Midterms Update

House Contest Still Tight After GOP Attacked Black Candidate as ‘Big-City Rapper’

Democrat Antonio Delgado is running to unseat Republican John Faso.

John Faso, right, and Antonio Delgado before a candidate forum in Poughkeepsie, New York, on Oct. 17.

Photographer: Seth Wenig/AP Photo

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Racially charged ads tried to portray Democrat Antonio Delgado’s rapper past as a mark against his bid to unseat a Republican New York congressman. Yet, the race remains close.

Delgado, 41, a former Rhodes scholar and Harvard-educated corporate lawyer, is a black candidate in New York’s 19th congressional district in the Catskill Mountains region, whose population is less than 5 percent black.