Other suburban counties went red, but not New York City’s northern neighbor.

Joseph Spector | Politico | Nov. 26, 2022

On Long Island, more than 1 million voters in Nassau and Suffolk counties came out on Election Day and overwhelmingly backed Republican Lee Zeldin’s bid for New York governor. He beat Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul there, 57 percent to 43 percent.

Across the Long Island Sound, the results were flipped.

Hochul cruised to victory in New York City’s other largest suburb, Westchester County, crushing Zeldin 60 percent to 40 percent. Her performance there was critical in helping her survive the unexpectedly tight race and become the first woman elected governor in the state.

The dichotomy in some of the nation’s wealthiest and largest counties serves as a stark reminder that not all suburbs are the same: New York’s Westchester County has become a Democratic firewall in recent years, boosting candidates running for state office and Congress and making it one of the most influential blue suburbs in the country.

Even Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, won Westchester by 20,000 votes — but still lost overall by 2,300 votes after being crushed in neighboring counties that went red.

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