U.S. Rep. Tom Reed P-J file photo

After what was recently thought to be a tight race waged against Democratic challenger Tracy Mitrano for representation of New York’s 23rd Congressional District, U.S. Rep. Tom Reed came away with the win, totaling 108,244 votes (54 percent) to Mitrano’s 92,175 votes (46 percent), making him a five-time Congressman for the district.

Reed began his political career as the Corning mayor from 2008 to 2010. In a special election, he then replaced U.S. Rep. Eric Massa in New York’s 29th Congressional District. He has continued to win re-election every two years since and has served on the Ways and Means Committee, Manufacturing Caucus as the co-chair and Problem Solvers Caucus as the co-chair, among other assignments and memberships.

“We are humbled by the support we received from our hardworking neighbors across the Southern Tier, Finger Lakes and Western New York,” Reed said. “I’m proud to have earned your trust and I look forward to continuing to work for our families.”

Reed and Mitrano led a hotly-contested debate series, in which the two candidates called each other out for party extremism. They differed greatly on the issue of health care the most, with Mitrano challenging the incumbent by campaigning on a Medicare-for-all platform.

Mitrano said she felt proud to have delivered an alternative to Reed and credited her staff and supporters for making the race as close as it ended up being.

“I’m so proud of the work that we’ve done and the campaign we’ve run,” Mitrano said.

In her concession, Mitrano said she hoped Reed would take into account her perspectives regarding health care, education, internet infrastructure and the environment, messages she felt had resonated with a large portion of the district.

“While I’m disappointed in the ultimate results, I am also exceedingly proud and grateful to have had the chance to run in this race,” Mitrano said. “I want to thank every single person who was a part of this movement, every single person who supported this effort over the past 16 months. We didn’t win this time, but it would be wrong to call our movement a failure. We brought an energy and a unity to this district that hasn’t been seen here for a long time.”

In Chautauqua County, Reed garnered approximately 59 percent of the votes for representative while Mitrano earned about 41 percent. Unofficial election results from the Chautauqua County Board of Elections listed Reed having earned 24,134 votes in the county and Mitrano having earned 16,579 votes.