GOP Rep. Nick LaLota declares victory in election battle with Democrat Chris Gallant

WASHINGTON —Rep. Nick LaLota declared victory Tuesday night in the 1st Congressional District, though his opponent, Democrat Chris Gallant, said the race was still too close to call.

Just before 1 a.m. Wednesday, LaLota had 51.09% of the vote and Gallant had 48.85%.

"To every Long Islander that voted for me thank you for your trust," LaLota said to family, friends and party leaders in Patchogue. "For those who didn't vote for me, I am your congressman too. I will always fight for your family regardless of our political affiliation."

Gallant issued a statement early Wednesday in which he said the race was too close to call.

"At this time, there are still votes to count, and every single one of them deserves to be counted," Gallant said. "It's obvious now that this election is not what people thought it would be. The closeness of these results show that Long Island is not satisfied with the status quo."

LaLota, added: "To every Long Islander that voted for me, thank you for your trust. For those who didn't vote for me, I am your congressmen too. I will always fight for your family regardless of our political affiliation."

Entering the midterm election voting, Gallant, the openly gay military pilot and firefighter, had not been given much chance of defeating LaLota by independent, non-partisan political analysts.

The contest only grabbed national attention when on Sept. 13 explicit, old consensual bondage photos of Gallant were published and went viral. Galant told supporters of the photos, "Yeah, that’s me," and stayed in the race.

In the weeks following the surfacing of the bondage photos, Gallant seemed to embrace the development. He gave a series of interviews to outlets about the controversy and even saw a major fundraising boost, but still lagged millions of dollars behind the amounts LaLota had stockpiled.

Another feature of the race is that neither candidate — LaLota, 48, of Amityville, nor Gallant, 37, of Amity Harbor — actually reside inside the boundaries of New York's First Congressional District.

Running for a third, two-year House term, LaLota touted his record of fighting for tax relief. That included his helping lead the successful battle to raise the baseline state and local tax deduction cap, known as SALT, to $40,000 starting in 2025.

Holding a coveted seat on the House Appropriations Committee, LaLota also highlighted his steering of millions of dollars in federal funding to local communities, often referred to as legislative earmarks.

But LaLota’s efforts to cast himself as someone not rigidly partisan took a hit when it surfaced he was threatening to withhold such discretionary funding known as congressional "earmarks" from municipalities that adopted local laws restricting or banning local police departments from cooperating with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.

On the issues, Gallant hit LaLota on the affordability crisis and in voting to fund President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement efforts. He also repeatedly criticized LaLota for supporting passage of Trump’s "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" because it contained deep cuts to Medicaid and food assistance — even if it did also contain the language raising the SALT deduction cap and other tax provisions.

The extent of some of the support Gallant was attracting may reflected by Reed Oxman, 67, who said Tuesday came all the way from his home in Philadelphia to Suffolk Democrats election night party to support him.

Oxman, who summered on Fire Island, fell 22 years ago on an elevated walkway there and broke eight bones. Gallant was nearby and helped transport him to a boat that took him to the mainland and then to the hospital, Oxman said.

After that, Oxman said, he struck up a friendship with Gallant. He said he has been phone banking every day to help the congressional hopeful.

"I know it’s a Republican area, but he’ll flip it," Oxman said. "I have no doubt."

Since January, Nathalie Marie Alenski, 63, of Riverhead said she has been out almost every day holding signs in support of Gallant on overpass bridges on Sunrise Highway and the Long Island Expressway, hoping to sway the votes of the drivers who pass them each day.

"I think people had enough of what’s going on, of LaLota not showing up and being responsible to his district constituents," she said, adding that she thinks Gallant has been more accessible to voters.

Newsday's John Asbury contributed to this story.