The 19th Congressional District election in the state of New York took place on November 6th, 2018. District 19 lies in the northern region of New York’s metropolitan area and mostly south of Albany. The counties in the 19th district include Columbia, Delaware, Greene, Otsego, Schoharie, Sullivan, and Ulster. There were 4 major/third party candidates in this House of Representatives race. The Democratic candidate was Antonio Delgado. The one Republican candidate was John Faso. The Green Party candidate was Steven Greenfield, and Diane Neal was the independent candidate. There were also 92 write-in votes
I will begin in discussing the democratic candidate, Antonio Delgado. Antonio is an upstate New York native with an undergraduate degree from Colgate University. He went on to attend law school at Harvard. He now owns his own music business, and he also works as an attorney in the state of New York. Delgado is a democratic nominee with no political experience before this district election. All 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives were up for election in 2018. Delgado used the slogan “Together we can restore the American Dream” during his campaign. Some of Delgado’s major issues to be dealt with are Healthcare, Tax Policy, Criminal Justice Reform, and Gun Safety. Antonio Delgado was endorsed by Barack Obama, End Citizens United, and Citizen Action of New York. Delgado advanced from the primary election on June 26, 2018.
The Republican nominee, and also the candidate in whom I assigned, is John Faso. John is a graduate of SUNY Brockport and Georgetown University Law Center. Faso is also a former Republican leader of the New York State Assembly from 1987-2002. After Law school, Faso worked political jobs in Washington, D.C., including a lobbyist, and even considering running for office in New York. John was elected to represent the 19th District of New York on November 8, 2016. Faso also served 3 years as a member of the control board working to fix the financial and managerial issues with the City of Buffalo and the Buffalo City School District. Faso also served 7 years as a Presidential appointee to the James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation, along with serving as a board member at the Rockefeller Institute of Government. Before being elected to the U.S. House, Faso was a member of the Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority and worked in private practice as an attorney. Faso ran for governor of New York in 2006, but did not win the election. John is a member of the House Committee on Agriculture, the Budget, and Transportation/Infrastructure. He is also a member of a variety of different caucuses. These caucuses are the Congressional Dairy Farmer Caucus, Propane Caucus, Climate Solutions Caucus, Congressional Sportsmen Caucus, Congressional Organic Caucus, House Small Brewers Caucus, Problem Solver Caucus, and the Congressional Animal Protection Caucus. Some of John Faso’s issues deal with improving Bipartisanship, combating the Opioid Epidemic, protecting the environment and natural resources, strengthening our borders, and keeping the military strong. Faso was the only incumbent candidate in the 19th congressional election. Incumbent means that the candidate holds an office already.
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The Green Party candidate is Steven Greenfield. Steven is from south Queens and the Bronx. He graduated from Columbia University with a degree in economics. Greenfield is also a graduate of the New York Police Academy’s Citizens Police Academy. Steve now works as a member of the Executive Board of the Hudson Valley’s Local 238-291 of the American Federation of Musicians, where his main efforts go towards improving the region’s music economy, wages, and working conditions. Steve used the campaign slogan “Solve the Problem” during the house race. During his years in office, Steve implemented public policy, along with issuing and managing public contracts. He also had 3 main points of interest during his campaign. The New Green deal is the first, which embraces green energy through full employment, conservation of nature, and a rich economy. The next main point is healthcare. Greenfield wants a single payer system, also known as “Medicare for all”. The final point is peace in our time, which includes cutting military spending to address only actual threats. Similar to Antonio Delgado, Greenfield also advanced from the primary on June 26, 2018.
The final candidate in this election is an independent named Diane Neal. Diane is definitely the most unique candidate in this election. After living at military bases all over the world during her childhood, Neal attended college at 16 years old with her older sister in Hawaii. In 1999, she attended Atlantic Theater Company Acting School in 1999 to pursue a career in television. She accepted a role in Law and Order: SVU. She went back to school in 2009, but suffered a near-fatal car accident that ended her acting career. She began to pursue a new intricate hobby; politics. She advanced from the primary ballot on June 26, 2018. Neal chose the campaign slogan “We Have a Choice Now”. In August 2018, the New York State Board of Elections rejected 1,852 of the 4,181 signatures submitted by Neal’s campaign to place her on the general election ballot. The campaign needed to submit at least 3,500 valid signatures. Neal’s campaign appealed to the state Supreme Court, and the court ruled in favor of her campaign on September 17, 2018. Some of the issues that Diane wants to put focus on are improving fundamental education for students of all ages, implementing a single system healthcare plan to endure Medicare for all, work on ways to improve the environment, support the 2nd Amendment with responsible gun ownership, and protect the 1st Amendment at all costs.
Candidates Antonio Delgado and John Fuso were elected through the primary election. Delgado defeated 6 other democratic candidates, while Fuso defeated 1 other Republican candidate. Steve Greenfield was the only Green Party member, and Diane Neal defeated 2 other independent nominees. Delgado won the democratic primary by receiving 8,576 votes, while the runner-up candidate had 6,941, so it was a very competitive race.
Campaign finance is a great benefit to the candidates in the elections. It allows for more advertising, increased budgeting, and gives an overall advantage to the candidate. The republican and democrats were able to raise a lot more money in finances than the green party and independent candidates were. Antonio Delgado raised the most money. His cash receipts were $6,589,846. His disbursements were $4,840,441. His cash on hand currently is $1,749,405. All of the finance numbers for every candidate is updated as of September 30, 2018. John Faso had the next highest financing during the election race. His cash receipts were $3,334,926. His disbursements were $2,002,403. Current cash on hand for Faso is $1,435,952. For Diane Neal, her numbers were significantly lower. Her cash receipts were $140,279. Her disbursements were $122,149. Her cash on hand is $18,383. Steven Greenfield’s finance numbers were unavailable on Ballotpedia. Typically, incumbents receive more funding than non-incumbents, but in this race, Delgado received more money than the incumbent John Faso. This could also be because New York is a primarily democratic state, so the democratic nominee was favored more by voters right from the beginning.
After the votes were collected, Antonio Delgado won New York’s 19th Congressional District election with 132,001 votes, equivalent to 50.2% of the votes. John Faso came in a close second with 124,408 votes, receiving 47.3% of the votes. Steven Greenfield received 1.5% of the votes with a total of 4,037. Diane Neal, the only independent candidate, received 1% of the votes with 2,619 votes.
In closing, the Democratic Party was able to gain control of the chamber with a net total of 39 House of Representative seats. While doing this assignment, I learned that in a majority of any election, money and political party will play a big role in the outcome. Delgado (D) and Fuso (R) received the most votes and funding because they are apart of the2 major parties in the United States. All of these candidates had very good ideas for the state of New York, with good and honest intentions to make changes for the greater good of not only New York, but the entire country.
