With less than a week until the Nov. 5 general election, and early voting already well underway, all eyes are fixed on the showdown between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and former GOP President Donald Trump for the White House.
But there are a handful of competitive downballot state legislative races that New Yorkers should also tune into.
Due to New York City’s overwhelming Democatic voter registration, most contests for state Senate and Assembly are decided in the June primaries. There have been Democratic supermajorities in both chambers of the state legislature since 2018.
However, races for a few seats in both chambers across Queens and Brooklyn this year will Democrats and Republicans duke it out to send their party’s representative to Albany in 2025.
Below is a rundown of the races for state Senate and Assembly to watch this Tuesday.
State Senate
District 11 (Queens/Bronx): Stavisky vs. Chu
Longtime Democratic state Sen. Toby Anne Stavisky is defending her seat — which covers Queens neighborhoods including Astoria, College Point, Whitestone, Queens Village, Glen Oaks and Rikers Island in the Bronx — from Republican challenger Yiatin Chu.
Stavisky has served in the state Senate for 25 years. In 1999, she became the first woman from Queens County to be elected to Albany’s upper chamber, according to the Senate website.
A former public school teacher and chair of the chamber’s Higher Education Committee, Stavisky has focused much of her time in Albany on education issues. During the race, Stavisky pointed to her role in securing funds for the Tuition Assistance Program and preventing tuition hikes at CUNY and SUNY schools.
Chu is a conservative education advocate who co-founded the group PLACE NYC, which advocates for education policies such as preserving the specialized high school entrance exam and gifted and talented programs, in 2019. She is running on issues including the preservation of those education policies, further rolling back the state legislature’s 2019 reforms to cash bail and opposing the placement of migrant shelters in residential parts of Queens, according to her campaign website.
Chu argues that Stavisky is “out of touch” and that the district needs “fresh ideas.”
Stavisky has the advantage of her incumbency and strong relationships in the district built over the past two and a half decades, according to a report from City & State. But Chu hopes frustration among the district’s growing Asian population with Democratic education and public safety policies will propel to victory.
According to data from the state Board of Elections, registered active Democratic voters far outweigh registered active Republican voters in the district—97,757 to 25,578. But a sizable portion of active voters—48,353—are not registered to either party.
District 17 (Brooklyn): Chu vs. Chan
Democratic State Sen. Iwen Chu came into office just two years ago as the first representative of a newly created Asian American plurality Senate seat in southern Brooklyn, after defeating Republican Vito Labella by a razor-thin margin. The district, which was crafted in the 2022 redistricting, covers neighborhoods including Bensonhurst, Sunset Park, Bath Beach, and Dyker Heights.
Now, Chu is defending her seat against Republican Steve Chan, a US Marine veteran and retired NYPD sergeant who served in the department for 27 years.
Chu, in a recent NY1 interview, highlighted $30 million in funding she says she has secured for Asian American and Pacific Islanders accross New York. She also pointed to a package of bills she sponsored to combat e-bike battery fires that Gov. Kathy Hochul signed.
Before joining the state Senate, Chu was a journalist and then worked for former Democratic Assembly Member Peter Abbate for several years.
Chan said he entered the race to counter what he sees as a state in decline under the leadership of Democrats who have moved too far to the political left. He has the backing of the area’s Republican member of Congress: Nicole Malliotakis.
While the politically purple district still has 62,392 active Democrats, compared to just 17,001 active Republicans, according to state BOE numbers, 37,638 independents could be in play.
Assembly
District 23 (Queens): Pheffer Amato vs. Sullivan
After holding onto her southern Queens seat by just 15 votes in 2022, Democratic Assembly Member Stacey Pheffer Amato must once again fend off a challenge from the same Republican rival: Thomas Sullivan. The district covers neighborhoods including much of the Rockaways, Howard Beach, Lindenwood and Ozone Park.
Pheffer Amato, a moderate Democrat, was first elected to Albany’s lower chamber in 2017. Her reelection bid has centered on her support for law enforcement and her opposition to the state and city’s efforts to house tens of thousands of newly arrived migrants. In particular, she has railed against a large-scale migrant shelter just outside her district at Brooklyn’s Floyd Bennett Feild.
Sullivan is a small business owner who lives in Breezy Point and served in the Army Reserve. Like other Republican candidates, he is running on the notion that several years of Democratic control of the state legislature have left New York in worse shape, particularly when it comes to public safety.
Sullivan is also running on pushing to repeal the 2019 cash bail reforms and opposing state aid for migrants. He has the backing of local Republican Council Member Joann Ariola and former GOP gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin.
According to the state BOE, the district has 39,368 active registered Democrats and 15,754 active registered Republicans. It also has a sizable 15,626 active independents.
District 46 (Brooklyn): Brook-Krasny vs. McCreight
GOP Assembly Member Alec Brook-Krasny was one of three Republicans who flipped Democratic-held southern Brooklyn Assembly seats from blue to red in 2022 when he toppled former Democratic Assembly Member Mathilde Frontus. Now, Democrat Chris McCreight, who currently serves as City Council Member Justin Brannan’s chief of staff, is trying to recapture the district for his party.
The district stretches from Bay Ridge to Brighton Beach and covers other neighborhoods, including Dyker Heights, Bath Beach, and Coney Island.
Brook-Krasny returned to the Assembly two years ago after serving there as a Democrat between 2006 and 2015 before switching parties in 2022. Two years after he resigned in 2015, Brook-Krasny was arrested for healthcare fraud, but the case was later dismissed in 2019.
McCreight, who is also a Democratic district leader, has charged that Brook-Krasny is “not getting the job done” and has been “absent” since taking over the seat two years ago. He said the Republican has been unable to win funding for vital local services that a Democrat would have no trouble securing.
McCreight has the backing of prominent Democrats including US Sen. Chuck Schumer, state Attorney General Letitia James and Brannan.
The district is also politically purple. According to the state BOE, it has 36,851 registered active Democrats and 16,598 registered active Republicans, as well as 18,784 active independents.
