With just one week until the 2022 election, NY-19 Democratic candidate Josh Riley, joined by other Democratic officials, toured the Imperium 3, or "iM3NY" giga-factory at the Huron Campus in Endicott.

Riley says he hadn't been back to the factory since it was in it's beginning stages, and couldn't be more thrilled to see the prospect of manufacturing jobs returning to his hometown, not far from where his parents and grandparents worked in factories themselves.

He explained that he's been a long-time supporter of the federal investments that helped places like the giga factory come to life -- and explains that more investment in workforce training is needed to help residents take on more jobs like these.

"This is an opportunity to create a lot of good jobs, really good jobs, really good wages, and a clear path to the middle class, while also fighting climate change, and building technologies that the world needs to meet this moment, and I'm really excited about it, because that's what we have done for generations here in Broome County," said Riley.

On the workforce training, he adds:

"The big challenges that we're facing that we have to overcome, and this is a place where congressional action is really important, is in work force training, we need to make sure the work force has the skills needed to go and do these really amazing high tech manufacturing jobs." 

Once the factory is at full production capacity, it will create 12,000 home-made battery cells per day.