92nd Assembly District Election Update

An update on the NY Assembly 92nd District Democratic Primary race where after election day, challenger Jennifer Williams was neck and neck with incumbent Thomas Abinanti.

Absentee ballots have begun to be counted by the Board of Elections and with 4800 votes left, Abinanti has a 1500 vote lead. Unless something unexpected happens, you can expect him to hold on and win 55/45.

Its an incredibly strong performance for Williams who came out nowhere to challenge Abinanti. A complete unknown, Williams had never held or ran for political office at any level (or frankly even voted at all recently) before throwing her hat in the ring. Her campaign began with an effort by Abinanti to invalid her petition to get her off the ballot but she prevailed in court Perhaps that earned her the sympathy of voters and she launched a platform that focused on attacking Abinanti over vaccinations and framing herself as a champion of small business and women's rights. With almost no fundraising, name recognition, or organization, her performance surprised almost everyone I have spoken to.

Unfortunately for her (and in my opinion, fortunately for the 92nd district) it looks like she will come up just short. She clearly exposed a weakness in Abinanti, and the question now is, after 5 terms in the Assembly, could this 6th one be his last?