Long Island’s Political Sea Change by the Numbers

The numbers tell the story of Long Island’s political reversal, with Republicans surrendering ground they dominated two years ago and Democrats erasing a huge gubernatorial deficit to claim a stunning victory.

In 2022, Republican Lee Zeldin crushed Gov. Kathy Hochul in Suffolk, capturing 330,337 votes, or 58.3%, to her 41.6%, a margin approaching 95,000 votes.

Four years later, Republican Bruce Blakeman managed just 266,738 votes, or 49.56%, losing to Hochul by 4,040 votes, according to unofficial results — a huge 17.5-percentage-point swing toward the Democrat.

Blakeman, the Nassau executive, lost his home county to Hochul by 216 votes amid a Democratic surge that saw the Town of Hempstead supervisor’s seat fall to the Democrats for only the second time in more than a century.

By comparison, Zeldin, a William Floyd High School graduate and current EPA administrator under President Trump, carried Nassau by 54,111 votes in 2022, a 10.4-percentage-point margin.

The contrast with Trump’s 2024 performance is also striking. The President captured 417,549 votes in Suffolk, defeating Kamala Harris by 75,737, while Blakeman’s 2026 tally fell 150,811 votes short of Trump’s total.

Turnout also tells a story. Suffolk had 1,148,885 registered voters heading into the 2026 election. Approximately 538,000 votes were recorded for governor, representing about 47% of registered voters, compared with 70.15% in the 2024 presidential contest.

The Republican retreat was particularly pronounced in two legislative districts.

Assemblyman Joseph DeStefano, who won with 32,634 votes, or 60.3%, in 2024, received just 19,040 votes this year, narrowly losing to Democrat Josh Slaughter’s 19,948.

Sen. Anthony Palumbo, who collected 87,591 votes in 2024, dropped to 58,344, losing to Democrat Christopher Murray, who received 62,408. Palumbo’s 2024 victory margin of 9,738 votes became a 4,064-vote defeat.

One of the election’s more remarkable statistics emerged in the Suffolk County clerk’s race, where incumbent Vincent Puleo, running on the Republican and Conservative lines, received 334,978 votes against an extraordinary 43,343 write-ins, the majority of which went to Abigail Field, who mounted a last-minute campaign after Democrat Anthony Portesy abruptly left the race.

The substantially higher turnout in presidential elections will take on new meaning in 2028, when candidates for numerous town and county offices will share the ballot with state and federal contenders under New York’s new election law.

Good-government advocates panned the Albany mandate, arguing that local issues will receive short shrift as national politics dominate the electoral agenda.