Campaigns & Elections
State Sen. Simcha Felder wins New York City Council special election
“Team Trump” candidate Heshy Tischler failed to garner much support in the largely Orthodox Jewish Brooklyn district.
State Sen. Simcha Felder, right, speaks with state Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris. NYS Senate Media Services
State Sen. Simcha Felder is going back to the New York City Council. In the special election to fill Assembly Member Kalman Yeger’s vacant City Council seat, the Democratic state senator from Borough Park, Brooklyn, secured 81.7% of the vote with 98% of scanners reported as of 9:30 p.m. on election night.
The race saw very low turnout in early voting – just under 700 people checked in at polls before Election Day. Nearly 5,500 total votes had been counted by 9:30 p.m. on election night. Though turnout is likely too low to draw major conclusions from the race as a bellwhether, the special election showed little sign of MAGA politics catching on in the largely Orthodox Jewish district. Republican Harold “Heshy” Tischler, Felder’s opponent, is a Trump supporter and noted COVID-19 rioter who ran on a “Team Trump” ballot line in the nonpartisan special election. (Felder ran on a self-styled “Simcha” line.)
Felder, a conservative Democrat, carried clear advantages in the race as a veteran lawmaker who previously represented these same neighborhoods in the council for two terms and currently represents them in the state Senate. Though not the Team Trump candidate, Felder made some enemies among Democrats in Albany in the 2010s, caucusing with the state Senate’s Republican conference and giving the party a slim majority. Following Democrats taking control of the Senate, Felder worked his way back to their side, leaving his once-mighty vote behind.