By Colin Brennan
BUFFALO — Western New York is sending the same four members back to the House. The House they return to in January will be a different place.
Republican Reps. Nick Langworthy of the 23rd District and Claudia Tenney of the 24th won reelection on Tuesday, as did Democratic Reps. Tim Kennedy of the 26th and Joe Morelle of the 25th, Investigative Post reported. But Democrats won control of the House in the midterms, according to Spectrum News, which means the region’s two Republicans will serve in the minority and its two Democrats in the majority when the new Congress convenes.
Mr. Langworthy said he is ready for the change.
“It’ll be different,” he told Spectrum News on election night. “I will now be in the minority. I’m prepared to do that job, too. We’re constantly having to fight to put more money back into our constituents’ pockets. I’ll continue to fight for tax relief.”
The 23rd: a third term, a narrower Erie County margin
Mr. Langworthy, a former state Republican chairman first elected in 2022, won a third term with more than 60 percent of the vote across the sprawling Southern Tier district, Spectrum News reported. His Democratic challenger, Aaron Gies, a theology professor at St. Bonaventure University, had almost 40 percent.
In the Erie County portion of the district, Mr. Langworthy had 73,919 votes, or 57.5 percent, to 54,562 for Mr. Gies, with all 184 election districts reporting Election Day and early votes, according to unofficial Erie County Board of Elections results compiled by the Clarence Bee. As across the county, the two men split the vote by method: Mr. Langworthy won the Election Day vote, 53,698 to 30,104, while Mr. Gies won early voting, 21,429 to 18,000, and absentees, 3,029 to 2,221.
Mr. Langworthy told Buffalo Toronto Public Media he would use his seat on the Energy and Commerce Committee to press for rural health care. “I represent the heart of small town America in upstate New York, and you know it doesn’t have a lot of political power. So it’s on me to to be that voice for this region,” he said.
He was asked how he would protect rural hospitals as health systems face Medicaid cuts. “There’s a lot of fiction out there on on things going on, people that were trying to exploit things for political purposes,” he said. “We cut through all those lies in this election, and I’m fighting to strengthen those facilities, and I’ll keep doing that every single day while I’m in Congress.”
Mr. Gies conceded in a statement Wednesday, published by the Wellsville Sun. “I wish Congressman Langworthy success in every good work in his new term,” he said. “I am hopeful that he will take the nation’s overwhelming rejection of Trumpism and his own narrower margin of victory as an occasion for reflection.”
He said his campaign “posted double-digit gains in nearly every county.” The Chronicle has not independently verified that county-by-county comparison, and final certified results are weeks away.
The 26th: Kennedy returns to the majority
Mr. Kennedy defeated Republican Dennis Hannon in the Buffalo- and Niagara Falls-based 26th District. With 84 percent of votes reported Wednesday morning, he had about 65 percent, Spectrum News reported.
“We have to hold the crooks accountable down in Washington,” Mr. Kennedy told supporters at his election-night party. “We’ve got to make life more affordable for the American people.”
Mr. Kennedy, who won the seat in a 2024 special election, will now serve with his party in control of the chamber, which gives Democrats the gavels of committees and subcommittees and control of the floor schedule.
The 24th and 25th
Ms. Tenney won reelection handily in the 24th, as did Mr. Morelle in the Rochester-based 25th, Investigative Post reported. Neither race was considered competitive.
The White House response
President Donald Trump was not on the ballot, and he said so. “I wasn’t on the Ballot, and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” he wrote on Truth Social on election night, Hearst Television reported.
A White House official told Hearst’s White House correspondent that the president “did a better job promoting some of them than they did themselves,” and predicted that voters who backed Democrats would have “buyer’s remorse when gas prices fall after the Iran conflict.” The official described the mood at the White House as “defiant” and added: “Trump’s resolve to fight Democrats will only grow stronger.”
Democrats framed the result as a verdict on the administration, and the president’s allies blamed weak candidates and high gas prices. Both readings will be tested in the next Congress, where a Democratic House will control spending bills and oversight while Mr. Trump retains the veto.
What changes for the region
For Western New York, the practical shift is about leverage. In the minority, Mr. Langworthy and Ms. Tenney will lose the ability to move bills through committees on their own party’s terms, though both will keep their committee seats. In the majority, Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Morelle will be in a position to shape the spending bills that fund upstate transit, water and housing projects.
New York’s overall House delegation may also shift. If leads held as of Wednesday morning in the 17th and 21st Districts stand, and Republicans keep narrow advantages in two Long Island seats, New York would send 20 Democrats and 6 Republicans to the next Congress, a gain of one seat for Democrats, Investigative Post reported. Those results were not final as of Saturday.
The new Congress is scheduled to convene in January.
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