Rep. Mike Lawler is the projected winner of New York's 17th congressional district, NBC News projects, an area where the balance of political power has switched back and forth in recent elections.
Lawler had been in a tough campaign against Mondaire Jones, a former Democratic congressman who was one of the first two openly gay Black men to serve in the House when he was elected in 2020. Jones lost his seat when the boundaries of his district were redrawn.
Both candidates had geared their strategies toward attracting moderate voters, while criticizing each other as being in league with radicals.
The 17th District was one of 11 districts within a 90-mile drive of Manhattan that was expected to be among the country's most closely contested House races on Election Day. Republicans held a slim 6-5 edge in the nearly contiguous circle that starts in the Long Island suburbs, cuts through western Connecticut and New York's Hudson River Valley and Catskills regions, then carves through eastern Pennsylvania before curling back into New Jersey.
The ability of Republican candidates to outperform Trump two years ago was illustrated in New York's 17th Congressional District, a suburban area north of the city that is home to the Village of Sleepy Hollow, Sing Sing Prison and such luminaries as Bill and Hillary Clinton and the billionaire George Soros.
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Trump owns a golf club and a private estate in the district, but still lost to Biden there by 10 percentage points. In 2022, Republican Mike Lawler narrowly defeated U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, a Democrat who had been in office for a decade.
The Lawler campaign was plagued by blackface controversy in the final run-up to Election Day.
Lawler said he was sorry after the New York Times obtained photos of him wearing blackface about two decades ago at a college Halloween costume party where he dressed as Michael Jackson.
“When attempting to imitate Michael’s legendary dance moves at a college Halloween party eighteen years ago, the ugly practice of black face was the furthest thing from my mind. Let me be clear, this is not that,” he said, adding that the costume was intended as “a genuine homage to one of my childhood idols.”
“I am a student of history and for anyone who takes offense to the photo, I am sorry,” Lawler said previously. "All you can do is live and learn, and I appreciate everyone’s grace along the way.”
Lawler later expanded upon his apology, telling NBC New York "Obviously, in hindsight I certainly recognize how people would portray that and be offended by it, so certainly I apologize.”
The congressman did not deny that he darkened his face for a costume in which he dressed as the singer for a 2006 Halloween party, when he was 20 years old.
"When I was a sophomore in college, we had a Halloween dance party and I dressed up as my musical idol, Michael Jackson. [I] had the red leather jacket and took a friend's bronzer and applied some makeup and, you know, partook in a dance contest," he told News 4.
Jones, who is Black, responded to the controversy during the campaign, when did not appear to buy Lawler's apology or explanation for why he did it.
"He knew it was wrong, and is only upset because he got caught doing it and not because he actually engaged in offensive behavior," Jones told NBC New York.
Anthony Izaguirre of The Associated Press contributed to this report.
