The 2020 election in New York's 22nd congressional district was part of the 2020 United States House of Representatives elections in the state. The major-party candidates were Democratic incumbent Anthony Brindisi and Republican Claudia Tenney, with a third-party candidate, Libertarian Keith Price, also participating. In the 2018 House race in this district, Brindisi unseated the freshman incumbent Tenney by a margin of less than 1 percent. The rematch was expected to be just as competitive.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the candidates to adjust their campaign activities, holding many via videoconference. Due to the pandemic, New York State allowed any voter in the 2020 primaries and general election to request an absentee ballot and vote by mail: pandemic precautions also slowed poll operations and canvassing. At the close of polls on November 3, Tenney led by 28,000 votes, but up to 70,000 absentee ballots remained to be returned. As the absentee ballots were counted, Tenney's lead shrank to around 100 votes by November 20.

Errors by boards of elections in the district came to light in late November. Many of the boards were found to have marked disputed ballots in a way inconsistent with state election law. The Oneida County Board of Elections used sticky notes to mark disputed ballots, and those notes came unstuck from the ballots and attached themselves to other ballots, an incident called "Stickygate" by the media. Oneida County was later revealed to have made two more serious errors: it incorrectly rejected 700 absentee ballots that should have been accepted under state election law, and failed to process 2,418 voter registration applications before Election Day. The other county Boards of Elections were also found to have made errors affecting dozens of ballots. In two separate instances, Chenango County misplaced absentee ballots and found them later.

After a partial recount of contested ballots, Tenney was declared the winner on February 5 by 109 votes, or 0.03 percent of the vote. Brindisi conceded three days later, and Tenney was sworn in on February 11, a month after the start of the 117th Congress and 100 days after Election Day.

Both commissioners of the Oneida County Board of Elections were forced to resign. The federal Department of Justice later sued the county over its errors. Despite the multiple errors, no evidence of voter fraud was found in court; instead, the errors seemed to result from incompetence. Donald Trump and many of his allies saw this race as a case of attempted voter fraud and connected it to Trump's false claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Republicans also pointed to recent changes in election law that stressed the state's electoral system and may have caused the errors. Legislators and activists of various political alignments proposed reforms in response to the events of this election.

Background From 2013 to 2023, New York's 22nd congressional district stretched from the eastern end of Lake Ontario to the Pennsylvania border. It contained rural and urban areas, including the cities of Utica, Rome, Cortland, and Binghamton, the entirety of the counties of Chenango, Cortland, Madison, and Oneida Counties, and parts of the counties of Broome, Herkimer, Oswego, and Tioga. At the time of the election it had a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+6, indicating that it leaned slightly Republican. Republican Richard L. Hanna held the district until his retirement in 2017, after which it began to be considered a swing district.

Claudia Tenney, a resident of the Utica suburb New Hartford, won the 2016 House race with 44 percent of the vote, beating Democrat Kim Myers and independent candidate Martin Babinec. In that year's presidential race, Trump won the district by a 15% margin. Tenney aligned herself with Trump during her campaign, and in her freshman term made herself known as a close ally of his. In early 2018 she made two controversial public statements. Speaking about the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, she said "so many of these people that commit the mass murders end up being Democrats". Later, she blamed the "deep state" for the Ben Carson office furnishing scandal. Although national media reported on these statements, and late-night talk shows mocked her for them, her Republican base's enthusiasm was unaffected.

The Democratic Party nominated Anthony Brindisi, a resident of Utica, to run against Tenney in the 2018 race. Brindisi, like Tenney, was a member of the New York State Assembly before running for the House. This race was predicted to be very close: it was noted as vulnerable by both the Democratic and National Republican Congressional Committee, and Politico included it in their top 10 House races. After a few weeks' delay to count absentee ballots, Brindisi was announced the winner by 0.9 percent of the vote. This win was part of a nationwide "blue wave" of Democratic success in the 2018 United States elections, and this district was the most Republican district to flip in 2018. In the House, Brindisi co-chaired the Blue Dog Coalition and was a member of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus.

On September 30, 2019, Tenney announced her candidacy for the 2020 race, setting up a rematch with Brindisi. The race was expected to once again be highly competitive.

Primaries Brindisi did not face a primary challenge. Libertarian candidate Keith Price was unopposed for his party's nomination.

