The Winner

If you live in New York’s 24th U.S. House District, you’ll keep the same member of Congress. Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) won a fifth term in the House, defeating Democrat Alissa Ellman. The Associated Press called the race Tuesday night, Nov. 3. ​

Tenney received 171,460 votes to Ellman’s 112,261 in unofficial results reported by The Daily News of Batavia. That works out to about 60% to 40%, a lead of about 59,200 votes, with roughly 96% of the expected vote counted.

The Race

Ellman is an Army veteran from Lockport. She entered the race after losing her job at the Department of Veterans Affairs in federal cuts in 2025. In her first run for office, she won the June 23 Democratic primary with about 62% of the vote over Diana Kastenbaum, a former manufacturing executive from Batavia.

Tenney had no primary opponent after Republican challenger John McDairmant failed to collect enough petition signatures to make the ballot. The Cook Political Report and Inside Elections rated the seat Solid Republican, and Sabato’s Crystal Ball rated it Safe Republican.

Ellman still came closer than Tenney’s last opponent. In 2024, Tenney won about 66% of the vote against Democrat David Wagenhauser.

This is Tenney’s third term representing the 24th District. She represented the 22nd District from 2017 to 2019 and from 2021 to 2023, before redistricting after the 2020 census moved her to the 24th.

The district runs along Lake Ontario from Niagara County to the western half of Jefferson County, according to Tenney’s congressional office. It takes in all of Wayne, Oswego, Seneca, Yates, Livingston, Orleans, Wyoming, Genesee, Ontario, Schuyler and Cayuga counties, plus most of Niagara County and the northern half of Steuben County.

The district has about 771,300 residents, and about nine in 10 are white, according to Census Bureau estimates. The median household income is about $72,700, the median age is about 42, and about 12.3% of residents live below the poverty line. About 25.9% of adults hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, and the unemployment rate is about 4.7%.

What’s Next

Tenney’s new term begins Sunday, Jan. 3, 2027. She sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, the chamber’s chief tax-writing panel, though committee assignments for the new Congress won’t be set until the House organizes.

When she released her 2026 tax plan on Aug. 27, Tenney said she wants to expand retirement savings opportunities and encourage investment in housing and economically distressed communities. The plan also calls for using the tax code to support small businesses and family farms.

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