November 6, 2024
Election Update 2024
President
Republicans have taken back the White House with the victory of Donald Trump, now the 47th president, becoming the second president to be elected in non-consecutive cycles, joining Democrat Grover Cleveland — who was picked as the 22nd president in 1884 and the 24th president in 1892, with Republican Benjamin Harrison of Indiana serving four years in between. See Electoral college votes here from the Associated Press.
US Senate
Here again, the Republicans took back control of the US Senate with 52 Republicans and 47 Democrats(some too close to call) and 1 Independent (Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders). US Senator from New York Kirsten Gilibrand cruised to re-election with a margin of almost 20 points in a largely uncontested race. The Democrats lost key races across the country including Democrat Sherrod Brown of Ohio. See results to date here from the Associated Press .
House of Representatives
The tally in the House of Representatives is still unclear but Republican’s appear close to retaining their Majority at this hour. Democrats in New York regained a number of House seats including in the Hudson Valley with Democrat Josh Riley winning over Republican Marc Molinaro in one of the highest spending races in state history. In Syracuse Democratic state senator Mannion unseated Republican Rep. Brandon Williams, a freshman lawmaker who Democrats had pegged early in the election cycle as a vulnerable incumbent.
A complete list can be viewed here from the Associate Press .
New York State Legislature
To no one’s surprise both the Senate and the Assembly will remain controlled by the Democratic party in New York but with the Senate and the Assembly losing some key races. Current results can be viewed here from the New York Times.
In the Senate Brooklyn Democratic Senator Iwen Chu was defeated by Republican Steve Chan by over 10%. While in Central New York Democrat Chris Ryan is in a tight race against Republican Nick Paro with the race margin of just over 500 votes.
In Western New York on the Assembly side Democrat Monica Wallace was upset in her bid for fifth term in the State Assembly, losing in New York’s 143rd District to first-time candidate Patrick Chludzinski.
In Long Island Democratic Assemblyperson Gina Sillitti appears to have lost to Republican Daniel Norber. Also on Long Island Democrat Judy Griffin won back her seat from Republican Brian Curran.
Proposition 1
Proposition 1 Equal Rights Passed with over 60% of the vote. This amendment adds language to the state Constitution providing that individuals cannot be denied rights on the basis of their “ethnicity, national origin, age, disability” or “sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive healthcare and autonomy.”
We will have a complete breakdown of the results in the end of the week update on Friday.
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Below from this morning’s Politico New York:
ALBANY, New York — State government in New York avoided any major shifts on Election Day, with the Democrats in the Assembly and Senate poised to emerge with numbers in the ballpark of the record totals they’ve secured in recent years.
Democrats won 42 of 63 seats in the Senate in 2022. They lost a Brooklyn district Tuesday, and one Republican-held district in the Hudson Valley remained tight as the night dragged on. That seemingly puts the Democratic majority at either 41 or 42 seats.
In the Assembly, Democrats won 102 of 150 seats in 2022. As midnight approached on Election Day 2024, they were about nine seats where neither party had a clear victory. Five of these are currently held by Democrats and four by Republicans, meaning the final tally will likely wind up very similar to the 102 Democratic-held seats of two years ago.
Meanwhile, the Working Families and Conservative parties both received enough votes in the presidential contest to keep their official status for the next two years.
In the Senate, Republican Steve Chan won a decisive victory over Democratic Sen. Iwen Chu. That was in a Sunset Park district created two years ago to be Brooklyn’s first seat with an Asian plurality. After making promising inroads in the area in the 2022 gubernatorial contest, Senate Republicans promised they’d be competitive there this year. And Chan, a former Marine, led by 10 points at the end of the night.
The closest remaining race late in the night was for the Poughkeepsie-area seat held by Republican Sen. Rob Rolison. He had a lead of about 73,000 votes to 69,000 over Democratic challenger Yvette Valdes Smith, but with many votes still uncounted, neither party was declaring victory.
Democrats expressed confidence late Tuesday night that Sen. Pete Harckham would wind up winning a close race in Westchester County. And both parties acknowledged that Democratic Sen. Chris Ryan was likely to win a close contest against Republican Nick Paro in the Syracuse-area seat being vacated by Rep.-elect John Mannion.
The math was more uncertain in the Assembly, with as many as 10 races appearing likely to drag on for hours or weeks.
The GOP seemed likely to flip the suburban Buffalo district held by Assemblymember Monica Wallace, with Republican Pat Chludzinski holding a 4 point lead with nearly every vote counted.
There were also a handful of other Democratic-held seats where Republicans were within striking distance. Democratic Assemblymember Chris Eachus and Republican Tom Lapolla were separated by 70 votes with thousands left to count in Orange County. Democrat Kwani O’Pharrow had a 315-vote lead over Republican Joe Cardinale in an open Suffolk County seat. And incumbent Assembly Democrats Marianne Buttenschon and Stacey Pheffer Amato both led at the end of Election Day tallying, but by small margins.
In the Democratic column, Aron Wieder comfortably led Republican Assemblymember John McGowan in Rockland County.
Democratic challenger Rebecca Kassay trailed Assembly Republican Ed Flood by about 150 votes after all but three districts in the Suffolk County seat reported. Former Assemblymember Judy Griffin, a Democrat, had a comfortable lead over Assemblymember Brian Curran, a Republican, though there were a lot more ballots to count in the Nassau County district. And Democrat Joey Saban trailed Assembly Republican Michael Novakhov by 298 votes in Coney Island.