Republican primary With two years of congressional experience and an endorsement from Trump, Tenney was the front-runner in the primary over her opponent George Phillips. Tenney faced criticism from Phillips for the attention she attracted for her controversial statements in 2018, her defeat in 2018, and her refusal to participate in primary debates. Phillips and Tenney had previously faced off in the 2016 primary, in which Phillips came in third.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order allowing vote by mail for any voter who wished to do so. Postage-paid absentee ballots were mailed automatically to any registered voter who was eligible to vote in a contested primary. New York's primary election night was June 23, postponed from its usual date. Calling back to the 2018 race and foreshadowing the general election to come, absentee ballots ate away some of Tenney's lead after election night. Still, she won handily, by a margin of 19.2% over Phillips. He conceded the next day. This primary did not experience the problems of other primaries in the state that year, many of which did not return results until more than a month later.

Candidates Nominee Claudia Tenney, former U.S. representative for New York's 22nd congressional district from 2016 to 2018

Eliminated in primary George Phillips, teacher, former Broome County legislator, and nominee for New York's 22nd congressional district in 2008 and 2010

Withdrawn Steve Cornwell, Broome County district attorney Franklin Sager, teacher

Declined Richard C. David, mayor of Binghamton

Primary results

Campaign + PredictionsSourceRankingAs ofNiskanen CenterJuly 26, 2020 Inside Elections October 28, 2020RealClearPoliticsNovember 2, 2020 Sabato's Crystal Ball November 2, 2020 The Cook Political Report November 2, 2020PoliticoNovember 2, 2020FiveThirtyEightNovember 3, 2020

Brindisi was initially skeptical of efforts to impeach Trump, calling them divisive, and recommended censure instead. However, he eventually supported the impeachment inquiry and voted in favor of Trump's first impeachment. Republican-aligned groups had been running ads in the district targeting Brindisi and the Democratic Party during the impeachment inquiry, and these ads intensified after Brindisi's vote. The Brindisi campaign began running ads at the end of January. Despite this campaign activity, Brindisi did not formally launch his campaign until February 24.

Normal campaign activities were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, starting in March. New York state government responses to the pandemic such as stay-at-home orders and bans on large gatherings halted canvassing and campaign events. Fundraising became difficult during March and April due to the COVID-19 recession. Campaigns found themselves suddenly changing their strategy due the crisis. Shortly following lockdown in his district, Brindisi self-quarantined after fellow Blue Dog Ben McAdams tested positive. However, he did not contract COVID-19 himself. The new crisis largely knocked Trump's impeachment out of the conversation, replaced by healthcare, unemployment, and revenue loss. In the months that followed, Democratic campaigns deemphasized canvassing in favor of COVID-19-safe virtual campaigning while Republican campaigns continued in-person canvassing, which may have put Democrats at a disadvantage.

In response to the George Floyd protests, both candidates expressed support for the police. Brindisi cosponsored a bill called the "Defund Cities that Defund the Police Act", which died in committee. - Defund Cities that Defund the Police Act of 2020 He also ran campaign ads where he appeared with the Oneida County Sheriff. The Tenney campaign ran an ad criticizing Brindisi's attendance of a June rally for George Floyd. Tenney received endorsements from several police unions in the state and district, who generally supported Republicans in this election cycle.

The presidential race influenced down-ballot campaigning. Brindisi endorsed Biden in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, incurring criticism from the Tenney campaign. Donald Trump Jr. appeared at a virtual event for Tenney in June. Joint events to support Trump and Tenney were held by local supporters in Central New York.

As of the end of September, the Brindisi campaign had raised a total of $5.2 million, and the Tenney campaign had raised $1.9 million. Spending for both candidates was dwarfed by outside spending: OpenSecrets ranked the race 4th in the nation for spending by outside groups. Those groups spent $10.4 million on ads against Brindisi and $7.3 million on ads against Tenney, with ads supporting either candidate amounting to less than a million each. The National Republican Congressional Committee spent $3.3 million on ads in the district, and the Congressional Leadership Fund spent $2.2 million. According to the Wesleyan Media Project, more campaign ads had been shown in the district than any other House district in the country that year.

In October, the race appeared on NPR and Roll Calls lists of top ten House races.

Endorsements

Polling Poll source Datesadministered Samplesize Marginof error AnthonyBrindisi (D) ClaudiaTenney (R) KeithPrice (L) UndecidedSiena CollegeSiena CollegeSeptember 27 – October 4, 2020383 likely voters± 5%48%39%4%9%

Debates Due to COVID-19 precautions, there were no in-person audiences for these debates. Tenney and Brindisi also debated privately at a virtual editorial board meeting of The Post-Standard on October 9, before it issued its editorial endorsements.

+ Debates Date Held by Participants Venue October 19 Spectrum News Tenney & Brindisi Virtual October 22 WSKG & League of Women Voters Tenney, Brindisi, & Price WSKG studios, Vestal October 26 WBGH, WSYR-TV, & WUTR Tenney & Brindisi Schafer Theater, Mohawk Valley Community College, Utica

General election