While the Democrats went into the 2026 midterms optimistic about a “blue wave,” it’s safe to say that no one could have predicted the unprecedented “blue tsunami” that swept the country last Tuesday. Across the nation, Dems made history winning back critical ground they had lost in 2024 and flipping seats that in many cases had been held by Republicans for decades. New York, ever the blue stronghold, was no exception. The message from voters was clear-- they’ve had enough of the GOP. Below are updates on the list of races we were watching, as well as the ones we should have been.
Jump to: Congress (7) | State Senate (8) | State Assembly (16)
Congress
1st Congressional District
As it turned out, the 1st Congressional District wasn’t ready to bring sexy back-- but former Army pilot and BDSM apparel model Chris Gallant, who ran on the promise to “Make Politics Sexy Again,” came pretty close. Incumbent Republican Congressman Nick LaLota successfully fended off the challenge from his opponent, but only by 2.2 points.
3rd Congressional District
Congressman Tom Suozzi of the 3rd district was up for a rematch against Republican challenger Mike LiPetri, who he had defeated by only 4 points in 2024. This time around, Suozzi wasn’t cutting it nearly as close, winning a decisive 10-point victory against the former Assemblyman.
4th Congressional District
In an even more decisive victory in the 4th district, incumbent Congresswoman Laura Gillen successfully defended her seat with a 56.6-point victory against Republican opponent Jeanine Driscoll who ended the night with only 43.1%. She also fended off Libertarian candidate Blay Tarnoff, who won 720 votes to Gillen’s 162,077.
17th Congressional District
The biggest congressional upset of the evening was the closely-watched race for the 17th Congressional District. Republican Congressman Mike Lawler was running for a third term in one of the state’s most historically competitive districts, covering Rockland, Putnam, and parts of Westchester and Dutchess counties. This race was a bellwether for New York State, and if the ferocity of the mudslinging between the candidates was any indication, it was also personal. Lawler had spent the duration of his campaign unconvincingly asserting himself as a moderate, rather than a Trump loyalist. But the Hudson Valley is tired of President Trump and his lackeys, which they proved when they elected Cait Conley, President Biden’s director of counterterrorism for the National Security Council, by almost exactly 6 points.
19th Congressional District
In the 19th Congressional District, incumbent Josh Riley was reelected to a second term by a much wider margin than he had won his first. Having unseated the previous Republican incumbent by only 2.3 points in 2024, he defeated State Senator Peter Oberacker by nearly 15 points on Tuesday.
21st Congressional District
The race for the open seat in the 21st Congressional District was finally called just after noon on Friday, when Democratic candidate Blake Gendebien conceded to Republican Anthony Constantino. One would have been hard-pressed to find two candidates less alike running in New York’s midterms this year-- Gendebien, a second-generation dairy farmer from the North Country, lost by less than two points to Anthony Constantino, former professional wrestler, Trump loyalist, and CEO of the company “Sticker Mule.” Constantino had declared victory on election night, but the race was not formally called until after Gendebien’s concession.
22nd Congressional District
Democratic Congressman John Mannion won a second term in the 22nd Congressional District, defeating Republican Kailee Buller. Buller, despite having served in both Trump administrations, did not seem to be a funding priority for the GOP. Mannion outspent her by nearly $800,000, totaling close to $1 million compared to Buller’s approximately $200,000. But when considering Buller’s nearly 17-point loss, perhaps the Republican party knew their money would be better spent elsewhere.
State Senate
7th Senate District
In the 7th Senate District, Republican Assemblyman Jake Blumencranz defeated Democrat Rory Lancman by just under 4 points in the race for the seat previously held by Republican Jack Martins. At only 30 years old, Blumencranz will be the youngest sitting senator in Albany this coming session.
9th Senate District
In a surprising turn of events, Republican Senator Patricia Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick has lost her Long Island seat in the 9th district to Democratic challenger Lisa Malkie Vider. According to Vider, her desire to run for office was motivated by rising antisemitism and a “need [for] more moderate voices” in the legislature. Vider is no stranger to Albany, having spent much of her 30-year career in the healthcare industry doing advocacy work at the capital. It was a tight race, but Vider emerged victorious with 51.2% of the vote to Canzoneri-Fitzpatrick’s 48.7%.
