Syracuse Democrat Dana Balter on Friday conceded to U.S. Rep. John Katko in the 24th Congressional District election, acknowledging that she had come up short in a second consecutive bid to unseat the Republican congressman.
Balter said she called Katko, R-Camillus, on Friday afternoon to congratulate him, a day after Katko clinched the election. Balter did not win enough of the early absentee ballots to overcome the 20 percentage point lead that Katko had on Election Day.
Katko led by 55,102 votes on Election Day, and had a lead of 44,729 votes (55.6-40.5%) Thursday night after more than 30,000 absentee ballots had been counted.
“The current absentee ballot count makes it clear that our campaign does not have a path forward,” Balter said in a statement Friday.