Democratic state Sen. John Mannion flipped New York’s 22nd congressional district blue Tuesday, defeating incumbent Rep. Brandon Williams (R-Sennett) in a key race in determining which party controls the House of Representatives next year.
Unofficial results early Wednesday showed Mannion leading Williams by nearly 28,000 votes. Mannion declared victory just after 11 p.m. Tuesday.
“Onondaga, Oneida, Cortland, Madison, Cayuga,” Mannion said. “I’m here for all of you, and we’ve got work to do.”
Williams called Mannion to concede as Mannion gave his victory speech. In remarks to supporters, Williams said he was surprised by the result.
“I don’t mind saying that because we ran such a good race, but this is always the risk in a presidential year,” Williams said.
Mannion emphasized a need for unity and respect, saying it will take all central New Yorkers to bring the region to a place of prosperity.
“We have a prosperous country,” Mannion said. “We have a good country. We have a country we can still be proud of. We’re not perfect, but if we continue to tear each other apart, perpetuate a false narrative that our elections are not functioning, are not valid, and continue to disinformation and misinformation out there, this country cannot be what it has been to us.”
19th Congressional District also flips blue
Another pivotal House race in New York that flipped from Republican to Democrats is in the 19th Congressional District, where Democrat Josh Riley defeated incumbent Rep. Marc Molinaro.
Unofficial results show Riley leading Molinaro by fewer than 4,000 votes. Riley declared victory during a speech in Ithaca Tuesday night.
"In this election, we came together to reject the politics of fear and division and lies, the old, tired political playbook of dividing people up and pitting them against each other, the politics of tearing people down," Riley said. "We rejected that, and we sent a message: that's not how we do things here."
Molinaro did not concede Tuesday night. He told supporters at a watch party in Binghamton that there were still ballots to count.
“While I would have liked to have ended tonight with more votes than we did, there are still thousands of affidavit and absentee ballots to be counted, and they ought to be counted,” Molinaro said. “And so we are going to wait and be sure that every voter in the 19th Congressional District has their voice heard and every vote has been counted.”
Tenney, Stefanik easily win re-election
Republican Reps. Claudia Tenney and Elise Stefanik won their re-election races Tuesday. Stefanik defeated Democrat Paula Collins by 25 percentage points. According to the Associated Press, Stefanik, instead of spending election night in her North Country district, was in Louisiana with House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Tenney who represents the sprawling 24th District, which spans from Jefferson County all the way to Niagara County in western New York, defeated Democrat David Wagenhauser by more than 30 percentage points.
CNY state Senate seat too close to call
One state Senate race that Republicans put a lot of energy into this year is in the 50th District, which covers parts of Onondaga and Oswego counties. This district was represented by Democrat John Mannion and was open since he decided not to run for another term so he could run for Congress.
With all the votes counted, Democrat Chris Ryan, the Onondaga County Legislature minority leader, leads Town of Salina Supervisor Nick Paro by 548 votes, out of more than 155,000 votes cast.
Paro did not concede, and Ryan didn’t declare victory. With a difference of just .3%, any remaining absentee ballots will be counted, and if the result is still less than .5%, an automatic hand recount of all ballots will be conducted.
Find more results from races around central and northern New York here.
