Next year he won’t be known as former President Donald Trump anymore. On January 20, 2025, the 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump will once again hold the title of president – the 47th. This is only the second time in American history that someone will hold the highest office for two non-consecutive terms. Grover Cleveland, a Democrat from Buffalo, served non-consecutive terms as president in the late 1800s. (He was the 22nd and 24th president.)
Trump’s coattails brought a shift of leadership in the United States Senate, relegating New York’s senior senator, Chuck Schumer, 73 (D – Park Slope, Brooklyn) to minority status. It is unclear if he will remain the leader of the Democratic caucus. The final count in the upper house is at 51 to 49, with three seats flipping from blue to red in Ohio, West Virginia, and Montana. In New York, incumbent Kirsten Gillibrand, 57 (D – Albany) easily defeated GOP challenger Mike Sapraicone, 68 (R – Oyster Bay, Nassau County), a relative unknown who had little money to support his campaign. Gillibrand defeated Sapraicone 59 to 41 percent.
Sapraicone said he is not done supporting the GOP. “We knew from the beginning turning a U.S. Senate seat in deep blue New York would be a tough battle,” Sapraicone said to the approximately 100 party loyalists gathered at the Women’s National Republican Club in midtown Manhattan. “As we traveled the Empire State, it was the thousands of like-minded New Yorkers I met on the campaign trail that made it clear why I wanted to work hard to save our state and nation,” he said as he wrapped up what amounted to his concession speech. “Though I am disappointed, I am thankful for everyone’s support. We share a vision for America. It’s not about right and left but about right and wrong. We know that every person deserves public safety, secure borders, an affordable quality of life, and a government that has a plan to put them first. As we move forward through uncertain times, one thing is for sure: My fight for what is right will go on.”
One political observer said even though so much money was spent on other races, Sapraicone’s race experienced a financial drought. “He didn’t have enough money. It’s very simple. He had all the issues on his side. I’ve been saying this for two years – Gillibrand has been invisible to the state,” former Staten Island Republican Assemblyman Robert Straniere, now a resident of the Upper East Side of Manhattan, told The Jewish Press. “Mike ran a good campaign, but it takes an enormous amount of money to get your message across. The issues could not be better in our favor.”
Prior to the polls closing, the state party chairman told supporters the results were going to be a red wave in deep blue New York. Nothing was further from the truth. “There are a lot of Trump voters out there and down ballot we are going to win all of our congressional seats that we now hold and maybe pick up one or two. Once again New York Republicans will be majority makers in the House of Representatives,” said Chairman Ed Cox. “We are also going to break the supermajority that the Democrats have in the [state] legislature. The progressive control of the legislature has been driving the state in the wrong direction. This is why it is important that we break the supermajority. It’s the start of having a two-party government in Albany.”
The U.S. House of Representatives is still up for grabs, but New York was not any help this year in keeping control of Congress in Republican hands. Three freshman incumbents lost their races in the Syracuse area, Long Island, and a district stretching from the Hudson Valley to Ithaca in the Finger Lakes region.
In a rematch from 2022, Lauren Gillen, a Democrat who served as the Hempstead town supervisor, defeated GOP incumbent Anthony D’Esposito, a former detective with the NYPD and chief of the Island Park Fire Department, by 6,100 votes, 51 percent to 49 percent.
In another rematch from two years ago, incumbent Marc Molinaro (R – Catskill, Greene County), 49, was defeated by a mere 3,600 votes (50.5 percent to 49.5 percent) by Josh Riley (D – Ithaca, Tompkins County), 41. In the weeks leading up to Election Day, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R – Shreveport, LA) campaigned in the district three times, telling Molinaro supporters he’s the best thing since sliced bread. It was as if Johnson was preaching to the converted.
With almost $40 million from political action committees and prodigious fundraising by the candidates themselves pouring into the district to support both candidates, all the television ads, radio spots, mailers, and social media outreach came up a bit short for Molinaro. This was the most expensive campaign in the country and was dubbed the bellwether contest to keep the House in Republican hands.
Molinaro’s money to saturate the airwaves in three television media markets as well as dozens of radio stations came from the Congressional Leadership Fund and National Horizon. Riley received outside money from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
The third matchup was between state Senator John Mannion, 56 (D – Geddes, Onondaga County) and Brandon Williams, 57 (D – Sennett, Cayuga County). Mannion garnered 53.5 percent of the vote to Williams’ 46.5 percent, a difference of approximately 18,000 votes.
