Election results: Queens Democratic Party mostly staves off insurgent candidate challenges
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Unofficial results from tuesday’s primary election showed queens county democratic party candidates mostly all staved off challenges from credible insurgent threats. Eagle photo by Jacob Kaye
By Jacob Kaye
It was mostly a good night Tuesday for the Queens County Democratic Party, whose candidates in primary races across the borough faced credible threats from insurgent candidates.
Party backed candidates in a number of hotly contested races – including the race for the coveted Surrogate’s Court bench – appeared to be headed for victory as votes began to be tallied on Tuesday night.
But the once all-powerful party also appeared to see candidates lose in several races, including one in a contest that came to largely represent the split between progressive and moderate Democrats that first made waves in the borough with the 2018 election of now-Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
In the only open Assembly seat on the ballot, Queens Dems-backed Larinda Hooks appeared to have bested Hiram Monserrate, the former elected official who was previously convicted of misdemeanor assault and corruption charges.
With around 98 percent of votes counted in the district, Hooks held around 59 percent of the vote, leading Monserrate by around 600 votes.
Hooks’ unofficial win is a victory for the Queens County Democratic Party, who faced as serious a challenge from Monserrate as they ever have – the race marked Monserrate’s eighth attempt to return to public office, but his first running for an open seat.
The victory also counts as a success for Jeffrion Aubry, the longtime assemblymember in the district who plans to step down at the end of his term this year after serving in Albany for over three decades. Aubry told the Eagle earlier on election day that it was important to him that Hooks succeed him, and carry on his legacy.
In a statement, Hooks said she was “so appreciative of the trust the voters of Queens have placed in me” and that she is looking forward to “serving them and delivering for our communities.”
“In this primary election there was a clear choice between someone who builds bridges and creates coalitions and someone who is in it for themselves,” Hooks said. “I will deliver for all Queens families. I look forward to working with my colleagues in government on the issues that matter most to all of us.”
Monserrate, who won a separate bid for a district leader seat, conceded to Hooks in a statement.
“In a hard-fought 2024 primary, we didn’t achieve the victory we yearned, but the voters made their choice and that must be respected,” he said. “I congratulate Larinda Hooks and wish her well.”
Also heading to victory Tuesday was Assemblymember Ron Kim, who hasn’t always been supported by the Queens Dems but saw support from party officials this election cycle as he faced a challenge from Yi Andy Chen. In the final weeks of the campaign, Kim even got a rare endorsement from Mayor Eric Adams, who didn’t do much else to support candidates anywhere in this city this election cycle.
Assemblymember Ron Kim staved off a challenge from well-funded candidate Yi Andy Chen.Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach
Chen raised a significant amount of money in his challenge of the incumbent in Assembly District 40 but it ultimately didn’t prove to be enough.
Kim, a relatively staunch progressive whose politics shifted toward the center this election, led in the race with around 54 percent of the vote on Tuesday night with 97 percent of scanners counted.
Chen, who had the backing of the police union and a number of Chinese business associations, had around 37 percent of the vote Tuesday evening. Dao Yin, the third candidate in the race, received around 6 percent of the vote.
In the final weeks before the election, the New York Times reported that Yin’s campaign allegedly forged donations in order to bring in public matching funds. In all, Yin received a little over $160,000 in tax-payer funded matching donations, or around $909 per vote he received on election day.
Kim, who has faced a number of tight victories in his last several election cycles, said in a statement that his victory signified that “our community wants us to continue fighting for the key values we all respect and deserve.”
“This campaign was about bringing people together and building coalitions, and we achieved that in spades,” he said.
Though the race between Kim and Chen grew tense in the final moments of the campaign – both alleged that their volunteers had assaulted one another in the days before election day – Chen conceded mid-day Wednesday.
“We knew this was going to be an uphill battle, yet we built a movement that was daring for change, and fought to build political power and unity across a diverse neighborhood to amplify the voices of the unheard,” Chen said. “I commend my opponents on a well fought race and their volunteers who were equally committed in engaging with the community to which we all share and live in.”
The Queens County Democratic Party also saw their candidate in the race for Queens Surrogate’s Court, Cassandra Johnson, overcome a well-funded challenger in Wendy Li.
With around 95 percent of the vote counted, Johnson held around 54 percent of the vote, leading Li by 5,000 votes.
The Queens County Democratic Party has for years controlled the court, which largely deals with wills and guardianship issues.
Li, who currently serves as a Civil Court judge, mounted a serious campaign against Johnson, raising twice as much money and spending big on campaign literature sent around the borough.
Johnson ultimately pulled through, however, the race was somewhat close. Johnson won only half of the borough’s 18 election districts, while Li won the other half. Johnson’s victories, however, were far greater in a number of election districts than Li’s.
But the county party also lost a judicial race.
Amish Doshi, an attorney, appeared to have lost his race for one of two vacancies on the Civil Court to Glenda Hernandez, an attorney who was backed by Monserrate.
It’s the latest victory for Monserrate, whose judicial candidates have bested Queens Dems candidates nearly a half dozen times in the past half decade.
