BUFFALO, NY – Voters in an upstate New York congressional district will choose between a Democrat considered by many to be the natural successor to the longtime congressman who vacated the seat earlier this year and a Republican with crossover appeal in a special election on Tuesday. fair.
Democratic Rep. Brian Higgins, who came to Congress in 2005, resigned in February to become president of Shea’s Performing Arts Center in Buffalo. With Republicans holding a narrow margin in the U.S. House, even a race for a seat expected to remain in Democratic hands has drawn its share of scrutiny.
The race in the 26th District features state Sen. Timothy Kennedy, a Democrat who considers Higgins a mentor, and Gary Dickson, the first Republican elected town supervisor in the Buffalo suburb of West Seneca in 50 years.
The district covers Erie and Niagara counties, including the cities of Buffalo and Niagara Falls. With registered Democrats outnumbering Republicans by more than 2 to 1, it is considered a safe seat for Democrats.
A state legislator since 2011, Kennedy, like Higgins, is the product of a strong base in South Buffalo. Describing Washington as “chaotic and dysfunctional,” he said he would focus in Congress on reproductive rights, immigration and stronger gun laws, like those passed in New York following a 2022 mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket.
“New York has been a bulwark against Donald Trump’s extremist MAGA agenda, which has infected our politics and our nation’s capital,” he said. “MAGA extremists have turned the House of Representatives into a laughing stock.”
Kennedy enters the race with a huge financial advantage. The Democrat has raised $1.7 million as of April 10, compared to Dickson’s total of $35,430, according to campaign finance reports. Kennedy spent just over $1 million on the off-season election, compared with $21,000 spent by Dickson, as candidates work to remind voters to go to the polls.
Dickson, a retired FBI special agent, acknowledged his difficult climb when he announced his candidacy in late February, saying he was running to give voters a choice. He has said he supports Trump as the Republican presidential candidate, while describing his own politics as “more center-oriented.”
After five years at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow while at the FBI, Dickson said he would have voted for the $95 billion foreign package approved by Congress, which included aid to Ukraine. He called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “cruel and brutal dictator.”
“If he isn’t stopped now, he will continue,” he said during a late-campaign debate.
Earlier this year, the Republican Party’s slim majority in the House was reduced in a hotly contested special election in the Long Island area that followed the expulsion of Republican George Santos from Congress. That race, won by Democrat Tom Suozzi, was seen as a test of the parties’ general election strategies on immigration and abortion.
In the 26th District, even a closer-than-expected victory for Democrats would say something about the mood of the electorate, said Jacob Neiheisel, an associate professor of political science at the University at Buffalo. He said the low turnout could be a sign of a lack of enthusiasm.
“If Dickson manages to make the race closer than expected, it seems likely that Republicans would trumpet that as proof that their party is on the rise,” he said.
The election comes as Trump is on trial in New York City, the first criminal trial of a former American president and the first of four cases against Trump to reach a jury.
The winner of Tuesday’s special election will serve the rest of the year.
Kennedy is on the ballot in the November general election and faces a June primary against former city supervisor Nate McMurray, a two-time congressional candidate. Attorney Anthony Marecki is the only Republican candidate who has filed petitions to run. Dickson did not stand as a candidate in the general election.
