NEW YORK, (Reuters) – Republicans won an upset victory in a Democratic stronghold in New York yesterday in a special U.S. House of Representatives election for the seat vacated by former Representative Anthony Weiner, who resigned after a Twitter sex scandal.
Republican Bob Turner, a retired media executive who had called the election a repudiation of President Barack Obama, defeated Democrat David Weprin, a state assemblyman, by six points, 53 percent to 47 percent, a New York cable television station said.
“We’ve been asked by the people of this district to send a message to Washington and I hope they hear it laud and clear,” Turner told supporters. “We’re ready to say, ‘Mr. President, we are on the wrong track.'”
The district, which includes parts of Brooklyn and Queens, had gone Democrat in every election since the 1920s, and Democrats outnumber Republicans three to one.
Turner’s triumph, and a Republican victory in another special House election — in Nevada — boosted the Republican majority over Democrats in the House to 242-192.