Get the best experience and stay connected to your community with our Spectrum News app. Learn More
Continue in Browser
Get hyperlocal forecasts, radar and weather alerts.
Please enter a valid zipcode.
Save
New York State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said this week that she is confident Democrats can regain the supermajority they lost in 2024 as the party looks to build on its momentum heading into this year’s midterm elections.
“Absolutely. I think the environment is right,” Stewart-Cousins said when asked if she believes Senate Democrats will pick up a seat this year and re-enter the two thirds threshold.
Democrats currently hold 41 of the state Senate’s 63 seats, leaving them one seat short of a supermajority. They lost that distinction in 2024 after Republican Steve Chan defeated then-Democratic Sen. Iwen Chu in southern Brooklyn during an election in which the outer boroughs nudged to the right in unsettling fashion for Democrats.
Two years later, Stewart-Cousins argued the combination of a political environment moving in Democrats’ direction and what she described as a conference focused on economic issues facing New Yorkers suggests it will be a good night for Democrats up and down the ticket. Stewart-Cousins also said she’s “sure” Hochul will be reelected, having a “great story to tell."
“While we’re talking about billionaires and ballrooms, ordinary people are trying to figure out how to pay for childcare,” Stewart-Cousins said. “Finding ways to alleviate the economic stress of individuals is what we’re focused on doing, and I think nationally people understand we can do better and they’ll vote for Democrats who will make sure we’re focused on the right things."
Retaining their supermajority in the Assembly and reattaining it in the Senate would give the Legislature a veto-proof majority to wield in battles with the governor and a general symbolic sense of legislative dominance.
“Saying that two-thirds of the state are electing our members goes a long way toward saying we represent New York,” said Democratic strategist Jack O’Donnell, managing partner of O’Donnell & Associates.
O’Donnell said he sees potential opportunities for Democrats to pick up legislative seats in areas including the Hudson Valley, Long Island and even Saratoga County.
“I think that is definitely going to help Democrats, especially in the Hudson Valley, where I think is one of the few places where there might be a few places to pick up. Long Island gets really interesting, I think it might be a real battleground,” O’Donnell said.
Republicans, meanwhile, see opportunities of their own in that downstate battle ground, where Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman is challenging Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul at the top of the ticket.
“I do think on Long Island you could see some flips, and upstate I’m seeing in polling Gov. Hochul is very unpopular,” Republican strategist Chapin Fay, founder of Lighthouse Public Affairs, said.
Fay acknowledged the significant advantage Democrats currently hold in the Senate and Assembly, but said Republicans can look to gradually chip away at it after making a pickup in 2024. Fay said Senate Minority Leader Rob Ortt should look for more year-by-year picks on the heels of Chan’s election in 2024.
“If he picks up one or two this cycle, another one or two next cycle — that’s the road back to the majority in New York,” Fay said.
While congressional races are expected to draw significant attention this fall, the results further down the ballot will offer another indication of whether recent political shifts to the right in parts of New York are enduring — or if and to what degree an anticipated ‘blue wave’ has materialized.
