Primary day 2026 is in the books.
Tom DiNapoli easily won his three-way Democratic primary for state comptroller.
Assemblyman Jon Rivera won his hard-fought primary against Senator Jeremy Zellner. It was a very expensive race. Rivera also has the Working Families Party line. There is no Republican candidate for the November election.
In the 149th Assembly District attorney Adam Bojak was victorious in a three-way race that included endorsed Democrat Karen Hoak. Bojak’s Republican opponent in November is Hamburg Councilman Frank Bogulski.
Dr. Aaron Gies handily defeated Kevin Stocker in the 23rd Congressional District primary. Gies will run against incumbent Republican Nick Langworthy.
Here are the numbers in these four races:
State Comptroller (99 percent of districts reporting)
DiNapoli: 574,441 votes; 66 percent of total vote
Drew Warshaw: 175,791 votes; 20 percent of total vote
Raj Goyle:121,066 votes; 14 percent of total vote
The turnout was about 15 percent.
State Senate, 61st District (99 percent of all districts reporting)
Rivera: 10,076 votes; 55 percent of total vote
Zellner: 8,270 votes; 45 percent of total vote
The turnout was 20 percent.
State Assembly, 149th District (all districts reporting)
Bojak: 3,961 votes; 50 percent of total vote
Karen Hoak: 2,651 votes; 33 percent of total vote
Kevin Deese: 1,359 votes; 17 percent of total vote
The turnout was 21 percent.
NY23 (98 percent of the election districts reporting)
Gies: 13,462 votes; 72 percent of total vote
Stocker: 5,188 votes; 28 percent of total vote
The turnout was about 15 percent.
DiNapoli’s win was not unexpected. There has not been a state comptroller in at least the past seven decades who lost an election. The public seems okay with the status quo, to the extent that voters pay much attention to the role of comptroller. Even Alan Hevesi, with clouds of scandal hanging over his head, won re-election in 2006, only to resign in early 2007.
DiNapoli was strongly supported by the party establishment, headed by Governor Kathy Hochul. Having two opponents espousing similar views about issues also helped DiNapoli.
While he was running as incumbent, Zellner has only held the position since the February special election. Jon Rivera is an incumbent Member of the Assembly. He was well-funded and had significant union support. Zellner, as Party Chairman, had considerable support among party leadership in the northern portion of the county.
Both campaigns ran a high volume of TV ads and sent out at least 25 total mailers between them. Rivera staked his election heavily on his effort to link Carl Paladino to Zellner. Zellner pointed out that Paladino business’ contributions to the Erie County Democratic Committee ended more than 11 years ago. It seems likely that Rivera’s efforts to challenge the party establishment, in a year where such activity has been doing well around the country, had much to do with his victory.
In the 149th District Karen Hoak was the endorsed Democratic candidate. Hoak was the only candidate from Hamburg, home to 44 percent of the district’s enrolled Democrats, but she lost a council member re-election campaign in the town in 2023. Bojak is an attorney and a democratic socialist.
On to November
DiNapoli is likely to do quite well in November, given the likelihood of Democratic dominance in the state. Republican candidate for Governor Bruce Blakeman will do little to help down ballot races.
There could be competitive races for the state Assembly in the 142nd (incumbent Democrat Pat Burke and Republican Gary Dickson) and 143rd Districts (incumbent Republican Pat Chludzinski and Democrat Ryan Taughrin) in Erie County. The open-seat race in the 145th Assembly District between Democrat Nate McMurray and Republican Rebecca Wydysh as well as the above noted 149th District also look competitive.
Next up
There are four Supreme Court Seats in the 8th Judicial District on the ballot this year. Candidates will be selected at party conventions in early August.
Perhaps you heard that the new football stadium had a grand opening yesterday. Bills training camp opens on July 29th.
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