Claudia Tenney was sworn in as the Republican representative of New York’s 22nd district Thursday morning after months of post-election litigation.
Tenney, who represented NY-22 for one term before losing to Democratic New York Rep. Anthony Brindisi in the 2018 midterm elections, ultimately defeated Brindisi by only 109 votes. Brindisi and Tenney combined to challenge over 800 ballots during post-election litigation, and some mandatory recounts showed margins of less than 20 votes.
NY-22 finally has a representative.
After a court battle and a months-long delay to the certification of the election results, @claudiatenney has been sworn in to the 117th Congress. pic.twitter.com/6GI1GzdUTe
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) February 11, 2021
Tenney becomes the 19th Republican freshman woman, according to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. (RELATED: ‘The Year Of The Republican Woman’: Here’s A List Of GOP Women Who Won 2020 Elections)
It only took 94 days, but Claudia Tenney has finally been declared the winner in #NY22. It’s about time.
That’s the 15th House seat that Republicans flipped, and she joins 18 other women to set the record for our largest female freshman class ever. Congratulations, Claudia!
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) February 5, 2021
Attorney Marc Elias argued in court that voting machines could have missed as many as 2,599 votes for Brindisi. He demanded a manual recount, making arguments similar to those of lawyers for former President Donald Trump, who also argued that voting machines incorrectly tabulated ballots.
New York State Supreme Court Judge Scott Delconte rejected Brindisi and Elias’ fraud claims. “No votes cast by dead people were counted… There are no unresolved discrepancies with the machine counts from the Board’s December canvasses,” he wrote.