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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
Democrats will win New York special election, CNN projects, temporarily | |
narrowing House GOP’s slim majority | |
By Gregory Krieg, CNN | |
Updated: | |
9:38 PM EDT, Tue April 30, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
Democratic state Sen. Tim Kennedy will win the special election for New | |
York’s 26th Congressional District, CNN projects, further narrowing | |
– at least in the short term – Republicans’in the US House. | |
Kennedy will succeed fellow Democrat Brian Higgins in the Buffalo-based | |
district after his victory Tuesday over Republican nominee Gary | |
Dickson, the West Seneca town supervisor. After Kennedy is sworn in on | |
Capitol Hill, the GOP majority in the House will shrink to just | |
217-213, meaning Speaker Mike Johnson will only be able to spare one | |
Republican on a party-line vote. | |
However, a trio of special elections over the next two months for | |
vacant Republican seats – including the race to succeed former House | |
Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California – should help extend the GOP’s | |
advantage in the chamber. | |
Higgins had represented the Buffalo area in the House since 2005, | |
winning a 10th term in 2022. He to head a local performing arts center. | |
He cited frustration with the chamber’s persistent turmoil and | |
obstructionism when he announced his departure from Congress. | |
“Congress is not the institution that I went to 19 years ago. It’s | |
a very different place today,” Higgins said last fall “We’re | |
spending more time doing less. And the American people aren’t being | |
served.” | |
Kennedy, who has represented the area in the state Senate for over a | |
decade, will serve out the remainder of Higgins’ term. He will also | |
run in the June primary for the full two-year term that begins in | |
January. | |
The has undergone an oftentimes chaotic redistricting process, | |
stretching out over some two years and multiple court and state | |
legislative battles. But the 26th District is expected to remain | |
friendly to Democrats – would have carried it by 25 points under the | |
new lines that will be used in November. | |
The total ad spending on the race finished at around $1 million, with | |
nearly all of it coming from Kennedy’s campaign. His spots touted his | |
efforts to aid working families, support for abortion rights and his | |
work to pass “stronger gun laws” in the state Senate after a White | |
supremacist killed 10 people in a mass shooting at a Buffalo | |
supermarket in May 2022. | |
Kennedy’s win is the second consecutive special election victory for | |
New York Democrats after to succeed expelled Republican Rep. in a more | |
competitive downstate district earlier this year. Once Kennedy is | |
sworn in, the state’s US House delegation will stand at 16 Democrats | |
and 10 Republicans. | |
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