Dem Max Rose beats GOP’s Dan Donovan in New York House race

Democrat Max Rose defeated Rep. Dan Donovan (R) on Tuesday, flipping the New York City’s Staten Island seat in an upset. 

Rose prevailed in New York’s 11th District, which President Trump won by 10 points in 2016. It covers all of Staten Island and part of Brooklyn.

{mosads}The Cook Political Report had rated the race as “Lean Republican,” and a New York Times Upshot/Siena College poll last month found Donovan with 44 percent of the vote, just 4 points ahead of Rose.

Rose, 31, is an Army veteran and chief of staff at New York City health-care provider Brightpoint Health. He ran in part on his military service, betting that he could be enough of a centrist to win in the district that Trump won.

Donovan, a former state prosecutor, has represented the district since a May 2015 special election to succeed former Rep. Michael Grimm (R) after his guilty plea over tax fraud.

Donovan, like many Republicans in purple districts, sought at times in the last two years to distance himself from Trump. 

He voted against both the GOP’s proposal to repeal and replace the ObamaCare health-care law and its tax code overhaul.

But during a primary challenge from the right by Grimm, Donovan sought to boost his conservative credentials, including highlighting his ties to Trump and his support for the president’s policies to ban travel from a handful of Muslim-majority countries.