Johnson wins race for Surrogate’s Court

Cassandra Johnson became the borough’s next Surrogate’s Court judge on Tuesday. File photo via Johnson

By Jacob Kaye

Cassandra Johnson was elected by a wide margin to serve as the borough’s next Surrogate’s Court judge, a highly-regarded and sought after position atop one of the more powerful courts in the city.

Johnson, who currently serves as a Supreme Court justice in Queens, was beating Republican candidate Stephen Weiner by around 27 percentage points with around 97 percent of ballots counted on Wednesday. She held an approximately 166,100 vote lead over Weiner with only a handful of ballots left to count.

Johnson’s win was largely expected in the borough where Democratic voters outnumber Republicans seven to one. Her victory falls in line with the rest of the judicial races in Queens this election cycle. Every Democratic judicial candidate on the ballot won a spot on the bench on Tuesday, defeating every Republican candidate in the running.

Despite the predictable outcome, Johnson’s victory is significant. Surrogate’s Court is a unique and powerful court which primarily deals with guardianships, estates and wills. Unlike the borough’s Civil and Supreme Courts, Surrogate’s Court only has a single judge serving in it.

Surrogate’s Court in New York City is often referred to as one of the last vestiges of “political patronage” in the city, primarily because of the large amounts of money that are often up for question in the court.

Johnson was elected to a 14-year term on the bench, which has long been held by Democratic judicial candidates.

The court is currently being run by Judge Peter Kelly, who was elected to the Supreme Court last year after serving as surrogate for 13 years. Despite winning his election to the Supreme Court, court leaders assigned him to serve out the final year of his term in Surrogate’s Court until a new judge was elected to the seat.

Johnson, who was born and raised in Queens, has seen a swift rise through the borough’s judicial ranks.

Supported by the Queens County Democratic Party, she was first elected to Civil Court in 2021.

In 2023, she was again selected by the Queens County Democratic Party to run on the party’s line for one of several Supreme Court vacancies in the borough. She won her election, becoming the first Haitian American woman to be elected to a State Supreme Court.

Johnson began her law career at St. John’s University, where she earned both her undergraduate and law degrees. After graduating, she began working as an attorney with a private firm in Brooklyn for a year before she entered the city’s Human Resources Administration as a staff attorney.

She spent the intervening years as a law secretary, law clerk and briefly as a senior court attorney for the Law Department.

Though Johnson’s victory on Tuesday was decisive, her path to the Surrogate’s Court was not without its obstacles.

Johnson faced a primary challenge from Civil Court Judge Wendy Li over the summer.

Li, who has been serving as a judge since 2018, outraised and outspent Johnson. Li campaigned on the idea that she’d reform the court, make it more transparent and strip away control over it from the Queens County Democratic Party.

Johnson defeated Li by around 10 percentage points.

But even after her primary victory, Johnson’s election to the bench would have to go through Weiner, a longtime attorney from Western Queens who has mostly practiced in trust and estates law.

Though Johnson had far more campaign cash and the support of elected officials, it is rare for a Democratic Surrogate’s Court candidate to face a challenge from a Republican.

Still, Johnson, who appeared to campaign across all corners of the borough, defeated Weiner with relative ease. She defeated the Republican in all but one of Queens’ 18 Assembly districts.

Johnson wasn’t the only Democratic candidate to relatively easily win a spot on the bench.

Democratic candidates for the Supreme Court, including Civil Court Supervising Judge Alan Schiff, Civil Court Judges Delsia Marshall, Sandra Munoz, Andrea Ogle, John Katsanos and Acting Supreme Court Justices Lumarie Maldonado Cruz and Claudia Lanzetta all secured victory over their two Republican opponents, attorneys Gary Muraca and Kathy Wu Parrino.

Democratic candidates for the Civil Court, including Amish Doshi, Melissa B. DeBerry, Peter Lane, Sharifa Nasser-Cuéllar and Glenda Hernandez were elected to the bench on Tuesday, defeating Republican candidates Stephen Dachtera, Mary-Ann Elizabeth Maloney and William Shanahan.

Elizabeth Newton was running unopposed for the Civil Court in the 4th Municipal District and was officially elected on Tuesday, as well.