John Katko, a Republican candidate, was elected to the United States House of Representatives in New York State’s 24th Congressional District Tuesday night, earning around 60 percent of the vote.

Katko was officially declared the winner against incumbent Rep. Dan Maffei (D-New York) Tuesday night around 11 p.m.

“This just in, folks, democracy is alive and well in America,” Katko said in his victory speech. “They said it was going to be a close race, but I don’t think so.”

From the beginning of the night, Katko was leading Maffei in the 24th district election, which spans Cayuga, Onondaga, Wayne and western Oswego counties. As the night progressed and more poll results came in, the voting margin increased, ending with Katko winning 60 percent of the votes to Maffei’s 40 percent.

More than 300 people attended the New York Republican Victory Party from 8 p.m. to midnight at the Sheraton University Hotel and Conference Center to watch as election results were announced. With so many people in attendance, the viewing room was standing room only. A vast majority of those in attendance wore campaign stickers and held campaign signs supporting Katko and other Republican candidates for office.

Throughout the night, Thomas Dadey, Jr., Onondaga County Republican committee chairman, frequently updated the audience with poll results of various Republican candidates.

Two large viewing screens, one with live updates from Fox News and the other with election poll results for New York offices, informed audience members of election results throughout the state of New York and the rest of the country.

Before Dadey announced Katko’s increasing margin against Maffei, he said, “Ladies and gentlemen, I have some bad news for Dan Maffei and some great news for John Katko.”

When Katko finally took the stage to make his victory speech, the crowd erupted in applause with many audience members craning their necks to see and holding up their cell phones to capture the moment.

Katko explained how he sat down and talked to his family before he confirmed his candidacy for House of Representatives.

“I didn’t have to ask them once for help in my campaign,” Katko said. “They just did and I can’t thank them enough for being so supportive of me.”

On stage, Katko was supported by his wife, Robin, and his three sons, Sean, Logan and Liam, in addition to many other family members and friends.

Grabbing his purple tie, Katko said to the audience, “Do you want to know why I’m wearing a purple tie? It’s because purple is a combination of the colors red and blue, which means we all have to get together, Republicans and Democrats, to get things done in Washington.”

Katko stressed that in order to improve the situation in the nation’s capital, both Republicans and Democrats must work together, not separately.

Katko also mentioned that with “stubbornly high” unemployment rates, among other local and national issues, he and the other elected congressmen have a lot of work to do in Washington, D.C.

“We have many problems in our country and our district,” Katko said. “And we deserve better leadership.”

After his short speech, Katko made his way around the room shaking hands and thanking many of the people in attendance for their support. Excited conversations about the future filled the conference room as the audience members celebrated Katko’s congressional win.

“Moving forward we have a lot of work to do in Washington,” Katko said. “But tonight we made the message clear that that is what we are here to do.”

Published on November 5, 2014 at 2:14 am

Contact Sara: smswann@syr.edu | @saramswann