NY primary: Reps. Maloney, Bowman, Ryan get Democratic nods; Lawler wins GOP bid in 17th

Incumbents ruled the day in Tuesday's primaries, with Jamaal Bowman, D-Yonkers, and Sean Patrick Maloney, D-Cold Spring, beating back challenges.

Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan won the Democratic primary in the 18th Congressional district while attorney Josh Riley won the Democratic race in the 22nd District.

Ryan also won a special election Tuesday to fill the seat last held by Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado in the 19th Congressional District, an encouraging victory for Democrats heading into midterms expected to favor Republicans.

In another special election, the state Republican Party chairman, Nick Langworthy, fended off a challenge from Buffalo's Carl Paladino, the 2010 nominee for governor who had the backing of Reps. Elise Stefanik and Marjorie Taylor Greene, among the biggest Trump supporters in Congress.

In Republican primaries, Assemblyman Mike Lawler, R-Pearl River, won the right to face Maloney in November.

Tuesday's primaries will settle the field of candidates who will be on the ballot running for Congress in November, while a pair of special elections, including the race Ryan won in the 19th district, will decide who will fill open seats for the rest of the year.

More:2022 New York primary election results

16th Congressional District

In the 16th Congressional District, Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-Yonkers, won his bid for the Democratic line in the November election, vowing to continue his progressive leadership in Washington, D.C.

The race, called by the Associated Press, was a clash between a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and two moderate Westchester County legislators.

He was running against five-term Westchester County legislator Catherine Parker, D-Rye, and Vedat Gashi, D-Yorktown, in his second term on the county board. Gashi, who had the endorsement of former representatives Nita Lowey and Eliot Engel, also had the backing several labor organizations.

The 16th District includes most of Westchester County south of Interstate 287 and its four biggest cities — Yonkers, Mount Vernon, New Rochelle and White Plains, as well as a section of the north-central Bronx.

The winner of the Democratic primary will face Dr. Miriam Levitt Flisser, former mayor of Scarsdale, in November.

17th Congressional District

The 17th District featured primaries for Democratic, Republican and Conservative lines in what national observers have called a competitive race in November.

The Democratic primary took on national implications with five-term incumbent Sean Patrick Maloney sweeping aside a challenge from the left by state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi, who moved to North Castle during the campaign from her state Senate district in southern Westchester and the Bronx.

More:Alessandra Biaggi wants to win NY's 17th District seat and has AOC's backing. Who is she?

"Tonight, mainstream won," said Maloney at the Peekskill Brewery. "Common sense won. Candidates who can bring results won."

Maloney said he had received a phone call from Biaggi, pledging her support in November.

Maloney said had heard the calls from Biaggi's supporters for reform.

"This primary made us stronger and together we will keep fighting for a better future for our country, starting with this seat, and keeping the house," he said.

Maloney championed the massive federal aid packages passed by Congress during this past term — from the American Rescue Plan to address the economic downturn during the COVID pandemic to the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act, which raised corporate taxes and provided billions to combat climate change.

Biaggi attacked Maloney from the left, criticizing his support from corporate political action committee and his leadership as chairman for Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

In the Republican primary, Assemblyman Michael Lawler triumphed in a crowded GOP field. Also in the race are Somers Town Board member William Faulkner, Rockland County Legislator Charles Falcignia, R-Suffern; Orange County businessman Jack Schrepel; and Shoshana David of Harrison.

Lawler also beat Faulkner in the district's Conservative Party primary.

The 17th District includes Rockland and Putnam counties, Westchester County north of I-287 and three towns in Dutchess County.

18th Congressional District

The Democratic primary in the 18th District pitted Ulster County Executive Pat Ryan, of Gardiner, against Aisha Mills, a Democratic strategist and cable news host, of Newburgh, and Moses Mugulusi, a state financial examiner from the village of Florida.

Ryan emerged the victor, according to the AP.

Ryan, an Iraqi war veteran in his first term as county executive, pledged to bring "common-sense solutions" on housing and the environment. Mugulusi pledged to help establish a single-payer health care system through Medicare for All and free public college education. Mills said she would fight for affordable housing and gun control, and support for the victims of domestic violence.

More:Three Democrats vie for 18th Congressional District nomination

The district comprises all of Orange County and much of Ulster and Dutchess counties.

The winner will face Assemblyman Colin Schmitt, R-New Windsor, in November.

19th Congressional District

In the 19th Congressional District, two Democrats sought the party nomination in a newly drawn district that stretches from the Hudson Valley to the Finger Lakes, and north to Greene County.

The candidates are attorney Josh Riley, of Ithaca, former aide to Rep. Maurice Hinchey and U.S. Sen. Al Franken; and Rhinebeck cattle farmer Jamie Cheney, of Rhinebeck.

Riley was leading by a large margin in early returns and the AP called the race for him around 10:45 p.m.

The winner will face Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, a Tivoli Republican, in November.

But there was also a special election Tuesday to fill the district seat of Delgado, who left to become the state's lieutenant governor. In that contest, Pat Ryan — the winner of the 18th district primary — defeated Republican Marc Molinaro, according to the Board of Elections.

Ryan's victory means he'll fill that seat for the rest of the year and run in the newly drawn 18th district for the next Congressional session that begins in January.

Delgado praised Ryan as the "Congressman-elect."

"Upstate New Yorkers showed up to the polls and voted for a true champion who will stand up for the values we hold sacred in New York — reproductive freedom, protecting our fundamental rights, and creating opportunity for everyone," he said in a statement.

22nd Congressional District

In the 22nd Congressional District, Republican and Democratic candidates battled in primaries to determine who will appear on the November ballot in the Syracuse area.

It's a district now held by retiring Rep. John Katko, R-Camillus, which the Cook Political Report so far has called as a toss-up.

Among the Democratic candidates are Francis Conole, a commander in the Naval Reserves; former state welfare commissioner Sam Roberts who had also served in Onondaga County Legislature and state Assembly; DeWitt Town Councilor Sarah Klee Hood, and Syracuse Councilor Chol Majok. Conole, an Iraq war vet, was backed by the Democratic establishment in Syracuse, the district's most populous municipality.

Conole won with 39% of the vote and all precincts reporting, according to the state Board of Elections.

The district includes Onondaga and Oneida counties, home to Utica, Syracuse and Rome, as well as Madison County and a small piece of Oswego.

Facing off in the Republican primary were Steve Wells, a partner of American Food and Vending Corp. in Syracuse, and Brandon Williams, an executive in a technology firm who has also secured the Conservative Party line in November.

Williams won, according to the AP.

More:Outside money shapes NY-22 primary race. Which candidates are getting super PAC support?

23rd Congressional District

The Republican primary in the 23rd Congressional District featured two high-profile New York Republicans: state party Chairman Nick Langworthy and Buffalo businessman Carl Paladino. In 2010, Paladino won the Republican primary to face Andrew Cuomo.

Langworthy was leading by 1,500 votes at 11:30 p.m. but Paladino was reluctant at that point to concede.

“We are seeing a number of statistical irregularities in a number of counties that we will be looking in the coming days," Paladino campaign spokesman Vish Burra said in a statement. "We want every single legal vote to count.”

Langworthy, deemed the winner by the AP, will face Democrat Max Della Pia, a US Air Force veteran, in November.

More:Rochester man's conspiracy-laden mass shooting Facebook post shared by Carl Paladino

Follow David McKay Wilson on Twitter @davidmckay415. Lohud.com subscribers can sign up for his weekly newsletter. Read his columns in the lohud.com archive.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: NY primary results: Incumbents Bowman, Maloney win; Ryan wins twice