Sanders ally Teachout loses House race in NY

Republican John Faso is projected to defeat Zephyr Teachout (D), an ally of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in her run for a New York congressional seat.

Faso will replace retiring Republican Chris Gibson as the representative from the state’s 19th Congressional District, which is situated north of New York City. Gibson is planning to teach at Williams College.

{mosads}The campaign pitted Faso, who served more than a decade ago as the minority leader in the State Assembly, against the economic populist Teachout and her high-profile allies. 

The former state lawmaker had conservative positions on national security and gun rights but also said that he wanted to take more steps to ensure that women earned as much as men in the workplace. 

“At every turn, Washington is making it harder for families and job creators,” Faso said in announcing his candidacy.

“Families up here are really concerned that their children and grandchildren aren’t going to have the same opportunities that we had when we were growing up.” 

Teachout, a lawyer and professor, is a supporter of populist priorities like limiting the power of big banks and enacting campaign finance reform. She ran on an anti-corruption platform in 2014 for governor of New York, a primary challenge to Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) that gained more traction than expected but ultimately came up short. 

She was endorsed in this race by Sanders, who ran his own Democratic primary campaign against eventual nominee Hillary Clinton, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

Faso and his allies used those ties to attack Teachout. The National Republican Congressional Committee targeted her links to Sanders, who identifies as a democratic socialist, painting Teachout as a “zany professor” with a picture of Che Guevara on her desk. 

Faso also accused Teachout, who moved to the district last year, of being a carpetbagger.

Democrats have targeted the district before with little success. In 2014, they ran Sean Eldridge, the husband of Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes, but his campaign against Gibson was marred by poor management and allegations that he didn’t have sufficient ties to the district.