Primary wrap-up: Congressional candidates react to wins

(WWNY) - The ballots are set for the north country’s two congressional races after Tuesday’s primary.

Republican Claudia Tenney got the nod from her party in the 24th congressional district.

Tenney won more than half of the vote, beating her opponents Mario Fratto by about 4,000 votes and George Phillips by 15,000.

Tenney will face Democrat Steven Holden in November.

Meanwhile, Democrat Matt Castelli won his party’s nomination in the 21st congressional district race.

He took a whopping 80 percent of the vote, winning by about 14,000 votes.

Castelli will face incumbent congresswoman Elise Stefanik in November.

Tuesday marked the second round of primary elections in New York. Candidates gathered with supporters to wait for ballot results to come in.

Tenney, the current representative in NY-22, is running in the 24th congressional district after the state’s political maps were redrawn.

“We’ve had a long year, we didn’t get into this district, this race until the end of May,” she said, “so we’re really, really excited about the results and the fact that we have been able to come into a probably 90% new district.”

Tenney says one of the items on her agenda heading into the general election is to flip the House of Representatives from Democrat control to Republican.

“The moment in hand is that we must take back the House,” she said. “We have got to defeat Nancy Pelosi, we have got to hold President Biden accountable.”

Meanwhile, in the race for the 21st congressional district, Matt Castelli moved on to November on the Democratic line.

“I am so deeply grateful for the trust, the time, the commitment and the resources you have placed in me and our campaign,” he said, “a campaign to put country before party.”

He was critical of Stefanik in his win.

“For the last eight years, we got Elise Stefanik,” he said, “and we all know that no matter what our particular issue or challenge is, she does not care about solving it, she only cares about three things: trying to make us afraid of it, blaming someone else for it, and figuring out how she can personally benefit from it.

Stefanik’s campaign took several swings at Castelli on primary night, saying, in part, “Team Elise would like to formally welcome Far-Left Downstate Democrat Matt Castelli from Poughkeepsie to the North Country and to the race. We are confident that NY-21 voters ... will soundly reject Castelli and reelect Congresswoman Stefanik.”

Election Day is on November 8.

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