O’ Keefe and Arnon Drop Out of Dem Primary Race for Assembly
With two Democratic challengers out of the primary race in the East Side Assembly district, the incumbent Democrat Keith Powers will face off against Republican/Conservative challenger Veronica Gonzalez in the November 3 general election.
| 21 Feb 2026 | 10:57
Community activist Kevin O’Keefe, a community board 6 member and founder of the St. Vartan Park Conservancy said he is suspending his Democratic primary campaign for Assembly in the 74th district. (
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Incumbent Keith Powers has unchallenged path to Democratic party nomination ahead of the Nov. 3 election in the 74th Assembly district. He won a special election for the seat on Feb. 3. (
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Josh Arnon, a community activist who had campaigned against an East Side casino and led a Tax the Rich campaign, said he was suspending his race for the Democratic nomination in the 74th Assembly district. (
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Keith Powers, the incumbent in the 74th Assembly District now has an uncontested path to the Democratic party nomination as the two main challengers in the race both said that they are suspending their respective races.
Community activists Kevin O’Keefe and Josh Arnon both said they were suspending their campaigns in the Democratic primary within minutes of one another on Feb. 20.
Powers won a special election on Feb. 3 over Republican/Conservative business Joe Foley to fill the unexpired term of Harvey Epstein, who opted to leave the seat in order to run for City Council. As the incumbent, Powers was already a heavy favorite in the primary race and a heavy favorite in the November election. The heavily Democratic district covers parts of the lower East Side, the East Village, Stuyvesant Town/Peter Cooper Village , Gramercy Park, Union Squard, Tudor City, Kips Bay, Union Square and parts of Murray Hill. .
Both Powers and Arnon cited Powers win in the special election as a deciding factor in their decisions to drop out of a primary contest.
“Although my grassroots assembly campaign has enjoyed tremendous growth over the past several months, the path forward has markedly narrowed since this month’s special election for the seat,” O’Keefe said in an Instagram post on Feb. 20. The veteran public relations executive is a member of Community Board 6 and the founder of the not for profit St. Vartan’s Conservancy, which benefits the park in the East 30s near the Mid-town Tunnel. He is also a resident of Stuyvesant Town, which is a power base of third generation Stuy Towner Power.
“After many conversations with family, friends, colleagues, community members, and other supporters, and following much consideration, I’ve made the difficult decision to suspend the campaign in advance of the June primary,” O’Keefe said.
Josh Arnon whose web site billed him as a “Jewish autistic democratic socialist” was also emailing followers at roughly the same time as O’Keefe, to say he was dropping out of the race.
“Today, I am suspending my campaign for New York State Assembly District 74,” Arnon said. “We entered this race under a different political landscape, both in my district and citywide. Today, there is no clear path to victory for my campaign, but there is a clear path for other democratic socialist races in Manhattan and throughout this city.”
O’Keefe, like Powers, is a resident of Stuyvesant Town. Arnon lives in Waterside. His campaign site said he “remembers when his formerly Mitchell-Lama apartment complex was affordable.”
O’Keefe in his farewell posted on Instagram said, “I’m deeply grateful for the support the campaign has received from so many, including for in-district contributions that surpassed the total needed for matching funds.”
“I look forward to continuing the work to serve the 74th AD and to continuing to tackle the crisis of affordability in New York,” Powers said in a statement. “I appreciate both Kevin and Josh’s steadfast commitment to our community.”
Powers will face Veronica Gonzalez, the Republican/Conservative in the November election.