ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Democrat John Mannion has defeated an incumbent Republican in a central New York congressional district that includes the city of Syracuse, delivering his party a long-coveted prize in an area of the state where it struggled over the past decade.
Mannion, a state senator, defeated U.S. Rep. Brandon Williams, who was seeking a second term but was seen as one of the most endangered Republicans in the House. Williams was one of several first-term Republicans in New York running for reelection in districts won by Democratic President Joe Biden
Williams had won his seat by a very narrow margin, and this year his district was redrawn to add a more liberal college town and exclude some rural areas where he had garnered support. That forced him to campaign in a district where voters had favored Biden by double digits in 2020.
New Yorkers were expected to play an outsized role Tuesday in determining control of the U.S. House as Republicans cling to suburban seats they won two years ago by seizing on fears of crime, and Democrats try to claw them back by warning that a right-wing Congress might ban abortion.
Democrats were also able to hold onto a critical seat in the Hudson Valley, with U.S. Rep. Pat Ryan fending off Republican challenger Alison Esposito. Even as he celebrated his victory, Ryan, an Army veteran, acknowledged in a speech to supporters that the early election returns had left many Democrats in the room on edge.
“I know everybody is anxious right now, I’m anxious right now, but to a certain degree all you can control is what’s in your community,” he said.
If everything goes their way, Democrats hope to pick off a handful of Republican incumbents in congressional races on Long Island and in the Hudson River Valley, as well as the central New York district Mannion won on Tuesday.
The slew of competitive elections underscore the hidden political complexity of New York, which is associated with Democrats like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez but has also given rise to Republican stars like U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, the chair of the House Republican Conference. Jeffries, Ocasio-Cortez and Stefanik all held on to their seats Tuesday.
On Long Island, Republican U.S. Rep. Anthony D’Esposito is in a tough rematch with Democrat Laura Gillen, a former town supervisor he defeated in 2022, but who might do better with Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket.
In a trio of districts that include parts of the Hudson Valley, three incumbents — Ryan and two freshman Republicans — were fighting to keep seats they won by thin margins in the last election.
On both sides, the strategy has been to play to moderate suburban voters while casting opponents as extremists.
In 2022, Republicans in New York City’s suburbs thrived with campaigns that portrayed the nearby city as having become lawless during the pandemic.
Crime rates have dropped significantly since then, but Republicans have continued to press crime as an issue while also trying to capitalize on suburban unease about immigration policy and an influx of international migrants.
Democrats have moved to mount a stronger defense to voters’ concerns about crime and immigration. They have also hammered Republicans on abortion — a tactic that didn’t produce anticipated wins for the party two years ago in a state where abortion rights are not generally seen as under threat.
Republican gains on Long Island were eroded last year when former U.S. Rep. George Santos was expelled from Congress after he was revealed to have fabricated his life story and defrauded campaign donors.
Santos was replaced in a special election by Democratic U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi, who is now running for reelection against Republican Mike LiPetri, a former state lawmaker.
Further out on Long Island, Democrats have turned to former CNN anchor and author John Avlon in an effort to deny Republican U.S. Rep. Nick LaLota a second term.
Some of the closest contests are in districts that include parts of the Hudson Valley.
In the suburbs north of New York City, Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler faces former U.S. Rep. Mondaire Jones, a Democrat who previously represented part of the district before its boundaries were redrawn for the 2022 election.
Jones, one of the first two openly gay Black men to serve in the House, portrayed Lawler as someone who “masquerades as a moderate on television but votes just like an extreme MAGA Republican.”
Lawler says Jones is the one masquerading as a centrist, when he is actually liberal.
“People want reasonableness,” Lawler said in an interview before the election. “They want folks who are willing to work across the aisle to get things done.”
The race received extra attention in early October when The New York Times obtained a photo showing Lawler wearing blackface in 2006 at a college Halloween party where he dressed as Michael Jackson. Lawler said the outfit was intended to be an homage to a childhood idol.
Further north, Republican U.S. Rep. Marc Molinaro is trying to hold off Democrat Josh Riley in a district that sprawls from the Massachusetts border across the Catskill Mountains and all the way to the Finger Lakes.
The election is a rematch of 2022, when Molinaro narrowly defeated Riley. Molinaro has perhaps tacked harder to the right than his Republican colleagues in the state, most notably when he recently shared a social media post falsely claiming that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were eating house pets.
In the one New York congressional race not involving an incumbent, Democrat George Latimer defeated Republican Dr. Miriam Levitt Flisser. Latimer had beaten U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman in a Democratic primary in June, making Bowman the first member of the progressive band of liberals known as the “Squad” to lose a reelection bid.
Anthony Izaguirre, The Associated Press
