BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Erie County Democratic Committee announced Thursday night that State Senator Tim Kennedy had earned their endorsement in the upcoming election for New York’s 26th congressional district seat.
The seat will be vacated next month by longtime congressman Brian Higgins, who announced in November that he’d be leaving the House after 19 years to take a job as the president of Shea’s Performing Arts Center.
Kennedy was one of three Democratic candidates to seek the party’s nomination. He beat out former Grand Island supervisor Nate McMurray, who is running for a congressional seat for the third time in his career, and Erie County Legislator Jeanne Vinal.
The committee conducted interviews with all three candidates Thursday evening, before announcing Kennedy as their decision.
The state senator vowing to fight for women’s rights to choose, the funding of the national labor relations board and a ban of assault weapons while also acknowledging the current state of the House that Higgins credits to his resignation.
“The MAGA extremists have made the House of Representatives a laughingstock, unable to do even the basics of keeping our federal government open or paying our bills without dangerous brinkmanship that risks crashing our economy,” Kennedy said. “I know we can fight back and win against this extremist ideology because I've done it before. We've done it before.
Kennedy has served in the state senate since 2011 representing its 63rd district. He has long been viewed as the favorite for Higgins’ seat, especially since Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz and Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown announced that they would not be running for that position. He announced that he would be running for the seat just a week after Higgins decided he’d be resigning.
The 47-year-old state senator has held political office since he was 28, serving in the Erie County Legislature for six years before his time in the state senate.
After Thursday’s decision 2 On Your Side caught up with McMurray, who was less than pleased with the process and said we can expect to still see his name in June for the primary.
“There's no candidate nights, there's no debates,” McMurray said. “They believe that's a democratic process. People should have a choice, so I'm going to give them a choice.”
Kennedy has now earned his party’s endorsement in the upcoming special election after Higgins officially vacates the seat as well as the primary ahead of November’s general election. Governor Kathy Hochul has not yet announced a date for the special election.
A Democrat has won the seat for the last five general elections, but the Republican party plans to announce its endorsement as well in the coming weeks. Erie County Republicans told 2 On Your Side Thursday that they are in the process of narrowing down their candidates.
The 26th congressional district includes parts of Erie and Niagara counties, including the cities of Buffalo and Niagara Falls.
