This story will be updated throughout the night. Read The Sun’s previous Ithaca, Tompkins County and New York City election coverage here.
12:15 a.m. — Tompkins County Legislature
Travis Brooks (D) Reelected in 1st District
By Shubha Gautam
Incumbent Travis Brooks (D-1st District) was reelected to the Tompkins County Legislature following an uncontested race. He was first elected to the seat in 2021.
Brooks also serves as the deputy director of the Greater Ithaca Activities Center, a nonprofit that provides multicultural, educational and recreational opportunities for locals of all ages.
Veronica Pillar ’14 Ph.D. ’19 (D) Reelected in 2nd District
By Shubha Gautam
First elected to the 2nd District seat in 2021, incumbent Veronica Pillar ’14 Ph.D. ’19 (D-2nd District) and Working Families Party was reelected for the legislature seat for the 2nd District in an uncontested race. Currently, they serve as vice chair for the county’s Planning, Energy and Environmental Quality Committee and chair of its Workforce Diversity and Inclusion Committee.
The 2nd District lies in the City of Ithaca, including Fall Creek, downtown and Washington Park. Pillar said they will continue to focus on the inclusiveness of services the county offers its constituents, particularly for its homeless population.
Iris Packman ’06 (D) Elected in 3rd District
By Shubha Gautam
Iris Packman ’06 (D), senior research and policy development associate in the ILR School’s Climate Jobs Institute, was elected to the legislature seat for the 3rd District as a Working Families Party candidate after running uncontested. She currently serves as a Cornell Faculty Senate representative for the ILR School.
Packman will represent South Hill and the Belle Sherman neighborhood as a legislator. She was appointed to the City of Ithaca’s Sustainability and Climate Justice Commission in 2023 and advises the Common Council on ways to implement Ithaca’s Green New Deal. As a legislator, she plans to work on expanding affordable child care, developing local renewable energy and strengthening healthcare programs.
Adam Vinson ’25 (D) Elected in 4th District
By Shubha Gautam
Adam Vinson ’25 (D), former Student Assembly executive vice president, was elected to the legislature seat for the 4th District after running uncontested. His campaign focused on advancing Ithaca’s climate goals and strengthening student engagement in local politics. Representing Collegetown and a majority of the University’s campus, Vinson plans to push for sustainable development and support Ithaca’s Green New Deal.
Judith Hubbard (D) Elected in 5th District
By Shubha Gautam
Cornell Visiting Assistant Professor Judith Hubbard (D) was elected to the legislative seat for the 5th District in an uncontested race. She plans to protect marginalized communities in the county by implementing a hotline with resources, including legal aid.
Shawna Black (D) Reelected in 6th District
By Shubha Gautam
Incumbent Shawna Black (D-6th District) was reelected to the legislative seat for the 6th District for a third term after running uncontested. She has served in the legislature since 2017 and is the current vice chair. Black wants to improve access to affordable child care, increase funding for Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit and address the county’s housing crisis.
Dan Wakeman (D) Elected in 10th District Over Thomas Corey
By Shubha Gautam
Dan Wakeman (D), deputy mayor for the Village of Dryden, is projected to win the 10th District legislative seat against Thomas Corey, a retired insurance agent who ran on the independent Bull Moose line. Incumbent Mike Lane (D-10th District) retired after serving in the legislature for approximately 28 years.
Wakeman, a networking engineer for Beowulf Electricity & Data, will serve the eastern half of the Town of Dryden. He is the only Democrat running for municipal office this election who did not run as part of the Working Families Party. As a legislator, he wants to lower housing costs and support the county’s financial health. He has said that he supports traditional law enforcement and its recent reforms as well as the use of Flock Safety cameras, which have sparked concerns from Ithaca residents due to possible usage by federal immigration agencies.
Longtime Dryden resident Corey ran an untraditional campaign as part of the independent Bull Moose line, which he named after president Theodore Roosevelt’s Progressive Party’s nickname during the 1912 presidential election. In previous years, he ran and was elected as a Republican. If elected, he planned to address rising housing costs, increase housing availability and develop water and sewer systems.
11:10 p.m. — Common Council
Jorge DeFendini ’22 (D) Wins the First Ward Over Zachary Winn (R)
By Shubha Gautam
With 88 percent of the vote, Jorge DeFendini ’22 (D) is projected to win against longtime Ithaca resident Zachary Winn (R) for First Ward alderperson, who received 9.51 percent. DeFendini will replace Phoebe Brown (D-1st Ward) for the four-year seat.
