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Byrnes defeats Spezzano in Assembly 133th District race

Composite photo of candidates
Photos provided
Marjorie Byrnes, left, and Sara Spezzano.

Republican incumbent Marjorie Byrnes topped Democrat Sara Spezzano in the contest for the 133rd Assembly District seat Tuesday, which covers Wheatland and Rush, along with parts of Wyoming, Livingston, Ontario, and Steuben Counties.

Byrnes, who lives in Caledonia, has served in the Assembly since 2019. She has worked as an attorney for 32 years, 10 of which she spent as a Rochester City Court judge. According to preliminary results, Byrnes received about 66 percent of the vote to Spezzano’s 31.

She’s been trying to advance legislation that would require the state to pay for school districts to hire trained and armed resource officers. Byrnes also has been among lawmakers who have unsuccessfully called on Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul to reject a recommendation by a state wage board to make farmworkers eligible for overtime after 40 hours of work, instead of the current 60-hour standard. Byrnes also has said she is a “strong advocate for the Second Amendment.”

Spezzano, a Wheatfield resident, had called on the state to increase education spending and to distribute the funding more equitably. She said that doing so would enable schools, especially rural ones, to provide students with mental health services and to pilot programs that better tie community services such as food banks or flu shot clinics into schools.

Her priorities included the passage of single-payer universal health care legislation, boosting state investment in broadband infrastructure, and passing the Universal Child Care Act, which would establish a child care system akin to the public school system.

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View previous campaigns.



Jeremy Moule is a deputy editor with WXXI News. He also covers Monroe County.
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