Meanwhile, freshman Congressman Mike Lawler, 38 (R – Pearl River, Rockland County) fended off a challenge by former Congressman Mondaire Jones, 37 (D – Nanuet, Rockland County). Lawler received 57 percent of the vote to Jones’ 41 percent, a difference of approximately 34,000 votes. The district takes in all of Rockland and Putnam counties as well as parts of Westchester and Dutchess counties.
Lawler had strong unified support from Rockland’s large Orthodox and chasidic Jewish population, a bloc of votes that gave him a big edge in the race. Johnson recently accompanied Lawler on a round of visits to the leaders of three chasidic sects, the Vizhnitz, Skver, and Satmar communities.
Money spent on the race totaled nearly $42 million, making it the nation’s fourth most expensive contest. Jones was outspent by outside money as Lawler used the $11.3 million that the Republicans’ Congressional Leadership Fund contributed and $1.7 million donated by Elon Musk’s America PAC. In total, outside groups dished out almost $27 million for commercials, mailers, and other activities to support the two campaigns. The biggest totals spent on Jones’ behalf were $6 million by the Democrats’ House Majority PAC and $1.8 million by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
The Orthodox communities accounted for at least 26,000 votes, with more than 95 percent or more voting for Lawler, according to community leaders familiar with the voting patterns.
The House Speaker made it clear that he stands strong against antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiments. AIPAC was Johnson’s largest financial donor in 2023. “Our Jewish friends know that the Democrats have abandoned Israel in its most desperate moment. When the antisemitism stuff was rising up at Columbia University and all over the campus[es], it wasn’t the Democrats that were there to shout it down, it was us,” he said.
In April 2024, Johnson criticized pro-Palestinian protests on U.S. university campuses, saying he was determined “that Congress will not be silent as Jewish students are expected to run for their lives and stay home from their classes hiding in fear.”
Johnson said at a Molinaro turn-out-the-vote rally, “I went there [to Columbia] and told them there is a right and a wrong. We had moral clarity. We desperately needed the White House and the Senate leadership to stand with us and they didn’t. So Jewish voters are very animated.”
Finally, the fourth freshman contest was between incumbent Congressman Nick LaLota, 46 (R – Amityville, Suffolk County) and John Avlon, 51 (D – Sag Harbor, Suffolk County). LaLota bested Avlon 47 percent to 41 percent of the vote.
The 26-member New York House delegation now stands at 19 Democrats and 7 Republicans.
In the state Senate, two Democrats were defeated. Republican Steven Chan defeated incumbent Democrat Iwen Chu 55 to 45 percent, with a difference of 5,600 votes separating the two candidates, and Republican Gina Arena defeated Democrat incumbent Peter Harckham 54 to 46 percent, with a difference of 7,300 votes separating the two candidates. In an open seat left vacant by John Mannion who ran for Congress and won, Democrat Chris Ryan barely edged out Republican Nick Paro 50.2 to 49.8 percent of the vote, with a mere 548 votes separating the two newcomers.
“One of the reasons we lost the [state] Senate was because we really didn’t have a strong farm team in the Assembly,” Straniere said. “What happened over the years [was] Democratic Assemblymembers were being elected, so when the opportunity came for the Senate seat, the better known candidate was the incumbent Democratic Assemblyperson rather than a Republican Assemblyperson. That initially eroded some of our suburban support.”
One of the attendees, a Jewish man who is originally from Ukraine and now lives in midtown Manhattan, told The Jewish Press he’s expecting a lot from Trump’s second term as president, especially when it comes to Middle East foreign policy.
“It’s a great day for America. It’s a great day for Israel. We should make sure that Jews are aware that Qatar is not a friend of America and Qatar is not a friend of Israel,” said Michael Moskowitz. “We need to make sure that hopefully Trump is not impressed by their [Qatar’s] money. We need to remind him that Qatar is an enemy and we should treat them as such and to support Israel. We need to define the message in the Middle East that there is no such thing as the so-called Palestinians. Their whole identity is denying Jewish identity. They never existed. There’s no such thing. We also need to stop this nonsense about a two-state solution. It doesn’t work. We need to be strong in America and in Israel.”
At press time, it is still unknown exactly how the Assembly members did. Many of those races were uncontested.
