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Rep. John Katko (R-Camillus) has defeated Democratic challenger Dana Balter in the race for New York’s 24th Congressional District. 

Katko, an alumnus of Syracuse University’s College of Law, will now serve a fourth term in the U.S. House of Representatives. He previously defeated Balter in the 2018 election by about 6 percentage points.

He declared victory on Election Night after leading the race by about 20 percentage points. Balter’s campaign said she wouldn’t concede the race until absentee ballots were counted.

Katko received 7,392 absentee votes in Onondaga County as of Thursday night while Balter had 16,678. As the county continues to count absentee ballots, Balter has cut Katko’s lead from about 55,000 votes on Election Night to 44,729 on Thursday. Balter’s lead in absentee ballots, though, is not enough to overcome Katko’s advantage in Election Day and early voting.

Onondaga County was set to begin counting absentee ballots on Monday, but the county delayed counting until Tuesday after several candidates, including Katko, filed lawsuits requesting more oversight over ballot counting. Katko’s victory comes nine days after Election Day.

The 24th Congressional District consists of Onondaga, Wayne and Cayuga counties and parts of Oswego County.

An Oct. 25 poll by Siena College and Syracuse.com had the two candidates tied at 45%. A previous poll in early October had Balter up by 2%.

Katko served as a federal prosecutor for 20 years prior to his congressional career. He was a senior trial attorney at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and later worked at the Department of Justice. He later returned to Camillus and worked in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York.

He served in the criminal division of the Department of Justice and held positions such as narcotics chief, coordinator of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force and grand jury coordinator. He retired from the department in January 2013 to begin his congressional campaign, and he’s served in Congress since 2014.

In the 2018 election, Katko led in Wayne, Cayuga and Oswego counties while Balter won a slim majority of Onondaga County. Katko was one of few Republican congressional representatives in the state to retain a seat in a district carried by Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

In January, Katko endorsed President Donald Trump for reelection.

While the congressman opposes universal health care, he’s opposed efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act that don’t include a replacement plan. He has pushed Congress to find an alternative to the act.

Katko also voted against the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which bans chokeholds, no-knock warrants and other measures to increase accountability for police officer misconduct. The act passed in the House and was introduced in the Senate in June.

Published on November 12, 2020 at 7:21 pm

Contact Mira: mlberenb@syr.edu