Josh Riley has defeated U.S. Representative Marcus Molinaro in New York, marking a narrow victory for Democrats in the largely Republican House of Representatives.

As of around 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday, with over 97% of votes counted, Riley received 50.5% of the votes in the 19th Congressional District election, while the incumbent Republican was just behind with 49.5%. The Associated Press has declared Riley the winner of the race.

In their previous match-up two years ago, Molinaro had narrowly won in November 2022 with 51.1% of the vote in a district that was newly drawn and includes Ithaca and the Finger Lakes region.

Both campaigns invested significantly in negative political advertising. During a lively televised debate in early October, both candidates publicly doubted each other’s integrity, frequently interrupting each other and disregarding time constraints.

Riley accused Molinaro of “literally just making things up,” while Molinaro claimed that Riley was “lying again.”

Throughout the campaign, Molinaro focused on Republican concerns like border security. In the debate, he emphasized crimes he alleged had been committed by undocumented immigrants in New York, attributing the Biden administration’s failure to reach an agreement on a Republican initiative aimed at bolstering border enforcement.

Riley criticized Republicans for not supporting a bipartisan resolution, stating, “He (Molinaro) cares more about having a problem to campaign on than solving it.”

On the topic of abortion, Molinaro, who previously served as Dutchess County Executive and ran for governor against Andrew Cuomo in 2018, expressed his opposition to a national ban, insisting, “I want that decision to rest between you and a physician, not Washington, D.C.,” while making eye contact with the camera during the debate.

“He’s lying to you, he’s lying to you,” was Riley’s response.