On Tuesday, an election day unlike any other, some New York primary voters who cast their ballots in person were met with confusion at poll sites, where poll workers sometimes reportedly handed voters incomplete ballots or incorrect ballots to fill out. And while the coronavirus pandemic positioned the June 23 primary as a test of what widespread mail-in voting could look like in New York, many voters who requested absentee ballots never received them, making them unable to vote or forcing them to vote in person.
But even in the face of these challenges, the pandemic primary carried on, as ballots cast in-person in the state’s 24 congressional primary races – and in one special election in the 27th Congressional District – were counted. Because of the pandemic, more than 1.6 million mail-in ballots were requested statewide – more than 10 times the number cast in the 2016 presidential election – and the process of tabulating those ballots isn’t expected to begin until Wednesday, July 1.
Matt Rey, a political consultant with Red Horse Strategies, told City & State he expected only 25% to 33% of total votes will be cast in-person, with the rest coming in by mail. That percentage will vary by race, but it means that it will be hard to draw conclusions on race results on primary night. It could be weeks before winners are declared in some of these races.
Even so, as the results from ballots cast in-person were reported Tuesday night, some candidates celebrated early leads, if not definitive victories. Jamaal Bowman, the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez-like challenger to longtime Rep. Eliot Engel, celebrated a hefty lead over Engel.
But while Bowman may indeed go on to achieve an AOC-like victory over Engel, other long-serving members of Congress appeared set to fend off challenges. With all in-person votes counted in the 10th Congressional District, Rep. Jerry Nadler maintained a nearly 40-point lead over two challengers. Rep. Yvette Clarke, facing what’s been characterized as a competitive primary challenge from Adem Bunkeddeko – a rematch from 2018 – nonetheless held a strong lead over Bunkeddeko and New York City Council Member Chaim Deutsch with all in-person votes counted. Rep. Greg Meeks, too, seems well-positioned to coast to another term.
In the crowded race to replace retiring Rep. José Serrano in the Bronx, New York City Council Member Ritchie Torres pulled ahead of his 11 opponents.
Meanwhile, a rematch between Rep. Carolyn Maloney and Suraj Patel is too close to call, with all in-person votes counted and Patel just three points behind the 14-term congresswoman.
In other places, including the 8th, 18th, 20th, 21st, 23rd and 26th districts, no primary was held on Tuesday.
As election returns come in, and as candidates claim victory, City & State will be updating this tracker.
Congressional District 1 – Democratic Primary
Suffolk County
Perry Gershon: 35%
Bridget Fleming: 32%
Nancy Goroff: 29%
Gregory-John Fischer: 2%
With 200 of 473 election districts reporting.
With only partial results reported, it’s a very close race for the Democratic nomination. The winner will take on Republican Rep. Lee Zeldin in November. Perry Gershon came within 4 percentage points of beating Zeldin in 2018, but he may not even get the chance again this year, with strong preliminary showings from Bridget Fleming, a former prosecutor, and Nancy Goroff, a chemist.
Congressional District 2 – Republican Primary
Nassau and Suffolk Counties
Andrew Garbarino: 60%
Michael LiPetri: 39%
With 165 of 524 election districts reporting.
Congressional District 2 – Democratic Primary
Nassau and Suffolk Counties
Jackie Gordon: 71%
Patricia Maher: 25%
With 165 of 524 election districts reporting.
Congressional District 3 – Democratic Primary
Nassau, Suffolk and Queens counties
Thomas Suozzi (incumbent): 55%
Melanie D’Arrigo: 31%
Michael Weinstock: 10%
With 195 of 636 election districts reporting.
Congressional District 4 – Republican Primary
Nassau County
Douglas Tuman: 0%
Cindy Grosz: 0%
With 0 of 652 election districts reporting.
Congressional District 5 – Democratic Primary
Queens and Nassau counties
Gregory Meeks (incumbent): 75%
Shaniyat Chowdhury: 19%
With 434 of 492 election districts reporting.
Rep. Greg Meeks, the 22-year incumbent from Southeast Queens, is a senior member of the House Financial Services Committee and a proud capitalist. He faced an Ocasio-Cortez-style challenge from Chowdhury, a bartender and member of the Democratic Socialists of America. But Chowdhury failed to gain the momentum necessary to topple the Queens Democratic County Leader, and Meeks seems to be on his way to an easy victory.
Congressional District 6 – Democratic Primary
Queens
Grace Meng (incumbent): 58%
Melquiades Gagarin: 20%
Sandra Choi: 16%
With 462 of 462 election districts reporting.
Congressional District 7 – Democratic Primary
Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens
Nydia Velazquez (incumbent): 73%
Paperboy Love Prince: 19%
With 506 of 506 election districts reporting.
