Queens Democrats sweep borough’s congressional, state legislative races

Queens’ Democratic Incumbents won big on Tuesday. Eagle file photo by Ryan Schwach

By Jacob Kaye

Queens incumbent Democrats breezed to victory Tuesday, defeating Republican challengers by significant margins across all corners of the borough.

From left-leaning districts in Western Queens to more conservative Democratic districts in the northern and eastern reaches of the borough, Democratic incumbents in Congress and the state legislature defeated their GOP opponents by wide margins, mirroring a trend seen across the country on Tuesday.

Democrats also appeared to hold onto control of an Assembly seat in District 23, which covers the Rockaway peninsula and parts of South Queens. There, City Hall staffer Pesach Osina, a Democrat, faced off against Tom Sullivan, a Republican, to replace outgoing Assemblymember Stacey Pheffer Amato. Though Sullivan came within only a handful of votes of winning the seat several years ago, Osina held a relatively comfortable four-percentage-point lead with around 90 percent of the vote counted on election night.

Queens also voted to help reelect Kathy Hochul to the governor’s mansion. The governor’s race was called in Hochul’s favor only a few minutes after the polls closed on Tuesday. With Hochul’s victory, voters also elected Adrienne Adams as her lieutenant governor, making her the second-ever lieutenant governor from Queens.

Queens’ four incumbent congressional representatives – Gregory Meeks, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Grace Meng and Tom Suozzi – all appeared to handily defeat their respective Republican challengers by large margins.

Suozzi, whose congressional district includes some conservative portions of Long Island, was leading Republican Mike LiPetri by around 20 percentage points with around 96 percent of the vote counted. With around 88 percent of the vote counted, Grace Meng led Republican Joseph Chou by around 38 points. Meeks, who leads the Queens County Democratic Party, was up 60 points over Republican George Marsh. And Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who may have run her final race for Congress on Tuesday as she eyes higher office in 2028, appeared on pace to finish with her largest margin of victory since 2018, her first race for the House of Representatives. On Tuesday night, AOC was up around 57 percentage points over Republican Diamant Hysenaj.

Queens also officially elected Claire Valdez to Congress to succeed outgoing Rep. Nydia Velazquéz. Valdez, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, soundly defeated Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and Queens City Councilmember Julie Won in the June primary.

Democratic incumbent State Senators James Sanders, Toby Ann Stavisky, Joe Addabbo, Leroy Comrie, John Liu, Julia Salazar, Kristen Gonzalez and Roxanne Persaud all cruised to victory on Tuesday.

Aber Kawas and Jessica Gonzalez-Rojas, who both won their respective Democratic primary Senate races in June, were also elected to the Senate.

The story was the same in the Assembly. Incumbent Democrats David Weprin, Nily Rozic, Ed Braunstein, Andrew Hevesi, Alicia Hyndman, Khaleel Anderson, Clyde Vanel, Larinda Hooks, Diana Moreno, Catalina Cruz and Ron Kim were easily reelected.

Patrick Martinez, Nathaniel Hezekiah III, Brian Romero, Samantha Kattan and David Orkin were also elected to their first terms in the Assembly after winning their respective primary races earlier this year.

This is a developing story. Check back with the Eagle for more on the results of the 2026 general election in Queens.