The lead-up to the 2024 presidential election in November had its twists and turns, including the August Democratic candidate switch-up from President Joe Biden to Vice President Kamala Harris. But twists continued through Election Night when Nassau County elected Donald Trump to the office following 40 years of voting blue.
Trump won in Nassau County with more than a 4% lead over Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump’s win showed a shift among Nassau voters who have not elected a Republican to the nation’s top seat since 1988, secured through the flipping of multiple Democratic bastions in the county.
This included the City of Glen Cove, Manhasset and Great Neck, which were previously Democratic strongholds that shifted to red as of late.
Of Nassau’s cities and towns, Harris only won in the City of Long Beach.
Margins were narrow in many of the Nassau towns and cities, including a 0.9% lead in North Hempstead, a 0.4% lead in Hempstead and a 1.3% lead in Glen Cove. But some were larger, such as in Oyster Bay where Trump won by 8 points.
But Republican wins did not stop with Trump, as Nassau County strengthened its red hue in the election of a majority of Republican candidates.
The party continued to dominate in 14 of the other 23 Senate, House, state Senate and state Assembly races in the county.
But some Democrats held on, notably in the county’s two House of Representative seats. One stayed blue while the other flipped a former Republican-held seat.
Rep. Tom Suozzi, one of the Democratic House members elected to represent northern parts of Nassau County who flipped the seat back to blue in the February special election, attributed his win in spite of the red shift to his campaign’s messaging to pushing common sense issues, focusing on core Democratic values and rejecting far-left “distractions.”
He attributed the Nassau County Democrats’ wins to their distancing from the liberal positions of the national Democratic Party.
“In this election, Americans have made their voice clear: Democrats need to focus more on issues Americans care about, like wages and benefits, and less on being politically correct,” Suozzi wrote on social media. “Moderate White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, union, non-union, and other voters fear that the world we live in and the values we live by are under threat, and Democrats have been too intimidated to speak up for the same values that many of us hold dear — the American Dream, public safety and a common sense of right and wrong among them.”
Luara Gillen, the other Democratic elected by Nassau County to New York’s 4th Congressional District, also stressed an emphasis on common sense and bipartisan solutions, straddling the same moderate line Suozzi is known for.
“I am humbled and grateful to have the privilege of serving the people of New York’s 4th Congressional District. Voters chose our message of common sense and common ground, and that is exactly the approach I will bring to Washington,” Gillen said in a statement. “As town supervisor, I reached across the aisle to lower costs for Nassau County families, and in Congress I will work in a bipartisan manner to deliver on the pressing issues we face.”
