New York State 2026 Election Update | Greenberg Traurig LLP

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Statewide offices: With approximately 90% of the election districts counted, incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul won a second full term by approximately 20 percentage points. Attorney General Letitia James and Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli also won reelection by similar margins.
State Senate: Democrats expanded their majority from 41 to 47 (with one race too close to call as of the date of this GT Alert), regaining the supermajority they lost in 2024.
State Assembly: Democrats retained their supermajority, expecting the conference to grow to 111 of the 150 seats.
Turnout: Early voting reached 1,965,043 votes, up about 67% from 2022.
Turnover: More than 50 incumbent legislators will not return in 2027, due to a combination of retirements and primary season losses, plus incumbents defeated on Nov. 3, 2026. These departures set up a possibility for leadership and committee changes for the 2027 session.
Congress: Democrats won 20 of New York’s 26 U.S. House seats, representing a net gain of one, and one seat where the Democrat has not yet conceded. In half of the New York House seats that the Republicans won, they did so by a margin of less than 3 percentage points. Results in some of the most hotly contested seats are summarized below.

Overview

On Nov. 3, 2026, New Yorkers voted on every statewide office, all 213 seats in the state legislature (63 in the Senate and 150 in the Assembly) and all 26 of the state’s seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Democrats entered the election with a 41–22 majority in the state Senate, one seat short of the 42 needed for a two-thirds supermajority, and a 103–47 majority in the state Assembly, three seats above the 100 needed. Democratic control of both houses was not in serious doubt, and incumbents were heavily favored in most statewide races. The open questions were the size of the Democratic majorities, how much turnover the legislature would see, and whether there would be enough of a draw for top-of-the-ticket races to lead to a growth of the Democratic members of the congressional delegation.

The 2026 cycle also brought unusually high turnover. Before Election Day, at least 38 incumbent state legislators were already certain not to return: 31 retired or declined to seek re-election (five senators and 26 Assembly members), and seven lost primaries (two senators and five Assembly members). No incumbent Democrats lost their seats to challengers in the general election, but another five Republican Senate incumbents lost, and seven Republican assemblymembers lost. Some of the most prominent departures from retirements include Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris and Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes. The election determined who will fill these open seats and how the new members will affect each chamber’s political and institutional makeup.

The results of the 2026 election will reshape the legislature’s leadership and committee structure. State Senate rules limit service as party leader, committee chair and ranking member to eight consecutive years. For Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins’ tenure to continue in 2027, the conference would need to amend the body’s rules, a vote that cannot occur until the 2027 session begins. The Assembly will also see changes at the top due to retirements by Majority Leader Peoples-Stokes and former Minority Leader Will Barclay. There will be substantive changes to a number of committee chairs. These changes may help determine the legislature’s priorities, committee agendas, and points of access for advocates as the 2027 session begins.

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*Special thanks to Legislative Specialist Olivia Sheffer^˘ for contributing to this GT Alert.

^˘ Not admitted to the practice of law.

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GT Alert_New York State 2026 Election Update