11:03 p.m. As of 11 PM, the Westchester County Board of Elections has slowed the new vote tally. It appears that we may not know the final results until tomorrow in the very close Yonkers 2026 Democratic Party primaries for the NY State Assembly Dist. 90 between Jereis and Garcia and Westchester County Legislator District 15 between Skipper and Nicodemo.
We do know, however, that Leslye Oquendo-Thomas appears to have soundly defeated Wilson Terrero in the Westchester County legislator District 17 race. Oquendo-Thomas ran without the official party endorsement and after a much publicized incident in which she was fired from her City Council job after she announced.
New support for insurgent candidates challenging the party establishment, very much a factor in the New York City upsets, seems to have played a role here. Tune in tomorrow for further updates and analysis.
10:33 p.m. With the races so competitive, commentators on Facebook have taken notice. There could be upsets in the making. This was not expected, but the insurgent candidates seemed to be gaining momentum in the final days of the campaign.
Results at Westchester County Board of Elections
10:30 p.m. tally:
10:26 p.m. Jereis has now opened at 120 vote or 6% lead over Garcia as of 10:20 PM. But it’s still too close to call.
10:22 p.m. At least in the early returns, the three Democratic women running against the endorsed Yonkers Democratic Party’s candidate are more than holding their own. It looks like Leslye Oquendo-Thomas will handly defeat Wilson Terrero, and the Garcia/Jereis and Skipper/Nicodemo races are too close to call. There may be many questions for the Yonkers Democratic Committee in the morning as to what happened if these trends continue.
10:20 p.m. Skipper has a small 2% point lead over Nicodemo in the District 15 County Legislature race. These are tight races, and if the trend continues, we might not know all the winners tonight.
10:19 p.m. Meanwhile the Jereis/Garcia for NY State Assembly is virtually tied, with each candidate at 50% out of more than 1700 votes case
10:08 p.m. Leslye Oquendo-Thomas has over a 100 vote lead over Terrero of more than 60% out of 500 votes cast in the 17th Westchester County Legislature race. Given the expected low turnout, this is a solid lead. She appears to be pulling away.
10:06 p.m. As the votes trickle in, the two contested Yonkers Democratic primaries are exceedingly close. We don’t know what percentage of the vote has been reported, but if the trend continues, this election will be closer than what I expected. As of 9:58 Jereis has a 2% lead over Garcia, Skipper led Nicodemo by 2% and Oquendo-Thomas is opening up solid 20% lead in her race with Terrero
9:40 p.m. Only about 10 percent reporting. Stay tuned until I get my first tingle. Does anyone know where the victory parties are being held? Open bar?
At long last, it’s primary election day in New York. In Yonkers, there are three important races for the Democratic Party line on the November ballot that will be decided today. (Note: check back for updates after 9 p.m.)
Leslye Oquendo–Thomas v. Wilson Terrero for County of Westchester Legislator (17th District)
Kisha Skipper v. Anthony Nicodemo for Westchester County Legislator (15th District).
Jeanette Garcia v. Frank Jereis for New York State Assembly (90th District)
Since registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by a margin of three to one, the primary winners will be heavily favored to win in November. This is particularly true in the Oquendo-Thomas/Terrero race, because the Republicans have not put forth a candidate. In the County Legislator race in the 15th District, between Skipper and Nicodemo, the primary winner will face off against James Nolan, the only Republican on the County Board.
For those paying attention, it has been a spirited campaign. Candidates attended dozens of local events, spent weeks knocking on doors, and duked it out over social media and through campaign flyers that stuffed our mailboxes.
Because this will almost assuredly be a very low turnout election, the candidates with the strongest get out the vote efforts are the most likely to prevail.
The polls close at 9 p.m., and election results will start coming in shortly thereafter from the Westchester Board of Elections. The large number of votes from the nine-day early voting period should be tabulated soon after polls close. We should have a fairly good idea of the trends and likely winners at that time.
Here are the issues that we will be watching:
1. Can Oquendo-Thomas, Skipper, and Garcia, who ran against candidates the Yonkers Democratic Party endorsed, win the nominations? If one or all of the unendorsed candidates prevail, it would show that voters heard their message, and that perhaps the Yonkers Democratic Party is losing influence with Yonkers Democratic voters.
2. How large is the turnout? A very low turnout should favor the endorsed Democratic candidates because of organizational and fundraising advantages. The endorsed candidates should have the resources to get their supporters to the polls.
3. Whether the results will have any impact on next year’s mayoral election and embolden the City Council to once again suspend the term limits provisions of the City Charter to allow Mayor Spano to run for an unprecedented 5th term in office.
The Ledger will provide updates as the votes roll in.
