Can a Republican “Loudmouth” Win a Downtown NYS Senate Seat?
No Republican has won an elected office anywhere in Manhattan in over two decades but Jason Murillo, who just added the Conservative party endorsement following his selection as the Republican candidate last month in the downtown NYS Senate race, thinks he can pull an upset.
The Conservative party last week cross endorsed Jason Murillo, who already had the Republican nod, to be their candidate in the downtown New York State Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Brian Kavanagh.
Murillo, a born and raised New Yorker who goes by the nickname “DJ Loudmouth” thinks with the seat opening up for the first time in a decade, he has a fighting chance to pull an upset.
“With the seat open and voters ready to hold Albany accountable, there’s an opening for Republicans to compete, and that’s why I think it’s a winnable race,” he said.
Brian Kavanagh, who has held the seat for ten years, said he won’t seek reelection and will finish out his term which runs through year end. It ends more than two decades in elected office for Kavanagh. Before he was a NYS Senator he was a downtown Assemblyman.
”While this district has been safely Democratic in registration, open contests, especially in environments where voters are frustrated with Albany’s direction, create opportunities for Republicans to make inroads if they run strong campaigns focused on bread-and-butter issues like public safety, cost-of-living pressures, and local quality-of-life concerns that have been pretty much abandoned by the radical left’s own Mayor Mandani, and Gov. Hochul,” Murillo said.
The Democrats who are vying for the seat include current Assembly member Grace Lee and former Assembly member Yuh-Line Niou, who finished a close second to Dan Goldman in the race to be the Democratic nominee for the downtown U.S. House of Representatives seat which Goldman ultimately won and is now seeking reelection.
Murillo mounted an unsuccessful bid for city council on the west side last year against Eric Bottcher, who said soon after his election that he was going to run for Congress but then changed his mind and instead ran for the NYS Senate seat that opened up when Brad Hoylman-Sigal won his race for Manhattan borough president.
So there will be no incumbent but it will still be an uphill battle for any Republican to win in the heavily Democratic seat which includes virtually all of downtown Manhattan below 14th St.
The last Republican to be elected at any level in any office in Manhattan was Roy “Landslide” Goodman, who beat Liz Krueger by about 200 votes in the 2000 election. His marging of victory had been shrinking over several election cycles and after that squeaker, he decided not to seek reelection and served until the end of his term in 2002.
His departure was the end of an era in which liberal Republicans could find their way to victory in Manhattan.
Murillo however thinks building a conservative coalition will be the ticket and thinks his standing as an outsider will help. “Unlike the entrenched political class, I’m not an elitist insider or an elected lobbyist climbing the ladder. I built my career through hard work, community advocacy, and standing up for residents who feel ignored.”