Democrats won a special election for a House seat in western New York on Tuesday that the Associated Press predicted would further reduce the GOP’s narrow majority. in the camera.
Democratic state Sen. Tim Kennedy defeated Republican City Supervisor Gary Dixon in New York’s 26th District, a reliably blue area that includes Buffalo and some surrounding areas. Democrats will now control 213 seats in the House of Representatives, while Republicans will control 217 seats. Five seats are vacant.
Kennedy will serve the remainder of the term of Democratic-Republican Brian Higgins. The 10-term congressman resigned in February to run a local performing arts center, and the House had some choice words for a partisan blockade. Higgins This was reported by Buffalo News at the end of last year, Congress is “in a very, very bad place” and “we are in the beginning stages of the deterioration of the institution’s reputation.”
That still hasn’t stopped Kennedy from running for a full term in a special election or in November.
“The dysfunction has become a disgrace in this country and the entire world community,” Kennedy said in a phone interview Monday. “And we must restore honor, civility and functionality to the halls of the House of Representatives.”
Kennedy’s victory on Monday was no surprise – President Joe Biden is estimated to have won by 23 percentage points in 2020 Daily Kos Electionsand the district has twice as many registered Democrats as Republicans.
That means Democrats are favored to hold onto the seat in November. Kennedy must first win the June primary to run for a full term, but he could hold the race for himself.
Former Grand Island Town Supervisor Nate McMurray, who ran unsuccessfully in a neighboring congressional district, is also seeking to run. But Kathleen McGrath, a spokeswoman for the state Board of Elections, wrote in an email that there were multiple objections to McMurray’s petition signatures and that ballot access would be determined at Wednesday’s meeting. Kennedy had it too sued McMurray’s signature challenges.
“I look forward to working with my colleagues to serve the people of this country and to make sure that the House of Representatives is more reflective of the people,” Kennedy said of his campaign for a full term. “And I believe that going into November, we have the moral high ground here as Democrats to take back the House. I believe the people of this country are sick and tired of seeing the dysfunction in the chaos that reigns under MAGA Republican control in the House.
Kennedy, who is likely to be a reliable Democratic vote in the House, will focus his campaign on key party issues, including protecting Social Security and Medicare, protecting democracy, and codifying abortion rights into federal law.
Kennedy, a practicing Catholic, said this back in 2014 his views on abortion were “evolved,” and is now calling for federal law to mirror abortion protections in New York state law.
Kennedy was among state lawmakers in New York who voted in 2019 to preserve the right to abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, except for a non-viable fetus and when the patient’s health is at risk.
“I believe that a woman’s right to make health care decisions about her own body should be shared between the woman, her family and her doctor,” Kennedy said. we restrict and ban abortion in this country, women will die.”
Kennedy was supported in the race by the political arm of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. He reiterated his support for Israel and called for the protection of civilians in the country’s war against Hamas.