Although the City Council is reliably left-leaning, a handful of competitive Council races in this election have tested Republicans’ sway in pockets of the five boroughs.
After a citywide shift to the right in last year’s presidential election, Democrat Zohran Mamdani, now the mayor-elect, energized progressive voters this year.
Benjamin Chou, a moderate Democrat, was hoping to unseat Vickie Paladino, one of the Council’s few Republicans and a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump, in Council District 19 in Northeast Queens.
But Paladino defended her seat Tuesday evening with more than 57% of the district’s votes, the Associated Press reported.
Some political observers have been watching the race to see whether one of the city’s few MAGA Republicans could maintain a foothold here.
Just under half of voters in the 19th District, which includes Whitestone, Bayside and parts of North Flushing, are registered Democrats, and the district doesn’t vote blue as reliably as many other parts of the city.
But Paladino said the race was about merit, not partisan politics.
“It was just me doing what I do best, which is being the best City Councilwoman, probably out of the entire City Council,” Paladino said Tuesday night.
Vickie Paladino
Since taking office in 2021, Paladino has pushed conservative policies in the overwhelmingly Democratic Council, including bills to delay greenhouse gas reduction requirements and waive fees for firearm permits.
She has also frequently generated controversy, most recently by calling for Mamdani to be deported during his campaign for mayor.
“A lot of people are getting tired of the polarization that’s going on in politics today,” Chou, a 34-year-old firefighter, told Gothamist earlier this week as Election Day approached.
But in the 19th District, that may not be the case. In an interview on Tuesday, after Mamdani’s victory was called, Paladino continued to fire off jabs, calling the mayor-elect a communist and lambasting him for his lack of experience.
Still, she said, “ I'm looking forward to working with Mamdani, absolutely, 100%. Is he gonna be looking forward to working with me?”
Democrats and Republicans also faced off in this election in heated races in the 13th District in the North Bronx and the 47th District along the southern edge of Brooklyn. Here’s how they fared.
District 47 in Brooklyn
Democrat Kayla Santosuosso won the Council seat in the 47th District in Brooklyn, the Associated Press reported. She’ll take over for her boss, Finance Committee Chair Justin Brannan, after he reaches his term limit at the end of this year.
Brannan endorsed Santosuosso, who campaigned on her experience serving the politically and ethnically diverse district as his chief of staff. She beat out Republican challenger George Sarantopoulos, the founder of an ATM and credit card processing company.
Sarantopoulos sought to take advantage of the red streak in the 47th District, which includes Bay Ridge, Gravesend and Coney Island.
Although the district is majority Democrat, another 18% of voters are registered Republicans and 26% are unaffiliated, according to the latest data from the NYC Board of Elections.
Santosuosso ran on improving affordability and traffic safety, while defending herself against claims from Sarantopoulos that she would defund the police.
“ I work collaboratively with our precincts every single day,” Santosuosso told Gothamist ahead of Election Day.
Santosuosso originally hails from Ohio but has lived in Bay Ridge since 2013 and previously owned the bar, the Lock Yard, a neighborhood staple until it closed this year.
She told Gothamist ahead of election night that she hopes constituents don’t mind that she won’t bring the same brash attitude to the position as Brannan, who was born and raised in Brooklyn and played in hardcore bands before taking office.
“It will be a bit of an adjustment for people to go from the punk rock type to the Leslie Knope type and hopefully they're OK with that,” Santosuosso said, referring to the no-nonsense main character on the fictional TV series Parks and Rec.
District 13 in the Bronx
Shirley Aldebol, a Democrat, is leading her race against incumbent Kristy Marmorato, who became the first Republican to represent the district in 40 years when she won the Council seat in 2023. The district includes Pelham Bay, Throggs Neck and City Island.
Aldebol beat out a crowded field of candidates vying for the chance to unseat Marmorato in the Democratic primary and had just over 50% of the vote in the general election as of 11:30 p.m.
Nearly 60% of voters in the district are registered Democrats, while another 16% are Republicans and 23% are unaffiliated, according to Board of Elections data. The district went for Republican Curtis Sliwa in the last mayoral race in 2021 and Trump won 43% of the vote last year.
In her campaign, Aldebol argued that she was a more effective negotiator than Marmorato, who she said failed to work well with her Democratic colleagues in the City Council and lost leverage on key land-use decisions as a result.
Marmorato pushed back, emphasizing to Gothamist in the lead-up to Election Day that she can work with anyone.
