New York's 19th District, where Cornell is located.
Early on Wednesday morning, Marc Molinaro (R) declared victory in the New York 19th Congressional District. Molinaro claims he defeated Josh Riley (D). Local media report that there are still votes left to count; however, the New York State Board of Elections as of 9:00 A.M. Wednesday lists all 591 precincts of the 19th as fully reporting, with Molinaro leading by about 5,000 votes.
New York’s 19th Congressional District—which was redrawn following the 2020 census—stretches from the Hudson Valley in the east to finger lakes in the west, wholly containing Tompkins County– where Cornell University is located. The district is about the size of New Jersey. Before the election, NY-19 was rated as a tossup by elections forecasters.
Molinaro, hailing from Dutchess County in the Hudson Valley, ran for governor of New York in 2018 and lost to Andrew Cuomo. This time, Molinaro campaigned on economic issues such as inflation and New York’s major increase in crime.
This is the second election in New York’s 19th district this year. The district’s previous representative, Antonio Delgado (D), was nominated as New York’s lieutenant governor after the previous office holder resigned in the wake of a scandal. Delgado’s departure triggered a special election to fill the seat under the old district lines. After hastily-organized primaries, Democrat Pat Ryan was nominated to run against Molinaro. Molinaro, who lives in the old district and not the new one, lost the special election by 2.3 points.
New York Republicans fared better than in other areas of the country, perhaps buttressed by a strong showing by gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin, who as of Wednesday morning was only 5 percentage points behind incumbent governor Kathy Hochul (D). By contrast, former governor Andrew Cuomo (D) won his race by 23 points.
In other upstate races rated as tossups, Republicans are currently (as of Wednesday morning) leading in New York’s 22nd (Syracuse) and 17th (Westchester). Democrats are leading in the 18th (Dutchess County).
Molinaro, barring a recount or outstanding absentee votes, will become Ithaca’s vote in the House of Representatives.