As a senior at Cornell, DeFendini served for the Fourth Ward of Ithaca’s Common Council from 2021 to 2023. He lost reelection to Patrick Kuehl ’24 (D) in 2023, who ran a surprise write-in campaign. DeFendini plans on continuing to work with groups like the Ithaca Democratic Socialists of America and the Ithaca Tenants Union to advance a pro-worker agenda, end outside employment and stabilize rents.
Winn ran for mayor of Ithaca in 2022 and the First Ward seat in 2023, losing in both elections to Laura Lewis (D) and Brown, respectively. In his campaign for alderperson this year, Winn said in an interview with The Sun that his first action item would be to dissolve the Memorandum of Understanding between Ithaca and Cornell, in which the University pledged to annually contribute $4 million to the city, in hopes of increasing the University’s yearly contribution. He also had planned to address Ithaca’s concerns regarding homelessness and drug use.
Joseph Kirby (D) Wins the Second Ward
By Cereese Qusba
Joseph Kirby (D), local attorney and longtime Ithaca resident, is projected to win the Second Ward race as the Democratic and Working Families Party candidate, running uncontested. Kirby will take the seat of Alderperson Kris Haines-Sharp (D-2nd Ward).
Pat Sewell (D) Wins the Third Ward
By Cereese Qusba
Pat Sewell (D), labor organizer and professor at Tompkins Cortland Community College, is projected to win the Third Ward race as the Democratic candidate, running uncontested. Sewell will take the seat of Alderperson Pierre Saint-Perez J.D. ’24 (D-3rd Ward).
Robin Trumble (D) Wins the Fourth Ward
By Cereese Qusba
Robin Trumble, a local service worker, is projected to win the Fourth Ward race as the Democratic candidate, running uncontested. Trumble will take the seat of Alderperson Tiffany Kumar ’25 (D-4th Ward).
Hannah Shvets ’27 (D) Wins the Fifth Ward Over Gepe Zurenda ’88 (D)
By Giselle Redmond
Hannah Shvets ’27, a current Cornell student and Ithaca High School graduate, is projected to beat Gepe Zurenda ’88, who ran as an independent, in a tight race for Ithaca’s Fifth Ward Common Council Seat with 64 percent of the vote, representing a district that includes the University’s North Campus.
Shvets studies in Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. She centered her campaign around managing the rising cost of living by raising workers’ wages and protecting tenants' rights.
Zurenda’s campaign was focused on limiting tax increases, which he said are contributing to the rising cost of living in Ithaca.
After Shvets won the Democratic primary in a close race with 40.49 percent of the vote, Zurenda ran as an independent under the Affordable Ithaca Party, which he established. The primary, which took place on June 24, had notably low voter turnout, with Shvets winning by a margin of victory of 11 votes. Only 143 people voted in the Fifth Ward primary, while upwards of 665 voted in the Third Ward and 656 voted in the First Ward.
Shvets will be the only undergraduate student to serve on the Common Council in the upcoming term.
9:38 p.m. — Zohran Mamdani is Projected to Win New York Mayoral Race
By Shubha Gautam and Gabriel Muñoz
Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani (D) is the projected winner of the New York City mayoral election, according to the Associated Press, which called the win when he had 49.6 percent of the votes with 60.2 percent of the votes in.
His closest opponent was New York State’s former governor, Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent candidate after losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani. Cuomo resigned as governor after being accused of sexual harassment and misconduct. The candidate had received 41.6 percent of the vote when the projection was called.
The two also ran against Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa (R), who received 7.9 percent of the vote.
Gabriel Muñoz is a member of the class of 2026 at the College of Arts and Sciences. He serves as city editor for the 143rd editorial board. He previously served as city editor for the 142nd Editorial Board and news editor for the 141st Editorial Board. He can be contacted at gmunoz@cornellsun.com.
Giselle Redmond is a member of the Class of 2028 in the College of Arts and Sciences. She is a staff writer for the News department and can be reached at gredmond@cornellsun.com.
Cereese Qusba is a member of the Class of 2027 in the College of Arts and Sciences. She is a news editor for the 143rd Editorial Board and can be reached at cqusba@cornellsun.com.
Shubha Gautam is a member of the Class of 2028 in the College of Arts and Sciences. She is a senior writer for the News department and can be reached at sgautam@cornellsun.com.