Paperboy Love Prince may be a multi-talented millennial, but he was new to the district and unaware of a highly controversial rezoning being considered in it when he launched his campaign. As of late Tuesday, things didn’t look good for the 26-year-old rapper in his bid to unseat Rep. Nydia Velazquez in the district, which includes the Lower East Side and much of North Brooklyn and much of the borough’s western waterfront.. A 14-term incumbent, Velazquez maintained a large lead over Prince as early results rolled in, positioning her to hold on to the Democratic Party line on November’s ballot.
Congressional District 9 – Democratic Primary
Brooklyn
Yvette Clarke (incumbent): 60%
Adem Bunkeddeko: 19%
Chaim Deutsch: 10%
Isiah James: 9%
Lutchi Gayot: 1%
With 532 of 532 election districts reporting.
When four different candidates are all challenging the same incumbent, the math favors the incumbent. And with all the in-person votes counted in the Central Brooklyn district, seven-term incumbent Rep. Yvette Clarke has a commanding lead. Adem Bunkeddeko’s campaign team expects to do well with the absentee ballots, but the current 41 percentage-point gap will be nearly impossible to close. It seems that 2018, when Bunkeddeko lost to Clarke 53% to 47%, may have been his best shot to unseat her.
Congressional District 10 – Democratic Primary
Manhattan, Brooklyn
Jerrold Nadler (incumbent): 60%
Lindsey Boylan: 24%
Jonathan Herzog: 12%
With 559 of 559 election districts reporting.
It looks like Rep. Jerry Nadler will stick around, after all. Despite facing two primary challengers running to his left, Nadler maintained a nearly 36-point lead over his closest competitor as all ballots cast in-person were counted on Tuesday night. Lindsey Boylan, a former aide to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, came closest to unseating the longtime congressman from the West Side of Manhattan, with 24% of the vote, while Jonathan Herzog, a 25-year-old running on the Andrew Yang-backed policy of a universal basic income, received 12% of the vote. Nadler’s apparent victory on Tuesday makes it likely that he’ll also hold onto his powerful role as House Judiciary chairman. Still, with as much as two-third of the vote still yet to be counted – because of the number of voters casting mail-in ballots – Boylan didn’t appear ready to concede. “Going into tonight, we knew there would not be a decisive winner until all the mail in ballots are counted next week, she wrote on Twitter. “We’re confident that once all the votes are counted, the people’s voices will be heard loud and clear.”
Congressional District 11 – Republican Primary
Staten Island, Brooklyn
Nicole Malliotakis: 69%
Joseph Calderera: 29%
With 489 of 489 election districts reporting.
Assembly Member Nicole Malliotakis has had her eye on higher office for a while – she ran for mayor of New York City in 2017 – and now she’s one step closer to Congress. With all in-person ballots counted on Tuesday night, Malliotakis secured more than double the votes that her opponent, Joseph Calderera, did. Still, she’ll have to beat incumbent Democratic Rep. Max Rose in November to make it to D.C.
Congressional District 12 – Democratic Primary
Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn
Carolyn Maloney (incumbent): 40%
Suraj Patel: 38%
Lauren Ashcraft: 13%
Peter Harrison: 5%
With 569 of 569 election districts reporting.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney can’t rest easy for the next week: With all of the in-person votes counted, NYU professor Suraj Patel is within 2 percentage points of the 14-term incumbent. Patel challenged Maloney in 2018 and lost 59% to 40%. This year looks like it’ll be much closer, but a lot could change when mail-in ballots are counted. The affluent 12th Congressional District, which covers much of Manhattan’s East Side and a sliver of northwestern Brooklyn and northwestern Queens, had more absentee ballots requested than any other district in the city – more than 100,000. With just over 30,000 in-person votes cast, this race is still very much up in the air.
Congressional District 13 – Democratic Primary
Manhattan, Bronx
Adriano Espaillat (incumbent): 54%
James Felton Keith: 22%
Ramon Rodriguez: 16%
With 551 of 551 election districts reporting.
Rep. Adriano Espaillat, the two-term incumbent representing upper Manhattan and part of the Bronx, appears set to be the Democratic nominee in the heavily Democratic 10th Congressional District. With all in-person votes tallied on Tuesday night, Espaillat held at least a 32-point lead over two longshot challengers.
Congressional District 14 – Democratic Primary
Queens, Bronx
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (incumbent): 70%
Michelle Caruso-Cabrera: 19%
Badrun Khan: 5%
Samuel Sloan: 2%
With 449 of 449 election districts reporting.
It’s not surprising that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez drew a handful of Democratic primary challengers this year. As the biggest story to come out of 2018’s primaries after taking down former Rep. Joe Crowley, Ocasio-Cortez was due for a challenge from a few competitors of her own. But as results trickled in from the 14th Congressional District, which covers parts of Queens and the Bronx, the popular Congress member looked poised to hold onto the Democratic nomination. Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, the candidate who amassed the most votes after Ocasio-Cortez, ran to Ocasio-Cortez’s right, attacking her for being a “national celebrity” rather than a representative for the people of Queens and the Bronx.
