Democrat Josh Riley has secured a narrow victory in the race for New York’s 19th Congressional District. The district stretches from Tompkins County to the Hudson Valley, and includes the cities of Binghamton, Oneonta, and Ithaca.
Unofficial results show Riley leading Republican Congressman Marc 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."
Riley promised to strengthen labor protections, bring back manufacturing jobs to the district, and support efforts to cut taxes for the middle class.
"I'm really eager to get to work. We have a lot of work to do to lower costs for working families and to protect Medicare and Social Security," Riley said. "We've got to get Roe v. Wade back into law. We've got to bring a bunch of manufacturing jobs back home. So now the real work begins."
The race was one of the most competitive and expensive in the country, and one of several seats Democrats hoped to flip in New York to secure a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. Over $35.5 million was spent on ads and digital spots in the race this year.
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.”
The race for the 19th District was the first time voters participated in an election within redrawn congressional district lines. It was also a rematch between Molinaro and Riley. In 2022, Molinaro secured a narrow win, beating out Riley by fewer than 5,000 votes.