Democrats’ gains in NY are cold comfort as Republicans dominate nationally

New York Democrats were hopeful that Election Day would be a good day.

But by Wednesday morning, Democrats awakened to reality: former President Donald Trump is returning to the White House, they’d lost the Senate and won some – but not all – House seats in New York held by Republicans.

And worrying signs for Democrats were emerging that New York is not the solidly blue state they fancied it to be.

Kamala Harris, the vice president, defeated Trump in New York by less than 12 points, a relatively narrow margin of victory in a state that has more than twice as many Democrats as Republicans.

Trump took more than 30% of the vote in heavily Democratic New York City — a threshold Republicans have long set as a key benchmark as they try to reestablish themselves in the Empire State.

That meant that Democrats’ success flipping Republican seats in the Syracuse area and Catskills – and maintaining a lead in another on Long Island – was cold comfort to a shell shocked party.

“I can't speak for the presidential [race], I can speak for my race,” Democrat Laura Gillen said after declaring victory over Republican Rep. Anthony D’Esposito in the 4th District on Long Island. “We worked tirelessly.” D’Esposito did not concede the race, and the Associated Press had not declared a winner.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, had been stung by criticism from former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others that her own lackluster performance in the 2022 gubernatorial race helped cost her party the House. Republicans made major gains on Long Island and in the Hudson Valley that year, winning 10 of 26 congressional seats in deep blue New York while Hochul eked out a six-point victory over Republican Lee Zeldin.

Together with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Hochul waged a $5.5 million fundraising campaign to bolster her party’s push to transform the state Democratic Party from an organization that primarily aided the governor’s electoral aspirations into a robust outfit with 42 offices across the state, dozens of paid staffers and thousands of volunteers.

It bore at least some fruit. Democratic State Sen. John Mannion defeated Republican Rep. Brandon Williams in Syracuse’s 22nd District. And the party held onto Rep. Pat Ryan’s seat in the Hudson Valley’s 18th District, where he faced a challenge from Republican former NYPD commander Alison Esposito.

In the sprawling 19th District, which stretches from the Catskills to the Finger Lakes, Democratic attorney Josh Riley defeated Republican Rep. Marc Molinaro, according to the AP.

If Gillen’s lead holds, that’s a net gain of three seats for Democrats — a boost for Jeffries’ chances of taking the speaker’s gavel. If you add in a seat won in a special election by Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi earlier this year after Republican George Santos was expelled, that gain increases to four seats.

Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, however, soundly defeated former Democratic Rep. Mondaire Jones.

State Democratic Chairman Jay Jacobs, a Hochul ally, said the governor deserves credit.

“Nobody is going to be able to say that Kathy Hochul, in a year when she was not on the ballot, didn’t do as much as anyone had ever done to help candidates down ballot across the state,” said Jacobs. “So if anybody has anything to say about it, they’ll hear from me.”

By early Wednesday morning, it was too close to call whether Democrats would take control of the House and make Jeffries the first Black person to be speaker..

But it was far clearer that another Brooklynite, Schumer, would no longer be Senate majority leader; Republicans took a majority of the upper chamber, flipping Democrat-held seats in West Virginia and Ohio, according to AP results

Hochul’s approval rating, meanwhile, has been below 40% in New York for months, according to Siena College polls. That’s a major issue for a governor that’s up for reelection in 2026.

Suozzi, a Nassau County Democrat, said Tuesday’s election results contain a key lesson for politicians from both parties: Listen to the people.

A moderate, Suozzi narrowly defeated Republican Mike LiPetri in New York’s 3rd District, which includes parts of Queens and Long Island. He won the seat in the special election earlier this year in part by calling for tougher border security — a position that put him at odds with some within his party.

“Everybody’s got to stop pandering to their base,” he said. “The Republicans pandering to the right. The Democrats pandering to the left. Stop pandering to your base and listen to what the people want you to do.”

As he heads back to Washington, Suozzi said he’ll work with the president — whomever the president is.

“Listen, I voted for Kamala Harris, but I’ll work with President Trump,” he said.

“I’ll work with anybody if they want to genuinely solve problems and make the world a better place.”