On a night full of highly competitive and closely watched House races in New York state, incumbent Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) successfully defended his District 17 seat against his challenger, Democrat and former Rep. Mondaire Jones.
The upstate District 17 encompasses a large swath of Westchester County and Hudson Valley, in between the Democrat strongholds of Albany and New York City.
At the end of the night, Lawler had secured 52.5 percent of the vote, or 191,681 votes, compared to 45.5 percent, or 166,331, for Jones.
Jones, who held the House of Representatives seat for the same district from 2021 to 2023, took a number of controversial positions during that time in Congress, including seeking to have former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani disbarred for alleged involvement in the events of Jan. 6, 2021, and writing a Washington Post opinion piece claiming that “a far-right majority” on the U.S. Supreme Court had “enabled white supremacists to circumvent the Voting Rights Act,” necessitating radical measures in response….