Crown Heights backed candidate Brian Cunningham won the special election for Assembly District 43 in Central Brooklyn on Tuesday night, easily winning the race to replace Assemblywoman Diana Richardson.
By Anash.org reporter
Crown Heights backed candidate Brian Cunningham won the special election for Assembly District 43 in Central Brooklyn on Tuesday night, easily winning the race to replace Assemblywoman Diana Richardson.
Cunningham received the highly sought-after endorsement of Crown Heights United, bringing hundreds of Jewish residents to the polls on his behalf, and coasting to an easy victory.
Cunningham led Jelanie DeShong, the Working Families Party nominee, 62% to 35%, with approximately 3,000 votes counted on election night. The Republican Party and Conservative Party nominee, Mesidor Azor, earned just 3%.
The result will hold according to a spokesperson from the New York City Board of Elections, because even though 1,141 absentee ballots had been mailed, just 168 had been returned as of Monday night.
At his victory party Tuesday night, Cunningham thanked the Crown Heights Jewish community for the win and said that he was ready to go to Albany to work on behalf of the community’s interest.
Turnout for the special election was very low. Just over 3,000 votes were cast in the district of approximately 130,000 people. That’s fewer than half the 8,612 votes that were counted in the 2015 special election when Diana Richardson was elected.
Cunningham will likely take office in early April and serve out the term through the end of the year. He’ll immediately have to run for reelection.
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