Election season is officially over, and Democrats have taken back the majority in the House of Representatives, while Republicans maintained the Senate. As the country awaits the results of remaining races, Democrats are expected to gain 38 seats in the House, according to the New York Times.
In New York, the awaited the NY-22 race between Democrat Anthony Brindisi and Republican incumbent Claudia Tenney. Despite Brindisi declaring an early victory, Tenney refused to concede, awaiting the results of absentee ballots, which had until November 13th to arrive at election officials. As far as the Senate, incumbent Kirsten Gillibrand maintained her senatorial position, comfortably at a 66.5 percent win-rate over Republican challenger Chele Farley.
As far as congressional elections, John Faso lost his seat to Democratic challenger Antonio Delgado in the NY-19 race, with Delgado winning at 50.2 percent over Faso’s 47.3 percent. This is a triumphant victory for Delgado, as he had to prevail over attack ads by Faso, poking at Delgado’s past as a rapper. Nevertheless, the Harvard Law graduate/Rhodes scholar claimed the victory. In NY-11 Max Rose claimed victory over Republican incumbent Dan Donovan.
NY-20 incumbent Paul Tonko enjoyed a comfortable win over Republican challenger Joe Vitollo. Tonko received 66 percent votes, while Vitollo received 33.9 percent of votes, according to ballotpedia.org.
In NY-24 John Katko maintained his incumbency over Democratic challenger Dana Balter. According to the New York Times, “Democrats were eager to unseat the two-term Republican. . .in a district. . .that is seen as leaning slightly Democratic.” In NY-27, despite Chris Collins’ declaration of victory, Democratic challenger Nate McMurray refused to concede. Incumbent Chris Collins was indicted on insider trading and released a controversial ad showing McMurray speaking Korean as he worked as a lawyer in South Korea for some time. The ad has prompted many to label Collins as xenophobic. Despite negativity surrounding Collins’s person, he surprisingly holds a slight lead over McMurray at 49.5 percent over McMurray’s 48.4 percent.
As far as the New York State Senate, as of Nov. 13, Democrats won 37 seats, leading with two seats, while Republicans have won 21 seats and leading in two. For the governor race, incumbent Andrew Cuomo maintained his incumbency over Marc Molinaro, the Republican challenger who received 36.8 percent of the vote below Cuomo’s 59 percent. Letitia “Tish” James was voted as New York’s Attorney General. James is the first African-American woman to hold statewide office. She is also the first African-American woman to be elected as Attorney General in New York.
In terms of voter turnout in the midterm election for New York itself, 49% of eligible voters voted. The most votes came out of Putnam (60.46 percent) and Dutchess (58.87 percent) counties who voted primarily for Molinaro. Trailing behind those two counties, Westchester county followed at a 52.33 percent turnout rate, while Rockland followed at 49.38 percent. These figures come from Lohud.com, a part of the USA Today network.
The midterm elections have certainly been eventful. And, again, the state still awaits the results of NY-22 and NY-27. Overall, the United States witnessed many historic “firsts”, but most notable is recognizing the 47 percent voter turnout rate nationwide, the highest since 1966, where the voter turnout rate was 49 percent for a midterm election. It is important to vote and to encourage others to do so, as well, especially as we approach the 2020 presidential election.