Southern Brooklyn Came Out Strong For Trump

While only 77% of the estimated votes cast have been tallied, according to the New York Times, early numbers show that in Brooklyn, 74.1 % (514,133) voted for Joe Biden, whereas 25.2% went for Donald Trump (174,731).

In the last election, Hilary Clinton won 79.5% of Brooklyn’s vote (640,553 votes), Donald Trump received 17.5% (141,044) and Jill Stein got 1.5% (11,932).

Trump already has 24% more Brooklynites voting for him than did last time. And since it seems they may have voted down the Republican ticket, they may have just elected a whole set of new Republican representatives for themselves.

Nicole Malliotakis (R) announced her win last night, and while the incumbent Max Rose (D) did not concede, it is unlikely he can make up the vote difference in the mail-in ballots. With 85% of estimated votes counted, Malliotakis is in the lead with 136,382 or 57.9% against Rose’s 99,224 (42.1%) – a lead of over 37,000 votes.

Malliotakis thanked President Trump as well as former Mayor Giuliani.

“I need to thank President Trump for his strong support, former mayor Rudy Giuliani,” she said. “Today, Staten Island and southern Brooklyn sent a loud and clear message, and that message will resonate from the halls of City Hall to the halls of Congress. [..] This race was always about you. This race was about the brave men and women of the NYPD and all our law enforcement. [..] And today the people of Staten Island and Brooklyn said loud and clear, they want freedom, not socialism. They spent $20 million in this race to spread lies, to be deceitful, to try to discredit me, my reputation… The people of this district sent another clear message. We will not allow Nancy Pelosi to buy our district.”

Rose also spoke last night.

“We came in tonight saying we might not know a winner at the end o this evening, and that is certainly still not the case. At the moment, there are at minimum 40,000 absentee ballots that were returned, with potentially 10,000 more in the mail. As a soldier who fought for our democracy, I believe every vote should be counted. I am not ignorant of the realities of the results that have already been turned in. But I do know that my opponent will join me in ensuring that the BOE must conduct a fair and transparent process that demonstrates the strength of our democracy rather than undermining it.”

He also touched on why he marched to honor George Floyd – a decision that may have cost him the seat. “All too often in our politics, we acknowledge the pain and fears of those who support us, and we dismiss those who don’t. It’s tearing our country apart,” Rose said. “Not all pain or fear is equal by no sense of the word. But if we are going to unite this country, then we have to listen when a community is hurting. Black parents worry that a chance encounter could end with their baby boy or baby girl never coming home.”

Interestingly, in 2018 Rose won with 101,823 votes against incumbent Republican Dan Donovan’s 89,441 as part of the Blue Wave. It looks like Blue Wave held, while Trump really brought out the vote and lifted Malliotakis.

Vito Bruno (R) is in the lead with 40,621 (54%) against Senator Andrew Gounardes 34,586 (46%)  in SD22- a margin of over 6,000 votes.

Both Senator Gounardes (D) and Assemblywoman Mathylde Frontus (D) seats currently have their opponents in the lead with 97% and 100% of the scanners reporting respectively (early voting and election day reporting), according to the NYC Board of Elections – though the margins are not insurmountable, so mail-in ballots will determine the outcomes.

Gounardes won in 2018, also as part of the Blue Wave, with 33,507 votes to Marty Golden’s (R) 32,236 votes, unseating him. Again, looks like his support held, but many more Republicans came out to vote.

“There are several thousand in-person votes which have not been reported, nearly 13,000 mail-in ballots which have been returned already, plus additional mail-in ballots which have not been processed or received. The outcome of this election will hinge on these votes, and I am confident that once these votes are counted, we will prevail,” Gounardes said earlier today. He may well be right.

Mark Szuszkiewicz (R) is leading with 17,852 votes (54.3%) over Assemblywoman Mathylde Frontus 15,030 (45.7%) in AD46 – a margin of just over 2,800 votes. However, over 16,000 absentee ballots were requested, of which 5,000 have been returned and are yet to be counted and may change the outcome in Democrats’ favor. Frontus won in 2018 with 15,725 votes against Steven Saperstein (R) 12,813 running for an open seat.

Szuszkiwitz declared victory, perhaps a little prematurely given the number of votes still to be counted: “I want to thank my opponent for a hard-fought race and a tough campaign. I would also like to thank all of the voters and volunteers who believed in our race. Against all odds, we won this campaign by talking to thousands of voters and bringing our message of common sense changes and real solutions to the people. I especially want to thank Nicole Malliotakis, Vito Bruno, and of course, President Trump for all leading a tremendous ticket that resonated with voters all across South Brooklyn. Tomorrow, I plan to hit the ground running and get right to work by personally talking to voters and listening to their concerns as we begin to form a transition team.”

There are a good number of mail-in ballots outstanding. However, many registered Democrats in Southern Brooklyn do not vote down the party line in Presidential elections. In fact, across Brooklyn right now, more people have voted for Trump (174,731) than we have as registered Republicans (137,316).

In heavily Democratic districts being registered Democrat is the only chance you have to have a say in local elections that for the most part get decided by a small share of voters in Democratic primaries.

Here are the current totals for mail-in ballots:

CD 11 (Rose* v Malliotakis): 31,530 absentee ballots were requested, 19,894 were from registered  Democrats, 4,422 were from registered Republicans. So far, 10,312 of the absentee ballots have been returned, 6,671 from Democrats, and 1,418 from Republicans.

SD 22 (Gounardes* v Bruno) : 39,290 absentee ballots were requested, 24,688 were from Democrats, 5,587 were from Republicans. So far 12,744 have been returned, 8,244 from Democrats, and 1,797 from Republicans.

AD 46 (Frontus* v Szuszkiewicz): 16,173 ballots were requested, 10,298 from Democrats, 2,486 from Republicans. So far 5,069 have been returned, 3,346 from Democrats and 728 from Republicans.

All in all, there are 1,172,317 voters in Brooklyn that are registered Democrats. There were 283,978 absentee ballots requested by these registered Democrats, of which 85,163 have been returned – about 30%. Of those, 30,512 and 10,066 respectively are for Southern Brooklyn AD41, AD45, AD46, AD47, AD48 – these districts cover most of the area of interest.