Assembly Member Stacey Pheffer Amato will have to wait to see if the voters of South Queens are sending her back to Albany, where she has been one of the most prolific legislators in recent years.
Pheffer Amato holds a slim two-and-a-half-point lead over her Republican challenger, Thomas Sullivan, in a rematch of the 2022 race that she won by just 15 votes after waiting nearly two months to declare victory.
Preliminary results show Pheffer Amato with 22,416 votes, or 49.46% of the vote, leading Sullivan, who has 21,324 votes, or 47.05%—a difference of 1,092 votes.
While more paper ballots may come in over the coming days, Pheffer Amato said on Wednesday her margin makes it clear that she had been re-elected.
“First of all, I want to thank the voters of this great district for once more honoring me with their support. I grew up here, I love this community, and I will never stop fighting for us in Albany,” Amato said. “This win is a win for all of us – for the working families; for the cops and firefighters; for the teachers, nurses, trade unionists and city workers; for everyone who stood up to my opponent’s campaign of misinformation and extremism and voted their conscience in this critical election. In spite of it all, we stayed united and we won.”
This time around, Pheffer Amato was endorsed by every law enforcement union within the NYPD in her re-election bid to once again represent the Assembly District 23, which includes the western side of the Rockaway Peninsula, Howard Beach, Ozone Park, Lindenwood and Broad Channel.
Pheffer Amato specifically thanked volunteers from the community, her family, and many friends and supporters from labor, which included endorsements from firefighters, DC37, HTC, TWU, 32BJ, UFT in addition to all city police unions.
“We have an amazing district,” she said. “We are diverse, we are of all faiths, ethnicities, and backgrounds, and we know how to stand together when it’s important and I’m proud to be going back to Albany to keep fighting for the families of this district.”
Pheffer Amato has held her seat since 2017 and has been responsible for ground-breaking legislation and for providing funding that has positively impacted her district. The Rockaway native was appointed Chair of the Governmental Employee Committee, where she works to facilitate legislative policies for public employees, including pensions, retirement benefits, and health insurance. She has passed over twenty pieces of legislation, often with bipartisan support.
Yet she trailed Sullivan by about 250 votes on election night 2022 before suing to force a recount, which led to Pheffer Amato’s 15-vote win. Sullivan told QNS on Wednesday that he will not take his case to the courts.
“There will be no litigation unless there’s, you know, something corrupt, which we’re not even pursuing,” Sullivan said. “We have no reason to believe there’s anything there.”
Sullivan, a small business owner, colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, and married father of four from Breezy Point, said he was disappointed in the outcome.
“We’re certainly very proud of the campaign we ran,” Sullivan said. “We gave it every effort possible and have no regrets.”
