Democrats won a special election for a House seat in western New York Tuesday, The Associated Press projected, further shrinking the GOP's narrow majority in the chamber.
Democratic state Sen. Tim Kennedy defeated Republican town supervisor Gary Dickson in New York's 26th District, a reliably blue area which includes Buffalo and some of the surrounding suburbs. Democrats will now control 213 seats in the House compared to 217 for the Republicans. Five seats remain vacant.
Kennedy will serve the remainder of Democratic Rep. Brian Higgins' term. The 10-term congressman resigned in February to run a local performing arts center, and he had some choice words for partisan gridlock in the House. Higgins told The Buffalo News late last year that Congress is "in a very, very bad place" and that "we're at the beginning phases of a deterioration of the prestige of the institution."
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