Congressional District 15 – Democratic Primary
Bronx
Ritchie Torres: 30%
Michael Blake: 19%
Rubén Díaz Sr.: 14%
Samelys López: 12%
Ydanis Rodriguez: 11%
Melissa Mark-Viverito: 5%
Chivona Newsome: 3%
Tomas Ramos: 2%
Marlene Tapper: 0.78%
Julio Pabón: 0.50%
Frangell Basora: 0.29.%
Mark Escoffery-Bey: 0.26%
With 490 of 490 election districts reporting.
The cowboy-hatted New York City Council Member Rubén Díaz Sr.’s power may have been overstated. Things could always change with the large percentage mail-in ballots expected, but with the in-person votes counted in the South Bronx, Díaz Sr. is in a distant third place in this closely watched primary to fill the rewriting Rep. José Serrano’s seat. His council colleague, Ritchie Torres, massively outraised the crowded field and used that money to flood the district with TV ads, digital ads and supporters on election day. He’s now got a solid lead on the other candidates while the city awaits mail-in results.
Torres stayed humbled in an interview with NY1 Tuesday night. “I’m not prepared to declare victory until every vote is counted, but even if I win the election, it’s governing that matters,” he said. “It’s delivering results for the everyday people of the South Bronx.” Assembly Member Michael Blake, who rolled out an impressive array of endorsements in the last week, is currently in second.
Congressional District 16 – Democratic Primary
Bronx, Westchester County
Jamaal Bowman: 61%
Eliot Engel (incumbent): 35%
Sammy Ravelo: 1%
Chris Fink: 0.9%
Andom Ghebreghiorgis: 0.55%
With 213 of 732 election districts reporting.
“Bowmentum?” Middle school principal Jamaal Bowman has built up a huge lead over the 16-term incumbent Rep. Eliot Engel. But it’s still very early. Less than one-third of in-person votes have been counted, and of course, a massive amount of absentee ballots will have the power to sway this closely-watched race.
Still, Bowman, who is Black, sounded pretty confident in his speech Tuesday night. Engel “used to say that he was a thorn in the side of Donald Trump,” Bowman said. “But you know what Donald Trump is more afraid of than anything else? A Black man with power.”
Congressional District 17 – Democratic Primary
Westchester and Rockland counties
Mondaire Jones: 44%
Adam Schleifer: 17%
Evelyn Farkas: 12%
David Carlucci: 8%
David Buchwald: 7%
Asha Castleberry: 3%
Catherine Parker: 3%
Allison Fine: 2%
With 223 of 398 election districts reporting.
Election watchers will have to wait for results in this closely-watched race to replace the retiring Rep. Nita Lowey. A little over half of the in-person votes have been counted, but former Westchester County Law Department attorney Mondaire Jones, who would be tied with Torres for the first openly gay, Black members of Congress, has an early lead.
Congressional District 17 – Republican Primary
Westchester and Rockland counties
Maureen McArdle Schulman: 67%
Yehudis Gottesfeld: 22%
With 15 of 398 election districts reporting.
Congressional District 19 – Republican Primary
Upper Hudson Valley and the Catskills
Ola Hawatmeh: 49%
Kyle Van De Water: 46%
With 281 of 330 election districts reporting.
Congressional District 22 – Republican Primary
Central New York
Claudia Tenney: 67%
George Phillips: 32%
With 400 of 484 election districts reporting.
Congressional District 24 – Democratic Primary
Central New York
Dana Balter: 62%
Francis Conole: 36%
With 182 of 297 election districts reporting.
Congressional District 25 – Democratic Primary
Monroe County
Joseph Morelle (incumbent): 63%
Robin Wilt: 34%
With 118 of 120 election districts reporting.
Congressional District 27 – Special Election
Western New York
Chris Jacobs (R): 68%
Nate McMurray (D): 29%
With 212 of 342 election districts reporting.
In the unconventional Western New York race to replace former Rep. Chris Collins – who pled guilty to charges of insider trading last fall – Republican state Sen. Chris Jacobs pulled ahead of Democrat Nate McMurray, with over half of in-person ballots counted. Still, this special election will only determine who gets to serve out the remaining months of Collins’ term. Even if Jacobs wins this special election, he still has to fend off Republican primary challengers – which he appeared well-positioned to do late Tuesday – and then win in the general.
Congressional District 27 – Republican Primary
Western New York
Chris Jacobs: 62%
Beth Parlato: 21%
Stefan Mychajilw Jr.: 15%
With 177 of 313 election districts reporting.
Congressional District 27 – Libertarian Primary
Western New York
Duane Whitmer: 70%
Nicholas Phelps: 23%
With 173 of 309 election districts reporting.
Sources: New York State Board of Elections, Monroe County Board of Elections.