17th Senate District
In a major win for the Democrats, Larry He unseated incumbent Steve Chan, regaining control of the 17th Senate District in south Brooklyn. Despite the ever-growing presence of the DSA in the borough, Democrats have struggled in the southern region in recent years. Chan had flipped the district after it was redrawn in 2024, but despite the controversy that followed him out of the Cuomo administration, Dr. He defeated Senator Chan by an impressive margin of exactly 15 points.
38th Senate District
The 38th Senate District was another high priority for the Democrats, who were vying to regain control of the seat after it was flipped red in 2022. Situated in the heart of the 17th Congressional District, Nyack Mayor Joseph Rand successfully challenged Republican incumbent Bill Weber, defeating him by 8.2 points and returning the district to Democratic control.
39th Senate District
In yet another exciting victory for the Democrats, Dutchess County Legislator, career organizer, and Oxford scholar Lisa Kaul defeated Republican incumbent Rob Rolison by over 10 points in the 39th Senate District, flipping the seat blue. Rolison, the former mayor of Poughkeepsie and a relatively popular moderate Republican, proved to be no match for both Kaul’s impressive resume and her campaign treasury-- he spent only around $80,000 on the race compared to Kaul’s $425,000.
40th Senate District
Senator Pete Harckham has won a fifth term in the 40th district, defeating Republican Sergio Esposito by nearly 20 points. Had this been a better year for the GOP, Esposito could have gained ground in the areas of Putnam and Rockland county that make up the district-- but he stood no chance against the blue tsunami that swept across the entirety of the state.
44th Senate District
In a major upset for the Republican party, Democrat Sarah Rogerson, an Albany Law School professor, has finally defeated incumbent Jim Tedisco in the 44th Senate District. Prior to last Tuesday, Tedisco had only ever lost one race in the entirety of his 40-year career in Albany, a failed congressional bid in 2009. Tedisco was reelected by a 16-point margin in 2024 despite his district voting in favor for Vice President Harris’ ticket by nearly 8 points. Despite the massive leftward shift that saw longtime Republican incumbents across the country losing by wide margins, Rogerson defeated Tedisco by only 4.4 points. Whether or not this is the last New York State politics will see of Jim Tedisco, he can certainly say he put up a good fight.
54th Senate District
Further west, the GOP managed to hang onto their seat in the 54th Senate District. Senator Pam Helming was elected for her sixth consecutive term, defeating Democrat Michael Mills in a decisive victory of just over 17 points. Worth noting is that Helming has been elected to each of her previous five terms by 60% of the vote or more, and this past Tuesday finally saw a dip in her share of the vote. Though not a massive difference, she ended the night with 58.6% of the vote instead of her usual 60+.
State Assembly
1st Assembly District
In the 1st Assembly District in Suffolk County, the Democrat’s investment in incumbent Tommy Schiavoni paid off, as he won a landslide victory against Republican challenger Stephen Kiely. Schiavoni beat Kiely in 2024 with a comfortable margin at 56% to his opponent’s 44%, but this year he has secured control of his seat for another term with a whopping 61.8% of the vote to Kiely’s 38.1%. Schiavoni outspent Kiely by a landslide as well, closing out the race with nearly $200,000 spent to Kiely’s $48,000.
3rd Assembly District
The 3rd Assembly District has changed hands a number of times over the past several decades, and this year was no exception. In another win for the Democrats, Republican incumbent Joe DeStefano lost his seat to labor leader Josh Slaughter in a tight race-- Slaughter emerged victorious by just 2.3 points.
