Long Island's two Republican congressmen are clinging to narrow leads in races that were supposed to be comfortable wins, and neither of their Democratic challengers is ready to call it over. With nearly every district reporting, Rep. Nick LaLota holds a lead over Democrat Chris Gallant in New York's 1st District, while Rep. Andrew Garbarino is ahead of Democrat Patrick Halpin in the 2nd District, and thousands of uncounted ballots in Suffolk County could still shift either outcome.
According to Newsday, LaLota leads Gallant by almost 7,000 votes as nearly every district has reported, citing figures from the State Board of Elections. A separate unofficial-results snapshot from the Riverhead News-Review, taken with 536 of 561 election districts reporting, showed LaLota ahead by 5,822 votes, with 146,894 votes, or 50.98%, to Gallant's 141,072, or 48.96%. The two outlets' snapshots don't appear to reflect the same moment in the count, and neither resolves the other.
Gallant isn't conceding. He said there are still votes to count, and every single one of them deserves to be counted, per Newsday's reporting. He also said the closeness of the results shows Long Island is not satisfied with the status quo, a sentiment reported by the Riverhead News-Review.
Garbarino's Lead Narrower Than Expected in the 2nd District
In the neighboring 2nd District, the margin looks similarly tight. With 98% of precincts reporting, Garbarino garnered 49.62% of the vote compared to Halpin's 47.47%, a gap of about 2.15 percentage points, according to the same Newsday report. Halpin said he is not conceding his race against Garbarino, who had already declared victory, Newsday reported.
The uncertainty in both races traces back to Suffolk County's mail-in ballots. Bryan Sokolowski said more than 17,000 absentee ballots remain uncounted in Suffolk, which he said could impact both the Halpin and Gallant races, according to Newsday's reporting.
A Mixed Night for Suffolk Democrats
Suffolk County Democratic Committee chair Rich Schaffer said Democrats did better than he expected, Newsday reported, a sign that the party saw movement even in districts it hasn't held in years. The tight margins on Long Island echo a broader statewide picture: all 26 of New York's U.S. House seats were on the ballot this cycle, with every race contested, incumbents running again in 21 districts, and five seats open, according to nysfocus.com.
That results tracker, sourced to the New York State Board of Elections, notes that absentee, affidavit, and military ballots counted after election night are not included in its figures, per the nysfocus.com congressional results page. Statewide, 15.5% of New York's active voters had voted early in person through November 1, the site reported, underscoring how much of the electorate cast ballots before polls even opened.
Beyond Long Island, Wealthy Districts Could Tip the House
The Long Island contests aren't happening in isolation. AP News identified competitive races in New York's 3rd, 4th, and 17th congressional districts — some of the state's wealthiest — as contests that could help decide whether Democrats regain control of the U.S. House. Those races sit alongside the Suffolk County fights as part of a broader tally of how New York's House delegation will ultimately shake out.
For now, both Long Island Republican incumbents are ahead, but with thousands of absentee ballots still to be processed in Suffolk County, neither Gallant nor Halpin is backing down. Both races remain too close for either side to claim a final verdict.
