With all ballots counted in the heated race for Congress in New York’s 22nd District (Utica), Republican former Rep. Claudia Tenney defeated Democrat Rep. Anthony Brindisi by 106 votes out of more than 300,000 cast.
The rematch between Tenney and Brindisi — who unseated her by about 4,500 votes in 2018— is the second closest in the nation. The closest is in Iowa’s 2nd District, where Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks leads Democrat Rita Hart by 47 votes as the race is now being recounted.
Empire State sources told Newsmax that the tightness of the Tenney-Brindisi race will almost surely necessitate a recount.
Almost incredibly, Tenney led Brindisi by a healthy 28,422 votes, or a margin of 53% to 43%, on election night. But the steady counting of absentee, mail-in, overseas, and military ballots has reduced that margin to its present wafer-thin margin.
“Now that every vote has been counted, we have maintained the vote lead and are poised to come out victorious,” read a statement from Tenney.
Brindisi countered by saying “the margin is too close to rush to judgement.”
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.