"To the voters of the 15th district for never giving up and never believing that you only have one chance in one chance in America and for truly making my dream come true," Maffei said.

Maffei ran against Congressman Jim Walsh in 2006 and lost narrowly. Tuesday night that changed. He beat Republican candidate Dale Sweetland 55 percent to 42 percent. Green Populist candidate Howie Hawkins walked away with three percent of the vote.

Sweetland was hoping to maintain the district's strong Republican tradition.

"I'm surprised we didn't do better. I thought it was going to be close. I thought it was going to be closer," Sweetland said.

Maffei campaigned as the change candidate just like his national counterpart Democratic president-elect Barack Obama.

  To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.

Then come back here and refresh the page.

"Two years ago when he ran against Jim Walsh it was very close race, without a strong national candidate like Barack Obama around," said Maffei supporter Phil Brockwell.

The numbers indicate Maffei will join a Democratic majority in the House. He claims that combined with his experience working for two U.S. Senators will help him get things done.

"Now that we've won the election, this is going to be extraordinarily valuable for me going to Congress, knowing the people I know, knowing the people in Congress and knowing the staff and knowing how it's done,” Maffei said.

Like much of Upstate, the economy is number one in this district. Maffei said his first priority on the as Congressman will be job creation.