Tompkins County legislator Nate Shinagawa was the winner Tuesday night for the Democratic nomination for the newly drawn 23rd Congressional District.
The Associated Press declared Shinagawa the winner shortly before 11 p.m.
In returns from 589 of the sprawling district’s 596 precincts at about 11:45 p.m., Shinagawa had 55 percent of the vote. Leslie Danks Burke had 37 percent and Melissa Dobson 7 percent.
Shinagawa will be the Democratic challenger to incumbent Republican Tom Reed, of Corning, in November.
Shingawa said he saw support for his campaign across rural, suburban and metropolitan districts alike.
Looking to the fight ahead, Shinagawa said his campaign has found a game plan that works. “It’s going to take exactly what we’ve already done: getting to every part of the district, talking to voters in every town, village and county that we possibly can, and talking about our message, which is getting this government to focus once again on building up the middle class in this county. That’s what this campaign is about.”
“With Tom Reed’s politics, all he and other Republicans care about is giving more to millionaires, more to big corporations, and I say enough is enough. It’s time for us to focus on middle class Americans again.”
Reed, who did not have a primary, currently represents New York’s 29th Congressional District. Due to a decrease in the state’s population, redistricting resulted in only 27 districts beginning with this fall’s election.
In Tompkins County, Shinagawa, 28, took better than 60 percent of the vote, followed by Danks Burke with 37 percent and Dobson 2 percent. Six write-in votes were recorded, according to unofficial returns from all election districts.
Danks Burke, 37, an Ithaca lawyer and chair of the Town of Ithaca Democrats, conceded at about 11 p.m.
“My enormous thanks go out to Nate Shinagawa and to Melissa Dobson for being such excellent opponents and such great Democrats …” Danks Burke said. “I congratulate Nate on his victory, and I fully support him in taking on Tom Reed this fall.”
All three Democratic candidates named infrastructure as a priority if they were elected.
The Chemung County Democratic Committee endorsed Shinagawa. This is the first congressional race in memory where the committee made an endorsement before a primary, committee Chairwoman Susan Skidmore said.
The district extends from Ithaca to Jamestown along the Pennsylvania line. It includes all of Tompkins, Schuyler, Chemung, Seneca, Yates, Steuben, Allegany, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties, as well as the eastern half of Ontario County and the northern and western portions of Tioga County, including Spencer, Candor, Richford, Berkshire and Newark Valley.
Voters expressed a range of views about the candidates Tuesday.
Jane Mt. Pleasant, voting at Belle Sherman Elementary School in Ithaca, said it was hard to decide between Shinagawa and Danks Burke, but in the end she voted for Danks Burke. “I think she has the best chance of beating Reed,” Mt. Pleasant said. “I read a lot of the materials from both candidates and I favor a woman in politics. She has an agricultural background and I’m interested in agricultural issues, so that was why.”
Elisa Evette, also voting at Belle Sherman, also said she had a tough time choosing between Shinagawa and Danks Burke. Evette found Shingawa’s record on hydrofracking compelling, and so she voted for him. “For me, the outstanding issue for now, and probably years to come, is fracking. I am vehemently anti-fracking. I felt that Nate (Shinagawa) was the most outspoken, and had the longest record of being outspoken and very clear about his position on fracking.”
Michael Moran, casting his ballot at Caroline Town Hall, voted for Melissa Dobson. “She seemed to be the least politician-y of them. She’s a mother of two and working in the real world, versus being a legislative type.”
“She has more of a handle on what’s going on in the community, because she’s living it, from what I could read and see in the interviews.”
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