Democrat Josh Riley appeared poised to send incumbent Republican Rep. Marc Molinaro packing as he held a narrow, but clear lead in a race for a key Upstate New York seat.
Riley carried nearly 52% of votes to Molinaro’s 48%, with 96% of ballots counted early Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.
The race officially was too close to call, but Molinaro would have to make up a 13,000-vote deficit, tallies show.
Molinaro refused to concede as the votes were counted.
“While we would have liked to end tonight with more votes, we want be sure every absentee and affidavit is counted,” he said in a statement. “I’m so grateful to my family, friends, and supporters, and will have more to say in the coming days.”
The 19th Congressional District — which covers 11 upstate counties including areas like Binghamton, Oneonta and the Catskills — emerged as one of the tightest and costliest battlegrounds for control of the House.
More than $26 million in campaign cash flowed into the district — the costliest race in the state — as Molinaro fought to keep his seat in a rematch against Riley, who came up just 4,500 votes behind during 2022’s election.
Polls indicated the district was again a true toss up this year, according to FiveThirtyEight. The latest survey, taken Oct. 11-16 by SurveyUSA, showed Riley up 46% compared to Molinaro’s 42%.
Molinaro, who refused to support former President Donald Trump in 2016, focused much of his campaign highlighting President Biden’s failures instead of hyping up his party’s candidate.
He has said, however, that he supports Trump.
“I think Donald Trump and a Trump administration will, without question, provide, not only border security, but obviously commit to keeping American America safe,” Molinaro recently said.
Molinaro got a late-stage boost by House Speaker Mike Johnson, who stumped for the incumbent on Friday.
Drama in the race continued into Election Day, albeit apparently unrelated to either candidate.
A car crashed into a polling location in the town of Ithaca, prompting officials to move the site.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
