(NEW YORK) Democrats are celebrating their election victory in a hotly contested US district in central New York state on Wednesday, seen as the last chance to gauge public opinion on issues such as abortion, crime or inflation before November’s legislative elections.
Posted at 6:31 am
The election was one of the first hard polls since the United States Supreme Court almost to the day struck down American women’s federal right to an abortion two months ago.
Democrat Pat Ryan, who tried to turn the vote into an abortion-rights referendum, won 19 on Tuesday, according to US media projections, particularly NBC, ABC and Fox News.e The district replaces Rep. Antonio Delgado, also a Democrat in Congress.
“Choice and freedom won tonight,” tweeted Pat Ryan. “We voted because our democracy was at risk.”
His Republican opponent, Mark Molinaro, accused of being “too extreme on women’s rights issues,” did not immediately respond. Conservatives campaigned on inflation and crime, promoted by the Republican Party.
Both candidates will go before voters again in November, but in separate districts due to recent redistricting.
The rural district at stake Tuesday, unlike Democratic-held New York City, has voted in the past three presidential elections like the rest of the country. Joe Biden in 2020, Donald Trump in 2016, Barack Obama in 2012.
In 2020, incumbent Joe Biden won the district by less than two points.
During the midterm elections on November 8, Americans will be called upon to restore 435 seats in the House of Representatives, one-third of the Senate and nearly thirty governorships.
