Long Island elections see pluses and minuses for Dems, GOP

More than 420,000 total ballots were cast across Long Island in nine days of early voting and on Election Day, according to unofficial results from both counties' boards of election.

In Nassau, where voters went to the polls to decide the contests of county executive, district attorney, comptroller and clerk, there were 309,824 ballots counted.

In Suffolk, with two uncontested races at the top of the countywide ticket — district attorney and sheriff — 110,306 total ballots were cast, according to data posted on the county's election board website. Those numbers do not include absentee ballots dropped off or postmarked by Election Day.

As of Tuesday night, Republican incumbent Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman had captured 171,113 votes, or 56%, compared with his Democratic challenger, Legis. Seth Koslow, who got 134,643 votes, or 44%, in the race for county executive.

Blakeman, who declared victory just after 11 p.m. Tuesday, received 156,261 of his total votes from registered Republicans and 14,852 from voters on the Conservative line. Koslow saw 130,767 votes from enrolled Democrats and 3,876 votes from the Moderate party line.

The margin in the Nassau district attorney and comptroller races was similar, with Republican incumbents Anne Donnelly and Elaine Philips defeating their Democratic challengers Nicole Aloise and Wayne Wink by 12 percentage points, according to unofficial vote tallies. In the Nassau clerk's race, longtime Republican incumbent Maureen O'Donnell bested Democrat Joylette Williams by 14 percentage points.

Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney got 152,492 votes — 114,554 from Republicans and 37,938 from Conservatives — despite having no opposition. Suffolk's Sheriff Errol Toulon, also unopposed, received a total of 174,385, with 116,171 from Democrats and 58,214 from Conservatives.

Neither county's Board of Elections could provide numbers on turnout by party.

Nassau GOP holds control in all countywide offices, towns, cities

Nassau Republicans this cycle continued to build on the wins from 2021, when they took all countywide offices and the supervisors' seats of all three towns and made gains in historically Democratic strongholds.

That year, as with 2025, Blakeman and Donnelly were at the top of the ticket.

This time around, not only did the Nassau GOP win all four countywide offices, they retained control of the county legislature and the towns of Hempstead, North Hempstead and Oyster Bay.

They held onto the majority in the City of Glen Cove and won full control of Long Beach City Council, flipping two of three council seats.

Long Island Democrats win key seats, down to the wire on others

Democrats snagged an open legislative seat in Nassau County, and flipped one seat in Suffolk.

In Nassau’s newly drawn 14th Legislative District, spanning Lynbrook and Valley Stream, Democratic candidate Cynthia Nuñez beat Republican Sheharyar Ali for the open seat.

Incumbent Republican Legis. C. William Gaylor III, who represented much of the newly redrawn district for 10 years, did not seek reelection. New York State Attorney General Letitia James is reviewing complaints of possible ballot fraud in the race, her office told Newsday, but it is unclear on whose part.

"There’s clearly an anomaly in absentee ballot pick up in the 14th Legislative District," Nassau County Democratic Board of Elections Commissioner James Scheuerman told Newsday last week. "Voter integrity is paramount to the electoral process, and we want to make sure that every voter is voting with their own ballot, and have complete control over who they vote for without influence."

Nuñez’s win waters down Republican control of the legislature by one seat, shifting the GOP from a 12-7 majority to an 11-8 majority. Her seat is one of six new "majority-minority" districts formed as part of Nassau’s recent redistricting, where non-white voters make up more than 50% of the population.

The new map also includes one district, the 9th, where about a third of voters are Asian American. Republican incumbent Legis. Scott P. Strauss was reelected to lead that district over his Democratic challenger, Juleigh Chin.

In Suffolk’s 1st Legislative District, Democrat Greg Doroski beat Republican incumbent Legis. Catherine L. Stark, taking back longtime Democratic control of a seat that veered red for the last two years. Before Stark was elected in 2023, Democrat Albert Krupski Jr., now Southold Town supervisor, held the seat for a decade.

The district spans Riverhead, Shelter Island, Southold and part of Brookhaven. Doroski won by 908 votes.

Riverhead’s supervisor race was down to the wire as of Wednesday afternoon, with Democrat Jerome Halpin holding onto a 21-vote lead over Republican incumbent Timothy C. Hubbard. Halpin had 3,891 votes, compared with Hubbard’s 3,870. The race will come down to absentee ballots and could trigger a recount.

Another close race was Suffolk’s 18th Legislative District, spanning Cold Spring Harbor, Centerport, Northport and East Northport. Republican incumbent Legis. Stephanie L. Bontempi declared victory over Democratic challenger Craig G. Herskowitz on Tuesday night. Bontempi won by 379 votes.

Long Island 'bucked the trend' of Democratic wins nationally

As pollsters declared Democratic victories in Virginia, New Jersey and New York City on Tuesday night, Nassau’s GOP old guard held the line.

"Despite what happened in Virginia and New Jersey, Long Island bucked the trend," Nassau GOP chairman Joe Cairo said Tuesday night at the GOP's election party in Baldwin.

Nassau Republicans used the specter of New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani's victory to drive voters to the polls, plastering his face on mailers and handing out hundreds of T-shirts last week that read "Keep Mamdani Madness Out of Nassau!"

"This was a victory for all of us. We sent the message to New York City that there’s a big red line between New York City and the Town of Hempstead ... and we will never, never let socialists take over our Town of Hempstead," Hempstead Supervisor John Ferretti, who won his race over challenger Joe Scianablo, said Tuesday night.

Earlier in the night, he told Newsday: "Opposing everything Zohran Mamdani stands for ... resonated with voters."

The New York City mayoral race is "a pivotal reason why we’re having a large turnout," Ferretti said.

Nassau Republicans outpaced Democrats in early voting this year. While the GOP makes up 31% of active voters, they made up 43% of early votes through Sunday.