Election 2024

In the hours and days following President Biden’s announcements on Sunday afternoon that he was ending his bid for re-election and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris, Democrats here on Long Island and across the country have begun to largely coalesce behind Vice President Harris as they react to this political earthquake.

Former President Donald J. Trump was shot at a rally in Butler, Pa., early Saturday evening. Shortly after the shooting, Representative Nick LaLota, a Republican who in January endorsed President Trump, and his opponent in the First Congressional District race, John Avlon, a Democrat, released statements.

On Saturday, two days after President Biden and former President Trump met in Atlanta for the first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle, the president and Jill Biden were in East Hampton for a fund-raiser at the home of Barry and Lizanne Rosenstein, co-hosted by several high-powered business executives and celebrities, all the while hearing calls from prominent members of the Democratic Party to step aside and let someone else lead the ticket.

With his Tuesday primary victory in New York’s First Congressional District, John Avlon of Sag Harbor will now face first-term Republican Representative Nick LaLota in the November election.

John Avlon, who quickly rose to the top in a field of Democratic congressional contenders that numbered half a dozen just a few months ago, is the winner of Tuesday's primary in New York's First Congressional District, besting the second-time candidate Nancy Goroff.

Ahead of early voting for the Democratic primary election in the First Congressional District, a debate between John Avlon and Nancy Goroff covered many topics in only an hour, ranging from climate change, to social media, to gun violence and antisemitism. It was a polite affair in which the candidates often agreed with each other and didn’t engage in crosstalk.

East Hampton Town Councilman Ian Calder-Piedmonte, a Democrat appointed to the post in January, faces a challenge from Hy Mariampolski, a first-time candidate running for the Republicans. The winner will fill out the remaining one year of the term vacated by Kathee Burke-Gonzalez when she became supervisor in January.

Tuesday at 5 p.m. marked the cutoff for the submission of petitions to get on the ballot for the June elections in East Hampton Village, and with no one other than Mayor Jerry Larsen, Deputy Mayor Christopher Minardi, and Sandra Melendez, a village board member, submitting a petition, the incumbents will run unopposed. 

In his bid for the Democratic nomination for New York’s First Congressional District, John Avlon of Sag Harbor this week picked up the endorsement of the New York State Democratic Committee chairman, Jay Jacobs, and of all five members of the East Hampton Town Board.

The New York State presidential primary election is on Tuesday. Early voting continues through Saturday, March 30.

The Shelter Island Democratic Committee has endorsed John Avlon’s campaign to represent New York’s First Congressional District. The endorsement is Mr. Avlon’s third from a town Democratic committee, following those from East Hampton and Southampton.

Emily’s List, which works to elect Democratic pro-choice women, has endorsed the candidacy of Nancy Goroff in New York’s First Congressional District.