Sharifa Nasser-Cuéllar, who was also supported by the county party, appeared to be headed for victory in her race for the second vacant Civil Court seat, beating out Julie Milner, who was also backed by Monserrate.
The Queens Dems suffered their biggest defeat in Assembly District 37, where Democratic Socialists of America-backed Claire Valdez appeared to have decisively beaten Queens Dems-supported Johanna Carmona and incumbent Assemblymember Juan Ardila, who, after being accused of sexual assault by two women last year and refusing to resign, only got around 600 votes with 96 percent of the vote counted on Tuesday night.
Valdez brought in nearly 58 percent of the vote in the three-way race.
The race marks only the latest defeat for the Queens County Democratic Party at the hands of the DSA, which has thoroughly dominated races in Western Queens dating back to 2018.
“I’m so excited,” Valdez told the Eagle at her victory party in Sunnyside. “I'm so honored to have the trust of residents of AD 37 and I'm so proud of the movement that carried us to victory, and I'm so proud of the campaign that we've built over months and months of talking to our neighbors. I'm just incredibly proud.”
Speaking to her supporters at her victory party, Valdez chalked the win up to “people power.”
Democratic Socialists of America-backed Claire Valdez defeated Queens Democratic Party-backed Johanna Carmona and Assemblymember Juan Ardila in the Democratic primary for Assembly District 37. Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach
“It's people pushing back against corporations, against real estate, against people who want to immiserate us and take away the abundance that we helped create,” she said.
Valdez, should she win November’s general election, will join Western Queens DSA elected officials Zohran Mamdani and Kristen Gonzalez in Albany.
Speaking with the Eagle on Wednesday, Carmona said she wished her opponent the best.
“The community, the people went out and voted and they made their choice,” she said. “I hope that [Valdez] represents us well in Albany, and I will send all the positive energy, and I'm going to continue doing my work in the community.”
The loss marks the second time Carmona was defeated in a race for the Assembly set once held by Cathy Nolan, Carmona’s former boss.
Though Ardila was not supported by the DSA when he won the seat in 2022, he did have the backing of the Working Families Party and other progressive groups, all of whom dropped him once the allegations against him were made public.
When asked about the dominance of the progressive movement in Western Queens, Carmona said that she believes non-DSA candidates still have a shot at victory, as long as they activate more voters.
“We saw a very low turnout and I think a lot of people feel disillusioned,” Carmona said.
Though the race saw more voters cast ballots than any other Assembly primary in Queens on Tuesday, a little more than 6,000 people voted in the race – there are around 116,000 voting age residents in the district.
Additional reporting by Ryan Schwach.
Judicial races
Surrogate’s Court (97 percent counted)
Cassandra Johnson – 54.38 percent (32,348 votes)
Wendy Li – 45.11 percent (26,835 votes)
Civil Court (97 percent counted)
Sharifa Nasser-Cuéllar – 29.83 percent (29,648 votes)
Glenda Hernandez – 27.81 percent (27,642 votes)
Julie Milner – 21.36 percent (21,230 votes)
Amish Doshi – 20.22 percent (20,1000 votes)
Congress
District 14 – Astoria, College Point, Corona, East Elmhurst, Elmhurst, Jackson Heights, Woodside and the Bronx (96 percent counted)
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez – 81.79 percent (18,988 votes)
Martin Dolan – 17.8 percent (4,132 votes)
Senate
District 59 – Astoria, Long Island City, Brooklyn and Manhattan (97 percent counted)
Kristen Gonzalez – 84.96 percent (14,091 votes)
Gus Lambropoulos – 14.72 percent (2,442 votes)
Assembly
Republican primary in District 25 – Flushing, Queensboro Hill, Hillcrest, Fresh Meadows, Oakland Gardens, Bayside, and Douglaston (99 percent counted)
Kenneth Paek – 69.57 percent (686 votes)
Kenneth Chiu – 30.12 percent (297 votes)
District 34 – Jackson Heights, and parts of Corona, East Elmhurst and Astoria (97 percent counted)
Jessica Gonazlez-Rojas – 82.61 percent (3,525 votes)
Ricardo Pacheco – 17.06 percent (728 votes)
District 35 – East Elmhurst, LeFrak City, and parts of Corona, Elmhurst, and Rego Park (98 percent counted)
Larinda Hooks – 59.08 percent (2,052 votes)
Hiram Monserrate – 40.45 percent (1,405 votes)
District 37 – Sunnyside, Sunnyside Gardens, and portions of Ridgewood, Long Island City and Maspeth (97 percent counted)
Claire Valdez – 58.13 percent (3,818 votes)
Johanna Carmona – 31.78 percent (2,087 votes)
Juan Ardila – 9.84 percent (646 votes)
District 40 – Whitestone, Flushing, College Point, and Murray Hill (97 percent counted)
Ron Kim – 53.98 percent (1,621 votes)
Yi Andy Chen – 39.76 percent (1,194 votes)
Dao Yin – 5.86 percent (176 votes)
