Mission accomplished: Delgado ‘repeals and replaces’ Faso in NY19

It’s settled. John Faso is a one-term congressman.

Democratic challenger Antonio Delgado’s insurgent campaign for New York’s 19th district, which borders Berkshire County, has propelled him into Congress. With 78 percent of precincts reporting, the Associated Press projected Delgado the victor over incumbent Republican John Faso by a margin of 50-47 percent.

The race was closely watched as one of several districts the Democrats were hoping to flip in order to regain control on the House of Representatives, which has been under Republican control since the 2010 midterm elections.

By 11 p.m., most news outlets had projected that Democrats would retake the House but Republicans would retain control of the Senate — and indeed add a few seats to the GOP majority.

Berkshire County Democratic activists canvassed voters in Columbia County in an effort to help Delgado, who prevailedin a crowded primary. There are no Republican members of Congress in Vermont or Connecticut.  

So progressive activists in Berkshire County turned their sights westward to New York’s 19th Congressional District, known in the political vernacular as NY-19, which borders the county and is a true swing district that voted for Barack Obama for president in 2008 and 2012.

Faso was seen as supportive of the Trump agenda – he voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, for example – and therefore vulnerable to defeat. In the words of Gareth Rhodes, one of Delgado’s opponents in the Democratic primary, “It’s time to repeal and replace John Faso.”

The sprawling NY-19 stretches from the Massachusetts border westward across the Catskill Mountains, northward almost to the Adirondacks and southward to the Putnam County border. It includes 163 municipalities and, geographically, it’s about the size of Connecticut, with which it shares a border on its southeastern edge of some 20 miles. 

Faso is a former state legislator and lobbyist.