New York state Republican Party chairman Nick Langworthy has won the state’s 23rd congressional district primary, according to a projection from NBC News.
Langworthy has served as the New York GOP chairman since 2019. Langworthy defeated Carl Paladino, a real estate developer and former GOP gubernatorial nominee, by a narrow margin after trailing Paladino for the entire night.
After trailing Paladino most of the night, Langworthy came out on top with less than ten percent of the vote left to be reported. Langworthy held a victory speech after it became apparent he was going to beat Paladino.
Langworthy called his opponent a “foul mouthed developer downtown that wanted to be famous” in his election night speech. He also pledged to fight for election integrity and American energy independence.
“It’s about preserving our right to vote and defending that right to vote, the integrity of our elections and fighting for things like voter identification at the federal level so that we can have safe and honest elections in this country,” Langworthy told a crowd of his supporters. “But it’s also restoring American energy independence, which we will do as we go and we explore that energy right in the southern tier.”
“Now, we must turn the page from this divisive primary. We must unite the party and speak with one loud and clear conservative voice and go get the job done in November. Thank you. God bless you,” Langworthy said.
However, shortly after Langworthy became the race’s projected winner, Paladino’s campaign cautioned that they saw “statistical irregularities” in several counties.
“We are seeing a number of statistical irregularities in a number of counties that we will be looking in the coming days. We want every single legal vote to count,” Paladino spokesman Vish Burra said.
Despite being out-fundraised by Paladino by more than $1 million, Langworthy’s victory comes after a mysterious Super PAC flooded the race with anti-Paladino ads in the weeks leading up to Tuesday night. The American Liberty Action PAC, whose donors will not be made public until sometime after the primary election, spent over $344,000 on Paladino attack ads.
Although former President Donald Trump never made an endorsement in this election, Langworthy came under fire during the campaign for sending “deceptive” mailers that suggested Trump endorsed him. Some of the mailers featured photos of Langworthy next to Trump with the caption, “Chosen by President Trump.”
Although New York’s gubernatorial primary was held in June, the state’s congressional primaries were pushed back to Tuesday after the state’s highest court determined the state legislature unconstitutionally gerrymandered its new congressional districts in favor of Democrats.
Langworthy is expected to win his midterm election this November, as his district is considered a safe Republican seat, according to the Cook Political Report.
Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jdixonhamilton@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter.
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