Democrat Francis Conole will face Republican Brandon Williams in the race for Central New York’s new 22nd Congressional district.
Conole staved off a challenge from Sarah Klee Hood while Williams upset Steve Wells. Williams will also appear on the Conservative Party line. Wells has been more closely aligned with the GOP establishment.
Conole and Williams will vie for a redrawn 22nd district. Rep. Claudia Tenney used to represent the district but moved to a new one when maps were redrawn.
The new 22nd district includes Onondaga County and areas currently represented by Rep. John Katko, who did not run for re-election.
Williams upset fellow Republican Steve Wells despite the latter being the beneficiary of a nearly $1 million ad blitz at the end of the campaign. The ad blitz came from the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC with ties to GOP establishment politicians.
On the Democratic side, Conole outpaced each candidate in Onondaga County, taking 42% of the vote. The next closest candidate was Klee Hood, who took 31% of the vote.
More than 70% of votes in the Democratic primary for the district came from Onondaga County.
Winning the district’s biggest county by 2,300 votes helped Conole mitigate losses in Madison and Oneida counties. Klee Hood took 47 and 49% of the votes in those counties.
Chol Majok and Sam Roberts collectively took just shy of a quarter of the district’s votes.
Results so far:
Democrats
- Francis Conole, 39.5% (10,644 votes)
- Sarah Klee Hood, 35.5% (9,564)
- Sam Roberts, 13.2% (3,543)
- Chol Majok, 11.8% (3,186)
Republicans
- Brandon Williams, 57.7% (14,129)
- Steve Wells, 42.3% (10,351)
Note: Vote tallies according to New York Times election results
