2018 New York State Senate election
The 2018 New York State Senate elections were held on November 6, 2018, to elect representatives from all 63 State Senate districts in the U.S. state of New York. Primary elections were held on September 13, 2018.
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All 63 seats in the New York State Senate 32 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Turnout | 45.59% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Results: Democratic gain Republican gain Democratic hold Republican hold Vote Share: 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% >90% 50–60% 60–70% 80–90% >90% | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Elections in New York State |
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In April 2018, The Wall Street Journal described the state senate as the "last bastion of power" of the Republican Party in the State of New York. The coalition of Republicans and members of the Independent Democratic Conference collapsed in 2018, with 7 of the 8 IDC members returning to the Democratic Caucus. Democrat Simcha Felder, however, continued to caucus with the Republicans, giving them control of the chamber with only 31 seats. On Election Day, Democrats gained control of the chamber from the Republicans by picking up eight seats.
The following day, The New York Times wrote that the Democrats had "decisively evict[ed] Republicans from running the State Senate, which they [had] controlled for all but three years since World War II". Enrolled Democrats won 40 of the chamber's 63 seats, including all but one seat in New York City and six of the nine seats on Long Island, the latter of which had been under total Republican control since the early 1970s. Brooklyn Senator Simcha Felder, a Democrat who had previously caucused with the Republicans, sought to rejoin the Senate Democratic Conference, but was turned down in December 2018; he was later accepted into the Conference on July 1, 2019.
The Democrats' election victories made possible the January 2019 election of Andrea Stewart-Cousins as the first female Majority Leader and Temporary President in the chamber's history.