Republicans on Long Island, New York, scored a historic victory on Tuesday night, solidifying gains they have made in the area and providing a small bright spot in an otherwise disappointing night nationwide.
Republican Ed Romaine defeated Democrat Dave Calone on Tuesday to become the first Republican to win the Suffolk County executive position in 20 years.
Romaine won with 56% of the vote by a margin of 26,000 votes, The Associated Press projected.
Romaine’s victory gives Republicans commanding control on the eastern part of Long Island, where the GOP occupies all the countywide seats in Nassau and Suffolk counties as well as all four congressional seats.
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Ed Romaine. (Steve Pfost / Newsday RM via Getty Images)
“This is a political earthquake,” former Sen. Al D’Amato, R-N.Y., told the New York Post.
Romaine told his supporters on Tuesday night that they have “given me a large mandate tonight and I plan to use that mandate to move this county forward.”
The Republican victory builds on the “red wave” that has swept across Long Island in recent years, which political analysts have attributed to spiking crime and the liberal push to defund police.
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Voting booths on Election Day. (AP Photo / Keith Srakocic / File)
Former Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., often credited with being a key catalyst of New York’s “red wave,” called Romaine’s victory an “enormous flip” in a social media post.
“For the third year in a row, [Republicans] in New York had a great night, defeating incumbents and winning upset elections across the state,” New York GOP Chairman Ed Cox said in a statement, adding that Long Island has become a “Republican bastion.”