Democrat wins special election for Rep. Brian Higgins’s seat in New York

Democratic Sen. Timothy Kennedy of New York has won the Empire State special election to fill retiring Democratic Rep. Brian Higgins’ seat, according to projections from Decision Desk Headquarters.

Kennedy won the seat in New York’s 26th Congressional District, defeating Republican Gary Dixon, and was expected to remain in Democratic hands. remained under scrutiny.

Both candidates were selected by local party officials as their respective candidates in the special election.Kennedy will fill Higgins’ remaining role. unexpired period.

Higgins resigned from Congress in February after nearly 20 years in the House, citing increasing dysfunction and the “slow and frustrating” pace of progress in Washington, D.C., and is now based in Shays, Buffalo. – Serves as president and CEO of the Performing Arts Center. The longtime lawmaker was one of many House members who announced they would not seek re-election amid frustration with the chaos at the Capitol.

new york area It runs along the Niagara River, including the cities of Buffalo and Niagara Falls. Buffalo mass shooting in 2022 prompted President Kennedy supports gun safety legislation in the New York State Senate.

Dixon, the Republican candidate in Tuesday’s special election, is the first Republican elected town supervisor in West Seneca in decades.

Kennedy will finish out the remainder of the year in Higgins’ seat, but Democrats will also be running for a full term in the House on the November ballot, according to the New York State Board of Elections.

The election took place as former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, is on trial in Manhattan. The first of four criminal indictments against Trump before the jury charges him with a felony count of falsifying business records in connection with hush money payments made during the 2016 cycle.