Win puts Dominican lawmaker on fast track to US Congress
New York.- New York State senator Adriano Espaillat is thepresumptive winner of the Democratic primaries Tuesday night and is set tobecome the first Dominican-born person to win a U.S. Congressional seat, and makinghistory in Harlem.
“Even more historic was the fact that the Caribbean-bornEspaillat won the Democratic Primary to replace retiring African-AmericanCongressman Rep. Charles Rangel in NY’s 13th Congressional District,” newsamericasnow.comreports.
Espaillat’s primary win virtually guarantees the seat inthe November general election, given the district’s majority Latino population,especially Dominican.
The lawmaker declared victory at around 11:05pm last night after98 percent of the precincts reported that Espaillat was leading his mainchallenger, assemblyman Keith Wright, by about 1,100 votes.
Espaillat had 15,513 votes (36.7 percent) to Wright’s14,419 votes (34.1 percent) in the last unofficial voting tally from the NewYork Board of Elections. But Wright, who was endorsed by Rangel, had not yetconceded the race as of press time.