Representative Sean Patrick Maloney, the chair of the powerful Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, conceded defeat on Wednesday in his bid for a House seat in New York City’s northern suburbs to a Republican state assemblyman, Mike Lawler, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The concession, which Mr. Maloney was to announce publicly Wednesday morning from Washington, came even though The Associated Press has not yet called the race. With more than 95 percent of the vote counted, Mr. Lawler led Mr. Maloney by 1.2 percentage points.
The concession was a telling and significant outcome for a lawmaker who serves as the leader of the Democratic Party’s campaign operation in the House. And it was the first time since the early 1990s that the chairman of either party’s House campaign committee lost a race for re-election.
Mr. Lawler, a first-term assemblyman, had run a vigorous and sometimes vicious campaign against Mr. Maloney, the chair of the powerful Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, characterizing him as out of touch with local residents by mocking his international travel and renting his Hudson Valley home.
Like many Republicans in New York and nationwide, Mr. Lawler also kept a consistent focus on crime, as well as the economy and inflation, issues of import in the 17th Congressional District, where many suburban communities are combating high property taxes. He was also helped by an infusion of some $6 million into the race by the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with the Republican congressional leadership.
Mr. Maloney was first elected to serve the neighboring 18th Congressional District a decade ago, but after a state judge tossed out previous maps earlier this year — calling them partisan, and ordering them redrawn — Mr. Maloney opted to run in the 17th, further to the south, in a slightly more Democratic area. In doing so, he effectively displaced another, less-senior Democratic lawmaker, Mondaire Jones, leading to some criticism from other members of his party.
Mr. Maloney survived a primary challenge, but had been scrambling to adapt to the contours of a new district. And as the general election race progressed this fall, Mr. Maloney’s fortunes seemed to falter, leading to the very committee he leads pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into campaign ads in the closing weeks.
It did not work, as Mr. Lawler rode a wave of discontent and traditional midterm strength by the party out of the White House into a major win. The race in the 17th District was one of three in the Hudson Valley region that were considered competitive, despite New York being a deeply liberal state where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than two to one.
Republican congressional leaders in New York, including Representative Elise Stefanik, the third-ranking Republican in the House, have been pushing the state party to the right, embracing some of the policies and rhetoric of former President Donald J. Trump.
Mr. Lawler ran a somewhat more moderate campaign — distancing himself from the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, for instance, and rejecting false conspiracy theories about a Trump win in 2020 — apparently aiming to lure independents and conservative Democrats. Both candidates also sought to court the Orthodox Jewish community in the newly redrawn district, including in Rockland County, home to several large Hasidic communities.
Jesse McKinley and Nicholas Fandos
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