16th Assembly District
As of Friday evening, the race for the open seat in the 16th Assembly District has yet to be called. With 98% of the vote in, Democratic organizer and school teacher Kim Keiserman is leading 23-year old Republican legislative aide David Hassid with 52% of the vote to his 47.9%. Republican David Norber had just flipped the seat red in 2024 for the first time in decades, so a race this close between an experienced organizer and a recent college graduate in a year of overwhelming Democratic victories is something of a surprise. The caveat in this case may be the issue of antisemitism, which has been a topline issue for many voters this cycle, especially in the 16th district which is overwhelmingly Jewish. Hassid levied accusations of antisemitism against Keiserman on social media after digging up records of her previous campaign donations to Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock and now Senator-elect James Talarico, both of whom have condemned Israel’s military campaign in Gaza but have maintained their support for a two-state solution. Keiserman has leaned on her long career in religious tolerance and inclusivity to defend against the accusations. At first glance, the numbers in this race don’t make sense for another reason-- Keiserman has outspent Hassid’s $9,500 by almost $110,000. But Hassid’s initial attack “ad” against Keiserman was posted to social media-- for free. Social media has played an increasingly pivotal role in the past few election cycles, and this race in particular may be demonstrative of just how important it will continue to be.
23rd Assembly District
In the 23rd Assembly District, Democrat and career political staffer Pesach Osina defeated Republican Thomas Sullivan in the race for Assemblywoman Stacey Pfeffer Amato’s Queens seat. The district voted Republican in 2024 and Pfeffer Amato narrowly defeated her Republican challenger. Pfeffer Amato was quick to give Osina her endorsement, and though the race has yet to be formally called as of Friday evening, with 100% of the votes counted Osina is leading Sullivan at 51.9%-47.9%.
In addition to Dr. Larry He’s Senate win, the Democrats won a series of major victories in the Assembly in southern Brooklyn, taking back three seats in the region where they have spent the past few cycles grappling for control.
45th Assembly District
In the 45th Assembly District, Joey Cohen-Saban defeated incumbent Michael Novakhov in a landslide victory, taking home 61.6% of the vote to Novakhov’s 38%. Though both Joey Cohen-Saban and Dr. Larry He flipped southern Brooklyn seats this cycle, they will surely prove to be outsiders amongst the rest of their colleagues, having run on moderate, anti-socialist platforms. While it is evident that democratic socialism does not resonate with much of the southern Brooklyn voter base, the majority of Democratic elected officials in New York City and even beyond have embraced the Mamdani administration. This of course includes the governor herself, who had Mamdani speak at her election night watch party in Midtown Manhattan last Tuesday. In contrast, Cohen-Saban has openly campaigned against what he calls the “Mamdani bloc,” and it remains to be seen how he will navigate in Albany from this position.
46th Assembly District
In the neighboring 46th district, Democrat Chris McCreight unseated two-term Republican incumbent Alec Brook-Krasny. This was Brook-Krasny’s second tenure in the seat-- the Russian immigrant first held the seat as a Democrat from 2006-2015, when he resigned. He was arrested on charges of felony healthcare fraud in 2017 and later acquitted in 2019. In 2022, Brook-Krasny announced he would be joining the Republican party and was elected to his former seat with 52% of the vote, winning a second term in 2024. Chris McCreight, unlike Cohen-Saban, is a textbook progressive Democrat. While not DSA-affiliated, he did run on the Working Families Party line, and currently serves as a Senior Advisor to Councilmember Kayla Santosuosso, a member of the Progressive Caucus of the New York City Council. Though his victory was not quite the landslide as Cohen-Saban’s in AD 45, McCreight defeated Brook-Krasny by a decisive 11.1% margin.
49th Assembly District
The third and final south Brooklyn Assembly seat to be flipped by the Democrats has yet to be officially called, but with 100% of the vote tallied and a near 6-point margin, it’s safe to say that Joyce Xiaoqiong Xie has defeated Republican incumbent Lester Chang in the race for the 49th Assembly District. Xie is a State Committee and Community Education Council Member, community organizer, and received a glowing endorsement from the League of Conservation Voters. Despite their progressive politics, it seems that McCreight and Xie voters may have been able to overlook broader political differences in favor of relief from the stifling economic pressures they attribute to the Republican party.
107th Assembly District
Democrats also saw victories further upstate, including in the 107th Assembly District, where two-term incumbent Scott Bendett conceded to challenger Chloe Pierce. Pierce, a nonprofit lobbyist who also ran on the Working Families Party line, defeated Bendett by almost 4 points in a historically Republican district. She will be the youngest assemblymember in upstate New York once she is sworn in this coming January.
