Josh Riley defeated incumbent Republican Rep. Marc Molinaro in an upset victory flipping the seat to the Democrats because the occasion appeared to realize a Home majority.
The race, a bitter rematch from 2022, noticed Riley win by a scant 7,000 votes, a margin of 51-49, uncertified poll returns confirmed after the polls closed, in response to the Related Press.
The battle to symbolize New York’s nineteenth congressional district, which stretches from the state’s border with Massachusetts to the Finger Lakes area, was one among six extraordinarily aggressive Home races in New York.
Republicans at the moment maintain a majority within the Home by an eight-seat margin. New York, sometimes a deep-blue state, emerged as a battleground this yr, with a number of seats seen as potential to flip again to Democrats.
As of early Wednesday, it’s too quickly to inform which route the Home will go.
Immigration, a serious subject for the state after an inflow of migrants arriving from the southern border, and abortion rights featured closely within the race.
Molinaro has sought to hyperlink Riley to what he has stated are failed border insurance policies. Beforehand a extra reasonable Republican, this election cycle Molinaro has embraced former President Trump and extra hard-right ideologies.
In September, Molinaro repeated a debunked conspiracy principle that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, had been consuming pets — which he laced into political assaults the place he claimed Riley enabled migrants to illegally enter the U.S. when working as counsel for the U.S. Senate.
Riley, an lawyer, has jabbed the finger proper again at his opponent, stating that the inflow of migrants from the southern border occurred underneath his watch as Congressman. He has additionally criticized Molinaro for repeatedly voting to limit abortion entry.
Molinaro, who additionally was the Republican nominee working for governor towards former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2018, defeated Riley by lower than two factors in 2022.
