As a resident of New York’s 22nd Congressional District, I thought a brief article discussing the history and voting tendencies of the district would be a fun, yet interesting way of fitting the Democracy Chronicles image. So, let us dig in!

The 22nd Congressional District of New York State is currently represented by Claudia Tenney [R], who resides in my hometown of New Hartford, NY! More popular cities included inside the district, or at least popular to residents of Central New York are Utica, Rome, Cortland, and Binghamton. Geographically, the district covers all of Chenango, Cortland, Madison, and Oneida counties. Portions of Broome, Herkimer, Oswego, and Tioga counties are also included in the district.

This makeup differs from previous ones as from 2003-2013, the district included all or parts of Broome, Delaware, Dutchess, Orange, Sullivan, Tioga, Tompkins, and Ulster counties. The district also extended to include pieces of the Finger Lakes region, the Catskill Mountains, and the Hudson Valley.

As we turn to voting within the region itself, the 22nd Congressional District in New York recently elected Republican Claudia Tenney to serve as the district’s representative. Tenney is the first woman to represent the district after defeating both Democratic and Reform Party candidates Kim Myers and Martin Babinec on November 8, 2016. Tenney won 47% of the vote, edging out Myers (40.4%) and Babinec (12.6%) in the three-way race.

Since 1992, the 22nd Congressional District has voted in eight presidential elections.

In 1992, the district voted for Republican George H. W. Bush, 41%-36% over Democrat Bill Clinton. Clinton went on to win the presidency that year.

In 1996, when Bill Clinton was running for reelection, the district sided with the Democrat over his Republican challenger Bob Dole, 45%-40%.

In the controversial election of 2000, all the ballots seemed to be working just fine as the 22nd District chose Democrat Al Gore as opposed to Republican George W. Bush by a difference of nine points (51%-42%). Bush went on to win the Election of 2000 despite losing the popular vote to Gore.

The Election of 2004, which featured the reelection opportunity of George W. Bush going up against John Kerry saw the 22nd District side with the Democrat. The district voted for Kerry over Bush, 54%-45%. George Bush did end up being reelected President of the United States.

2008 brought about Democrat Barack Obama facing off against Republican John McCain. The old district lines sided with Obama in 2008 (59%-39%), however, the current district lines sided with John McCain in a very narrow margin of victory. Barack Obama went on to win the presidency in 2008.

Starting in 2012, the current borders of the district were in place. As a result, the 22nd Congressional District sided with Republican challenger Mitt Romney who ran against Barack Obama’s reelection bid in 2012. The district narrowly voted for Romney, 49.2%-48.8%.

In the most recent Election of 2016, the 22nd Congressional District sided with Republican candidate Donald Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton. The district overwhelmingly sided with Donald Trump, 55%-39%.

It is apparent that ever since the new district borders were put into place in 2013, Republicans have been able to garner more support than Republicans. After all, demographics do make a very big difference when it comes to elections, especially presidential elections.

Well, there is a history of both the borders and voting records of the 22nd Congressional District of New York State. Hopefully you were able to grasp some knowledge about the district that you have not have known before. Or maybe you just found out there was a 22nd Congressional District in New York State!