Republican incumbent Stephen Hawley topped Democratic challenger Jennifer Ao Keys for the 139th Assembly District seat by a wide margin, according to unofficial results from the Monroe County Board of Elections.
Hawley ended with 75% of the vote, to Keys’s 22%.
The district which covers Hamlin, Clarkson, and Sweden, along with Genesee and Orleans counties and part of Erie County.
Hawley, the deputy minority leader of the Assembly, lives in Batavia and has served in the Assembly since winning a special election in 2006. Just before midnight, Hawley held about 76 percent of the vote to Keys’s 21 percent, with just under 80 percent of districts reporting in.
Hawley is the deputy minority leader of the Assembly and has focused heavily on issues pertaining to agriculture. He has sponsored legislation that would expand key agricultural tax credits and that would exempt farms from a state law that makes them liable when one of their workers is injured in an elevation-related fall. Hawley is critical of state laws he sees as “intrusive” to businesses.
Keys is a social worker who lives in LeRoy, Genesee County.
One of her key issues was increasing access to social and health services in New York. She planned to increase volunteerism for first responders and has said she’d support gun legislation that respects the Second Amendment. Keys had said she supports LGBTQ rights, reproductive rights, improving access to mental health services, and easing license requirements for mental health workers.
