Staten Island remains a solitary red island in a vast sea of blue.
While Democrats expanded their control of New York’s state Legislature by 14 seats and Republicans lost both chambers of Congress, GOP candidates on Staten Island largely withstood Election Day’s blue wave.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis easily secured a fourth term in Congress, even after the Staten Island Advance declined to endorse her for the first time. The newspaper backed Democrat Mike Decillis, a Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, resident, citing Malliotakis’ support for President Trump. The district includes all of Staten Island and a small section of Brooklyn, including Bay Ridge.
“[Staten Island] voters are angry,” Malliotakis said. “We don’t like the one-party rule in the city and state, and we know who is to blame for the quality-of-life issues we’re facing, and that’s why we take it out on the Democrats.”
New York City’s only Republican member of Congress, Malliotakis credited Staten Island voters with turning out in force for the borough’s GOP candidates. She said residents are frustrated by congestion pricing and tolls, left-wing Democrats’ soft-on-crime policies and property taxes that are disproportionately higher than those in other boroughs.
“We’re the smallest borough, so if you have little say in statewide elections and citywide elections, and you’re going to get stuck with a mayor and a governor you don’t like, at least we can elect people on the local level and have some control in pushing back against a radical agenda that is so out of touch with Staten Island,” she said.
Staten Island Republicans also held on to three state Assembly seats and two state Senate seats while gaining a state judgeship. The winners included Assemblyman Michael Tannousis, chairman of the Staten Island Republican Party.
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That result stood in sharp contrast to nearby southern Brooklyn, across the Verrazzano–Narrows Bridge, where Republicans lost four state Legislature seats in Tuesday’s election after making significant gains in recent years.
Democrats Gov. Kathy Hochul, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and Attorney General Letitia James all won re-election comfortably, despite each losing Staten Island.
Five ballot measures advanced by Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration — measures that significantly expand the socialist politician’s power while being presented as efforts to streamline government — also won overwhelming approval, even though Staten Island voters rejected them.
Although Democrats slightly outnumber Republicans in the city’s most conservative borough, Staten Island voters typically support GOP candidates and many favor separating the borough from New York City.
Council Minority Leader David Carr, a Staten Island Republican, credited a strong borough GOP ticket led by Malliotakis with driving turnout.
“Even our middle-of-the-road voters are common-sense voters,” Carr said. “I’m not surprised that we weathered the storm, but I am surprised at the depth of [Republican] losses nationally.”
