Election 2026

Sag Harbor residents were the first on the East End to try out new, all-digital voting machines unveiled by the Suffolk County Board of Elections last week in anticipation of the June 23 primaries.

The Jerry Larsen for Supervisor campaign committee gave back an undisclosed sum of money to donors this week, after the Suffolk County Democratic Committee accused the campaign on Feb. 4 of accepting donations in excess of what is allowed by law.

East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen, who is running a Democratic primary campaign against Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez, the incumbent, has backed a full slate of 38 challengers to the current Democratic Committee, with hopes to unseat as many members as possible.

Thus far, one big advantage Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez has received from becoming the chosen candidate of the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee at its Jan. 14 nominating convention is that it and the Suffolk County Democratic Committee have since been attacking her primary opponent, Village Mayor Jerry Larsen.

Jerry Larsen’s campaign touted $132,000 raised between Sept. 9 and Dec. 16 last year, calling it “the largest fund-raising total ever recorded” in a race for the East Hampton Town supervisor seat. Some donors gave as much as $5,000, which the Suffolk County Democratic Committee alleges violated state election law. 

Christopher Gallant, a non-politician from Amity Harbor who announced his bid last summer after John Avlon said he wouldn’t run again in 2026, seems to be emerging as the candidate to face Nick LaLota, and he has Mr. Avlon’s support.

East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez will once again be the Democratic candidate for supervisor come November, after placing first in votes at the Democratic Committee nominating convention Wednesday night.

Days after Mayor Jerry Larsen was sent a “cease and desist” letter from state, county, and town Democratic officials who asserted that his East Hampton Town Democrats for a New Town group constituted a “misuse of the Democratic Party name,” he and the chairwoman of the town’s Democratic Committee met and agreed to “lower the temperature.”

Playing on the name of his East Hampton Village NewTown Party, Mayor Jerry Larsen has launched a website to promote the “East Hampton Town Democrats for a New Town,” as he sets off in a probable primary battle against Democratic Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez.

With the 2025 election in the rearview mirror, East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen has officially announced plans to challenge newly re-elected Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez for the Democratic nomination in 2026.

“With this new, even-year election law, I am going to start campaigning for 2026, starting tomorrow,” East Hampton Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez told her supporters on election night, after winning an uncontested race.

“I am going to run for town supervisor,” East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen told a room full of supporters last week at Si Si, the restaurant at the EHP Resort on Three Mile Harbor, not only confirming his 2026 candidacy but also revealing a key part of his strategy. 

Mayor Jerry Larsen took umbrage at comments made by the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee chairwoman, Anna Skrenta, that the town Democrats were under no obligation to support his campaign should he win the primary.

East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen, who is rumored to be mulling a 2026 run for East Hampton Town supervisor, said last week that he had not “made a final decision” and won’t do so until after the election this November. Supervisor Kathee-Burke Gonzalez, a Democrat, is running unopposed on this year’s ballot. When she wins, however, it will be only for a one-year term because of a change in the state election calendar.

As the 2026 midterm elections draw closer, a second candidate for the Democratic Party’s nomination to challenge Representative Nick LaLota in New York’s First Congressional District has emerged, Lukas Ventouras, who is 24 and attending St. John’s School of Law.