endorsement will go to Jackie Salvatore, a candidate for Columbia County sheriff. (She would become the first woman of color elected sheriff in New York.) And in New York City, he will endorse Council Member Rita Joseph, a former public school teacher.

Next year during the midterm elections, the PAC plans to endorse 250 candidates across the country.

The group follows a prior effort Ryan started in 2021 while he was the Ulster County executive to support locally elected Democrats. The PAC’s launch will be followed in October by a statewide tour of New York — a swing through the Empire State that stands to lift his otherwise low profile with voters outside his House district.

“No amount of money will change the fact that any Democrat who accepts funding from an open-borders, Mamdani-supporting radical like Pat Ryan will be tied to those policies and will have to defend them in the general election,” said state GOP spokesperson David Laska.

Ryan’s effort coincides with a PAC launched earlier this year by Rep. Elise Stefanik, who’s supporting down-ballot GOP candidates in local races and is a likely Republican opponent against Hochul next year.

Key powerbrokers in New York, eager for a Democrat who represents and understands voters outside of wealthy coastal areas, are closely watching Ryan’s effort to politically branch out.

“Pat Ryan has a future in the Democratic Party,” said John Samuelsen, the president of the Transport Workers Union International. “He’s an antidote to much of what’s plagued the Democrats.”

Samuelsen, an outspoken labor leader who has feuded with some Democrats he considers insufficiently pro-union, praised Ryan’s support for bills his union pressed federal lawmakers to pass.

“He’s an American patriot, he’s an economic populist, he’s 100 percent pro-trade union. That’s the secret sauce for all Democrats,” Samuelsen said.

Samuelsen, though, did not want to get crosswise with Hochul — or suggest Ryan should challenge her next year.

“I would hate to see him in a confrontation with Kathy Hochul — there’s room enough for both of them in the Democratic Party,” he said.

Ryan’s sprawling upstate House seat is a mix of rural communities, small cities and suburban towns, the kind of geographic regions where Democrats nationally have struggled to succeed.

He drew notice in his first House campaign — waged in the summer that Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court — by framing his vocal support for abortion rights as a matter of freedom and liberty. In the House, Ryan champions customers being ripped off by utilities and fans’ headaches over livestreamed sports — seemingly quotidian consumer concerns that resonate in a political era in which “affordability” is a crucial watchword.

Since Trump’s victory, Ryan has urged Democrats to embrace a “patriotic populism” to counteract the president’s MAGA movement. He handily won reelection last year, outpacing Kamala Harris and defeating Republican Alison Esposito, a former NYPD lieutenant.

Ryan’s success in a battleground House seat comes from being authentic, a crucial coin of the realm in today’s politics, said former Rep. Max Rose, a moderate Staten Island Democrat.

“I know a lot of politicians. I’ve served with some, had drinks with others, most of them are fake and completely void of character,” Rose said. “Pat’s a genuinely good person and he’s the same person privately as he is publicly. I’m proud that he’s able to focus part of his efforts on finding other Pats.”