119th Assembly District
In the 119th, however, the Democrats had an unexpected loss. The only New York State legislative seat to flip red in the 2026 midterms, Republican Michael Gentile defeated Democrat Jon Lipe in the seat left open by retiring Assemblymember Marianne Buttenschon by 5.1%. Despite the district’s semi-conservative lean, well-known moderate Dems had been able to maintain control of the seat for years. Gentile had run for the seat previously in 2020, losing to then-incumbent Buttenschon. Lipe’s political resume as a staffer for both Democratic and Republican legislators should have made him uniquely poised to take over for Buttenschon, and he ran on not only the Democratic and Working Families Party lines, but also the “Mohawk Valley 1st” independent line. If even that wasn’t enough to win him the seat, this loss may have just been a matter of time for the Democrats.
126th Assembly District
In the 126th district, the rematch between Republican incumbent John Lemondes Jr and Democratic challenger Ian Phillips has come a little too close for comfort. 100% of the vote has been counted, and as it stands right now, Phillips is leading Lemondes Jr by just .4% -- within the .5% range necessary to trigger an automatic recount. Phillips declared victory Tuesday night despite only leading by 223 votes. Lemondes, a retired US Army Colonel, farmer, and businessman, ran for a fourth term this cycle. Phillips is an organizer with the New York State United Teachers Union and president of the Auburn school board. It’s entirely possible that Phillips was caught up in the blue tsunami and swept to victory, but we will have to wait for the recount to know for sure.
129th Assembly District
Legislator Maurice “Mo” Brown won an impressive 30-point victory against his Republican opponent Shawn Fiato in the 129th Assembly District. Brown had first defeated Democratic incumbent Bill Magnarelli in a massive primary upset, ending Magnarelli’s 27-year tenure in the seat. While Fiato was convinced that Brown’s DSA membership would surely disqualify him in the minds of upstate voters, it seems that Syracuse was ready for socialism after all, and that the DSA is fighting their foothold outside the boundaries of New York City.
134th Assembly District
In the 134th Assembly District, Josh Jensen successfully defended his seat against Democratic challenger Kurt VanWuyckhuyse and was elected for a fourth term, winning by a very respectable 11.7 point margin. Jensen has made a name for himself as a pragmatic and bipartisan legislator, and was likely spared from the blue tsunami as he has spent his previous three terms advocating for legislation that has had a meaningful positive impact on upstate New Yorkers.
The State Democrats poured nearly $2 million into the Assembly races in the 142nd, 143rd, and 146th districts, and it seems to have paid off.
142nd Assembly District
In the 142nd Assembly District, Pat Burke has successfully defended his seat from Republican challenger Gary Dickson, and will serve a fifth consecutive term. Both candidates ran on platforms emphasizing public safety, and it may very well have been the expensive ad buys that propelled Burke to victory. He won reelection by just 1.4% in 2024, making his 6.3% lead this cycle look much more comfortable in comparison. While the State Democrats opened their coffers to ensure Burke was reelected, the GOP reportedly didn’t contribute to Dickson’s campaign.
143rd Assembly District
Although a winner has not yet been officially confirmed in the 143rd district, 100% of the vote has been counted and Democratic challenger Ryan Taughrin is leading Republican incumbent Pat Chludzinski by just over one point-- outside the range for an automatic recount. Barring any last-minute surprises, it appears Taughrin has successfully flipped yet another seat for the Democrats.
146th Assembly District
Like Pat Burke, Karen McMahon defeated her Republican challenger in the 146th district and secured a fifth consecutive term. The first Democrat to win the seat in four decades, it looks like voters don’t intend to let the seat flip back any time soon-- McMahon defeated opponent Terence McGuire in a landslide with 61.9% of the vote to his 38%.
149th Assembly District
Last but certainly not least, Adam Bojak was elected in the 149th Assembly District, succeeding now Senator-elect Jon Rivera. Bojak, who had run once before unsuccessfully in 2020, gained statewide recognition as a DSA candidate and has now made history as the first socialist to be elected in Western New York.