One Debate Question, Two Very Different Worlds For Letitia James And Her GOP Challenger

New York Democratic Attorney General Letitia James named a book about January 6 and Donald Trump when asked during a debate what she had last read. Her Republican challenger named the book she reads to her 2-year-old.

James said she had read “Unthinkable” by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), a memoir about the January 6 riot and Trump’s second impeachment. Longshot Republican candidate Saritha Komatireddy responded by listing a children’s book she read to her kids. 

“‘Little Blue Truck,’ actually the Spanish version ‘El Camioncito Azul,’ my 2-year-old’s favorite book,” Komatireddy, a mother of four, replied. 

As a mother of four young kids, the most recent book I read was Little Blue Truck or as our version is called El Camioncito Azul! https://t.co/ko8SUxd0ci

— Saritha Komatireddy (@sarithaforny) October 9, 2026

Komatireddy shared the clip on social media, where it received more than 140,000 views on X. Her campaign has focused on lowering crime, combating fraud, and dealing with homelessness.

During the debate hosted by Spectrum News, Komatireddy, a former federal prosecutor, accused James of being a “political hack” who used her office to advance her own interests.

“New Yorkers, you do not have an attorney general right now,” Komatireddy said. “For the last eight years, you’ve had a political hack sitting in the chair using our taxpayer money for her political purposes.”

James has been a foe of President Trump since he was first elected in 2016 and later promised to “use every area of the law” to go after him. She has made good on that promise, repeatedly challenging his administration’s policies and going after his business dealings. 

Komatireddy also hit James over a decline in Medicaid fraud convictions. In a post after the debate, she said convictions by the state’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit fell from 97 in 2018, before James took office, to just 19 in 2024. 

Conservative commentators praised Komatireddy’s debate performance and campaign.

Former Michigan congressman Peter Meijer called Komatireddy “impressive” and said, “Her campaign ads are the best I’ve seen on the right this cycle, and this here is the best debate answer I’ve seen in a long time.”

“She’s phenomenal. I can’t believe I’m just finding out who she is,” Republican political consultant Ryan James Girdusky said. 

New York hasn’t had a Republican attorney general in nearly 30 years. The most competitive race in recent years came in 2022, when James won reelection by just over nine percentage points.