Pat Ryan triumphs over Colin Schmitt in tight 18th Congressional race

Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan scored a narrow victory over Republican Colin Schmitt in a Hudson Valley congressional race Tuesday, his second win in less than three months after claiming a vacant seat in a neighboring House district in a special election in August.

Ryan, a 40-year-old Iraq War veteran who served as Ulster County executive for three years, was competing against the second-term assemblyman for New York's redrawn 18th District, which takes in all of Orange County and parts of Dutchess and Ulster counties. He will be the first West Point graduate in the 220-year history of the military academy to represent it in the House of Representatives.

Ryan led by around 2,200 votes at around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday when the Orange County Board of Elections finished its count, long after Dutchess and Ulster votes had completed their counts, according to unofficial tallies by the state Board of Elections. Shortly before then, Schmitt called Ryan to concede.

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"I really appreciate his call," Ryan said in a short victory speech afterward, addressing a small, roaring group of supporters who had lingered until morning at the Best Western in Kingston. "I really appreciate the statement that that makes about our democracy."

He marveled that his second congressional race this year had again come down to a squeaker. "Two grueling, grueling races in six months. I'm speechless, in a great way."

Schmitt issued a statement wishing Ryan success and saying he respected the voters' decision. "We left it all on the field and I am proud to have been in the arena fighting for my home community," he said.

Ryan prevailed by a large margin in Ulster, his home county, and beat Schmitt in Dutchess, as well. Schmitt beat Ryan handily in his own home county of Orange, which represents about half the district's voters, but not by enough to overcome Ryan's margins in the other two counties.

Abortion rights, military experience highlighted

Ryan, running in a newly drawn, Democratic-leaning district that President Joe Biden would have won by eight percentage points in 2020, campaigned largely on his support for abortion rights, his work as county executive to ease economic pressure, and his military experience as a decorated combat veteran.

Schmitt, a 32-year-old New Windsor resident who represents part of Orange County and one Rockland town in the Assembly, had touted his strong support for police and tighter border security and denounced unified Democratic rule in Washington, blaming the party for stoking inflation with "reckless spending."

Among those casting votes for Ryan on Tuesday was Mary Anne Dickinson, who said after voting at the Newburgh Activity Center she chose all Democrats and was motivated by protecting abortion rights and liberties in general. She said Republicans were "just putting anybody in there so they can take over Congress, and they aren’t concerned at all about a person’s ability to run, their experience or their truthfulness.”

John Vasquez, one of dozens of voters waiting on line at that polling site shortly before 4 p.m., also planned to vote for Ryan and every other Democrat on the ballot, even though he had been an independent for years. He said he felt democracy was at stake in the election.

“Hopefully the candidate I vote for gets elected," Vasquez said. "I don't like the alternative.”

Headed into Cornwall-on-Hudson Village Hall to vote, Scott Potter said he planned to vote for Schmitt and Lee Zeldin for governor. He said his work at a security and alarm company heavily influenced his political opinions this year.  He said demand for alarm systems had skyrocketed in the last year and a half.

“We can’t keep up,” he said, explaining that demand for alarm systems had surged in the last year and a half. “We’ve got guys working six days a week, and that is a direct result of all this (crime). It’s bad. It’s really bad.”

Millions spent campaigning

Schmitt ran a marathon campaign of 19 months, starting in April 2021. He was set to challenge five-term Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney until this spring, when the redrawing of New York's congressional districts scrambled Hudson Valley races. Maloney ran instead in the 17th District, and Ryan won a three-way Democratic primary on Aug. 23 to seek the 18th District seat.

That same day, Ryan also beat Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro in a special election to serve the last four months of former Rep. Antonio Delgado's term in the 19th District seat, which Delgado had vacated after Gov. Kathy Hochul appointed him lieutenant governor. Ryan took office in September and had a scant two months to mount a campaign for a full term in the 18th District.

He far outstripped Schmitt in campaign fundraising. But Both Ryan and Schmitt were hit with a barrage of attack ads bought by the two parties and other outside groups to swing a competitive race. Spending on those negative ads totaled $5.6 million per candidate as of Tuesday, according to campaign finance reports compiled by the OpenSecrets website.

Ryan's victory was one bright spot for Democrats in the Hudson Valley, where Republicans were poised to flip two other seats Democrats previously held. Molinaro owned a lead on Democrat Josh Riley in the 19th District and Republican Mike Lawler, an assemblyman, was poised to beat Maloney with a commanding advantage in the 17th District.

Staff writer Erin Nolan contributed to this report

Chris McKenna covers government and politics for the Times Herald-Record and USA Today Network. Reach him at cmckenna@th-record.com.

This article originally appeared on Times Herald-Record: Ryan narrowly beats Schmitt in 18th Congressional District race