Two centrist, pro-Israel Democrats representing swing House seats on Long Island rode to easy victories on Tuesday, as a suburban Republican in upstate New York with close ties to the Jewish community lost his seat.

Reps. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) and Laura Gillen (D-NY) coasted to victory in suburban Nassau County, where a fifth of households have at least one Jewish member. The pair spent much of the cycle distancing themselves from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani while stressing their support for the Jewish state and for measures to enhance safety for Jewish institutions. 

Meanwhile, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), one of three members of his party nationwide to carry a seat in 2024 won by then-Vice President Kamala Harris, conceded around 11 p.m. to centrist Democrat Cait Conley. The Republican carried his native Rockland County — home to large Orthodox Jewish communities whose leaders endorsed him — by only a small margin, and lagged Conley in the vote count with many ballots from Westchester County, home to diverse and liberal-leaning Jewish communities, outstanding following a technical snafu with voting machines.

Following the statewide and national trend, the GOP struggled in downballot swing races at the margins of New York City, despite efforts to rally their base with attacks on Mamdani. In Southern Brooklyn, Republican Assemblymembers Alec Brook-Krasny and Michael Novakhov — both representing large Russian-speaking Jewish communities — fell to Democratic challengers.

Defeating Novakhov was conservative Democrat Joey Cohen-Saban, who drew substantial support from institutional Jewish organizations, who hoped to add a pro-Israel member to the state Assembly majority as a counterweight to the growing bloc aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America.

David Greenfield, CEO of the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, hailed Cohen-Saban’s victory, noting that he would be the tenth Orthodox Jew elected to serve in Albany.

“We may have MINYAN of state legislators who are Orthodox in New York!” Greenfield, a former Democratic city councilman, wrote on X.