Sean Patrick Maloney Leads In Congressional Race, Declares Win

COLD SPRING, NY — While absentee ballots in New York won't be counted for at least a week, incumbent Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, who is leading in the race for the 18th Congressional District, declared victory.

"The Hudson Valley has once again spoken," Maloney said in a prepared statement. "We have won this race and been granted the opportunity to keep serving New York for the next two years."

The four-term congressman leads Republican challenger Chele Farley by more than 6,500 votes out of 261,000 tallied, according to county boards of election.

Also on the ballot was Scott Smith who ran on the Serve American Movement and Libertarian party lines.

All vote counts are unofficial.

Still left to be counted are all mailed-in absentee ballots. Under New York law, mail-in ballots may be received up to seven days after the election — this year, Nov. 10 — as long as they are postmarked by Election Day.

Maloney acknowledged that it will take time to count the absentee votes.

However, "it is clear that once they are counted our margin of victory will only increase," he said.

Maloney said it was time to put partisan politics aside because there was a lot of work to do.

"As we recover from the health and economic crisis caused by the pandemic, I will work every day to deliver the relief Hudson Valley families and our communities need," he said.

Patch reached out to Farley's campaign for a comment, but nothing was immediately received.

The 18th Congressional District is comprised of Orange and Putnam counties and parts of Westchester and Dutchess counties.