With Leslye Oquendo-Thomas’s winning margin down to eight votes in the race for the Westchester Legislature Dist. 17 seat, an apparent grassroots effort to raise funds to cover potential recount expenses for Oquendo-Thomas has prompted her opponent Wilson Terrero to call the fundraiser “an excuse to raise funds.”
If the margin remains tight, there will be a full manual recount after next Tuesday. The election must be certified by July 6.
A social media post attributed to the Working Families Party promoted the Oqueneo-Thomas fundraiser, with contributions routed through Democratic Party fundraising site Actblue. The Terrero campaign denounced the effort. “Unlike our opponent, we do not view this as an excuse to raise funds,” Terrero said in a statement sent to The Ledger. “We are monitoring the situation at the Board of Elections and await the final result, which is a few days away.”
The Oquendo-Thomas campaign fired back. “Because this race is extremely close and will now go through a manual recount, it is importanat to have legal counsel involved,” Oquendo-Thomas replied. “Supporters began asking whether I had an attorney to protect the vote, and when they learned our campaign had exhausted most of its available funds, they stepped up and began sharing my donation link.”
According to campaign finance filings at the state board of elections, Oquendo-Thomas had raised about $23,600 for the campaign, all in 2026. Terrero’s current campaign fund began receiving contributions in 2024, with a total of about $45,000 reported.
