Brindisi Finally Concedes to Tenney in NY-22 House Race, Gives Up on Potential Recount

On Friday, it was announced that Republican Claudia Tenney was been declared the winner of the 22nd District House race by New York State Supreme Court Judge Scott DelConte, who ruled that Tenney defeated Democrat Anthony Brindisi by a final margin of 109 votes.

Brindisi, however, was not ready to accept defeat at the time and posted a four-part tweet where he said he would be fighting the results and that “no one knows who actually won this race.”

Two hours after the state certified the election at noon today, Brindisi called Tenney to concede and he told her that he would drop all legal appeals and his demand for a manual hand recount of all 316,000-plus ballots cast in the election.

Today, the incumbent Brindisi changed his tune and accepted defeat. This time he tweeted a four-part statement where he began, “Today, I congratulated Claudia Tenney on a hard-fought race and offered to make the transition as smooth as possible on behalf of our community.”

Brindisi said of his time in Congress that “It has been the honor of a lifetime serving my hometown, the place that I grew up and am raising a family.”

“Unfortunately, this election and counting process was riddled with errors, inconsistencies and systemic violations of state and federal election laws,” Brindisi continued, attempting to shift some of the blame for his loss.

Brindisi said that “My one disappointment is that the court did not see fit to grant us a recount. Sadly, we may never know how many legal voters were turned away at the polls or ballots not counted due to the ineptitude of the boards of election, especially in Oneida County.”

“My hope is some authority steps in and investigates the massive disenfranchisement of voters that took place during this election,” Brindisi added.

Today, I congratulated Claudia Tenney on a hard-fought race. It has been the honor of a lifetime serving this community. Read my full statement below: pic.twitter.com/9bdPRF6QsL

— Anthony Brindisi (@ABrindisiNY) February 8, 2021

Tenney tweeted out a response to the concession and said, “I really appreciate Anthony’s call today and thank him for his service. He graciously offered to help ensure a smooth transition and I look forward to working with him over the coming days to complete that process on behalf of everyone in NY22.”

I really appreciate Anthony's call today and thank him for his service. He graciously offered to help ensure a smooth transition and I look forward to working with him over the coming days to complete that process on behalf of everyone in NY22. https://t.co/3XEDKZh3TJ

— Claudia Tenney (@claudiatenney) February 8, 2021