TO CLOSE

At the time of the votes, supporters of Anthony Brindisi began celebrating a possible victory over Claudia Tenney at the Utica Delta Hotel.
Natasha Vaughn, pressconnects.com

UTICA, NY (AP) – Democrat Anthony Brindisi defeated US Republican Republican Claudia Tenney at the end of a contentious race in the 22nd congressional district in New York, which was settled by postal ballots more than three weeks after polling day.

Brindisi, a lawyer and MP for Utica, had less than 2,000 votes on election night. On Wednesday, his advance had risen to just under 4,000, following the counting of the postal ballots. While the results of the remaining 1,881 ballots still have to be disclosed, the Brindisi advance mathematically prevents Tenney from winning.

Brindisi, 40, campaigned for calls for civility and bipartisanship in a district that supported Donald Trump in 2016. He was in Washington on Wednesday to prepare for his new job.

"I will work on issues as difficult for people who have not supported me as for those who have supported me," Brindisi said in an interview with WKTV – TV. "I believe that once the elections are over, the government begins, when people call my office, we will not ask them anything … are you a Democrat or a Republican?" That does not matter. "

Among his priorities, he cited health care, financing new roads, bridges and water supply systems, reforming campaign financing and helping farmers.

Tenney was one of Donald Trump's most outspoken proponents and his rash rhetoric had similarities to the president's.

The Democrats complained when Tenney's staff sent a memo in which he tried to tie his Italian-American counterpart to the Mafia because of his father's legal work on organized crime several years ago.

She called her own alma mater, Colgate University, which is in the district, a "crazy school of the left" and circulated a petition calling for the imprisonment of Hillary Clinton. While defending gun ownership rights, Tenney said in an interview that many of those behind the mass killings are Democrats.

Tenney, 57, argued that his remarks had been disproportionate by an accusatory media. But his rhetoric has deterred some of the region's leading Republicans, including his predecessor, former Republican Republican Richard Hanna, who called Tenney a "pariah" who "is full of anger and hate."

Republicans outnumber Democrats in the district, which includes struggling dairy farms and former manufacturing cities such as Binghamton and Utica. Voters favored Trump over Hillary Clinton in 2016 by 16 percentage points.

Trump's margins in 2016 meant that to win the district, Brindisi had to appeal to Republican independents and moderates.

Republicans fought to defend Tenney. Trump, his son Eric and House Speaker Paul Ryan went to the district to raise money or campaign.

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