Timothy Kennedy, a Democratic New York state senator, has won the special election for the Congressional seat vacated by the retired Democrat Brian Higgins.
Kennedy easily defeated his Republican opponent Gary Dickson for New York's 26th district seat, which includes Buffalo and Niagara Falls.
While Kennedy's victory was widely anticipated in the left-leaning district, the vote margin between both candidates was much larger than forecast.
Kennedy won by more than 36 percentage points—a massive performance by the Democratic Party. The Cook Political Report, an independent newsletter that analyzes elections and campaigns, had expected the district to perform about nine points more Democratic (D+9) in a two-party vote.
A former occupational therapist and father of three children, Kennedy has served in the state Senate since 2011. In 2018, when the Democratic Party won the majority in the Senate, he was appointed chair of the Transportation, Infrastructure, and Capital Investment Committee.
With 94 percent of votes counted early on Wednesday, Kennedy had 46,527 votes against Dickson's 21,685, according to data reported by The New York Times.
Newsweek contacted Kennedy's press office for comment by email early on Wednesday.
The Democratic senator's triumph to take the temporarily vacant seat means that the Republican Party's narrow majority in the House of Representatives is now even thinner and reduced to a single vote. He will serve until the end of the year and will be then run in the general election.
Kennedy said that, once in Congress, he will focus on the issues surrounding immigration, protecting reproductive rights and passing stronger gun legislation. In a victory speech quoted by The Associated Press, he said: "We need to elect pro-democracy, anti-MAGA candidates all around the country this November, and it starts here in this room in Buffalo, New York, tonight."
Dickson, a retired FBI special agent, conceded victory to Kennedy and said he had no regrets about running in the upstate New York race.
The special election took place as the state is currently being shaken by protests at Columbia University in Manhattan, where dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators were arrested on Tuesday night by police officers in riot gear.
The university said it called the police to the campus to remove students who had taken over one of the university's buildings, Hamilton Hall, "vandalized and blockaded" it.
The war in Gaza and President Joe Biden's unwavering support for Israel is proving a thorny issue for Democrats, which could harm the incumbent's chances of reelection in November and split support for the party.
Correction 5/2/2024, 4:45 a.m. ET: This article initially referred to Cook Political Report expecting Democrats to win in New York's 26th congressional district by 9 percentage points, when it was D+9.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek Reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on U.S. and European politics, global affairs ... Read more
