Democrats in Central New York have chosen Colleen Deacon to represent their party in November's general election. Deacon received about 50 percent of the vote against Eric Kingson and Steve Williams in the 24th District primary race. Matt Jarchow has reaction from the candidates.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The night brought smiles and high fives for Colleen Deacon, as she secured her party’s nomination in the 24th Congressional District.
"I feel really good," Deacon said. "We ran a really good campaign, a really strong campaign. We had a really good infrastructure and operation in place."
Deacon, a former staffer for Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, also had some big endorsements. Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer supported her campaign. Senator Bernie Sanders supported Eric Kingson.
Steve Williams, meanwhile, said he's proud that he ran his campaign without the outside endorsements and money.
"We tried to run a different kind of campaign," Williams said. "We tried to run a bottom up campaign. I spoke with folks in D.C. and those big organizations, and I didn't really want any part of that."
Williams said he will endorse Deacon in her campaign against Republican incumbent John Katko. Deacon said she'll get to work right away.
"We've already put a number of pieces into place already, so we're just going to switch gears and focus more on the general, continue to do what we're doing, continue to talk to voters, reach out, get our message out to as many people as we can," she said.
Deacon said her general election focus will center on jobs and the economy.
"That's not a Democratic issue or Republican issue," Deacon said. "That's an issue that everybody is facing right now in this district. We have to do more to address it."
And she'll continue doing just that in her push to bring the district back to Democrats.