New York City voters sent a clear message on Tuesday night, overwhelming electing Democrats to Civil Court benches in every borough except Staten Island. The results show a city that is still deeply blue, but with a few surprising cracks in the armor that prove nothing is guaranteed. While Manhattan and Brooklyn saw uncontested races for many seats, the real story came from the battlegrounds where Republicans actually fought back.
In a year where Democrats swept almost every other race, two specific victories stand out as major shifts. Staten Island elected its own Republican judge to the Supreme Court, and a historic upset in South Brooklyn put a Republican back on the Civil Court bench for the first time in over a century. These wins prove that even in a landslide year, specific communities can still choose differently.
The Blue Wave Hits Everywhere But One Island
The election results were predictable in most of the five boroughs. In Manhattan, Democrats Vlad Frants, Josh Hanshaft, and Emily Morales-Minerva ran without opposition and secured their spots on the Civil Court. Frants earned 30.83% of the vote, Hanshaft took 32.61%, and Morales-Minerva grabbed 35.42%. These numbers reflect the reality that in many parts of the city, the opposition simply didn’t show up.
Queens saw similar results, where Democratic candidates Edwin Novillo, Oma Philips, and Gail Philips won their Supreme Court races by margins of 14 percentage points or more. The only place this pattern broke was Staten Island. There, sitting Republican Civil Court Judge Michael Pinto defeated Democrat Kevin Richards with 60% of the vote. This win was a significant departure from the rest of the city, which went heavily for Democratic nominees.
A Century-Old Record Broken in Brooklyn
The most shocking result came from South Brooklyn, where Etan C. Harris defeated Democrat Susan Lieberman. Harris took 50.91% of the vote in an unofficial tally, winning by a roughly 2% margin. This victory marks the first time a Republican has won this specific Civil Court seat in 105 years.
Liam McCabe, chairman of the Kings County Republican Party, hailed the victory as a rare bright spot. The win was boosted by the support of Republican City Councilmember Inna Vernikov, who endorsed Harris as the only candidate in Brooklyn to receive her backing.
Vernikov emphasized the non-partisan nature of the victory in her own statement. She told The Post, according to the New York Post, “Etan will bring a non-biased, apolitical approach to the bench, as well as integrity and competence. I was proud to support him and help get him to the finish line.” This endorsement and the subsequent win show that voters in South Brooklyn are willing to look past party lines when they trust a candidate.
These results matter because they change the makeup of the courts in ways that will affect daily life in the city. Having a Republican judge on the bench in Brooklyn after a century of Democratic control means a different perspective in the courtroom. It also proves that the “Democratic blizzard” is not as all-consuming as some political pundits would have you believe.
For New Yorkers, this means that while the overall trend is blue, local issues and individual character still drive votes. Michael Pinto’s win in Staten Island and Etan Harris’s win in Brooklyn show that voters are not just checking a party box. They are looking at the people running and deciding who they trust to handle the gavel.
This is opinion and commentary from the RapForMayor team.
