Democrats Hold Upstate New York Congressional Seat Targeted By Republicans

Pat Ryan, a Democratic county executive, won a special election to fill a vacant U.S. House seat in New York’s Hudson Valley on Tuesday, handing Democrats a largely symbolic win ahead of November’s midterm elections.

Ryan, who runs Ulster County, defeated Republican Marc Molinaro, the executive of Dutchess County, in New York’s 19th Congressional District   a seat that President Joe Biden carried in 2020 by just 1 percentage point.

The short-term consequences of the outcome are limited. Ryan fills a seat vacated by Antonio Delgado, a Democrat whom New York Gov. Kathy Hochul picked to serve as her deputy in May. 

Molinaro is due to run again in the 19th District’s new boundaries against the winner of a separate Democratic primary that also occurred on Tuesday. Ryan, by contrast, is opting to run for full term in a neighboring district (New York’s 18th) into which his home has been redistricted.

Ryan’s victory is nonetheless a major disappointment to national Republicans who heavily outspent national Democrats in the race. 

The GOP wanted to deprive Democrats of a narrative win. Democrats can now claim another bit of evidence that the U.S. Supreme Court’s June decision overturning a federal right to abortion has energized the Democratic base and undermined Republican chances of a congressional takeover in November.

“My race is the first competitive Congressional election in a post-Roe world, and is a national referendum on whether women have the right to control their own bodies,” Ryan told HuffPost in a statement earlier this month. “After Kansas, it is the next critical opportunity to send a message about the direction this country is headed in — and to send a representative to Congress who knows what it takes to bring people together to fight hard battles.” 

That Ryan was able to ride abortion rights to victory is especially notable given Molinaro’s record and platform. Molinaro has insisted that abortion rights are in the domain of state governments and promised not to support federal restrictions on abortion rights.