For years, critics have slammed the Brooklyn Democratic Party for failing to support its own candidates in the rapidly-reddening southern part of the borough.
With a “Red Wave” looming in 2022, some politicos said the party wasn’t organizing phone banks or canvassing, or sending mailers on behalf of candidates facing stiff competition in critical races.
That year, Republicans unseated three Democratic state Assembly members in districts that had been blue for decades. Onlookers said the county party was “incapable” of fulfilling its mission and that they hadn’t “used their resources to fund any general elections.”
It was not the start or the end of Democratic losses in southern Brooklyn.
Two years earlier, Nicole Malliotakis had defeated Max Rose in NY-11, now New York City’s only Republican congressional district. She beat Rose by more than 40,000 votes in a 2022 rematch. In 2024, just a year after Democrat Iwen Chu was elected to represent the first Asian-majority state Senate district, she was unseated by Republican Steve Chan.
Democrat Max Rose, who represented NY-11 in Congress for one term, lost to Republican Nicole Malliotakis in 2020.File photo by Paul Frangipane
Those losses were, in part, what spurred reform group New Kings Democrats in its mission to vote out longtime party chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn. In June, the group won enough district leader seats to do just that, and threw their support behind longtime district leader Julio Peña III.
“Our number one job needs to be electing Democrats,” Peña said. “Regardless of how we feel personally about folks and different ways of approaching things, we have to get back to our core responsibility of electing Democrats.”
But Bichotte Hermelyn in August introduced a new set of party rules that thwarted NKD’s plans and seemed to ensure her tenure would continue.
The changes sparked what has become a monthslong battle over party leadership, replete with shouting matches, lawsuits and restraining orders.
Though courts have repeatedly ruled against Bichotte Hermelyn and her allies, she held a likely-illegal vote on Oct. 4 to elect Assembly Member Nikki Lucas as party chair. Reformers say the vote was illegitimate, as it was violated a temporary restraining order, and are waiting for a court to weigh in.
Lucas (right) and Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn. File hoto courtesy of Brooklyn Democratic Party
As the election drew closer, party members repeatedly raised concerns about five candidates hoping to unseat incumbent Republicans in southern Brooklyn: Mike DeCillis in NY-11, Joey Cohen-Saban in AD-45, Chris McCreight in AD-46, Joyce Xie in AD-49 and Larry He in SD-17.
“We have other battles as a Democratic Party we should be fighting,” Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said at a rally in September. “A poll came out where a Trump Republican is only five points away from the party’s governor in this race. We have congressional races that can flip the House to give Democrats the power. And instead of … focusing on that, we have to focus on a power grab that would probably shame Donald Trump.”
A week before the election, with early voting well underway, the party has grown no closer to resolving its legal and internal issues.
Some critics, including at least two candidates, say leadership has once again failed to do what’s necessary to propel Democrats to victory, especially in the critical final weeks. Typically, county parties would be organizing phone banks and voter canvassing events, sending out mailers, and providing candidates with financial support, Peña said. But the Brooklyn Democratic Party has long deviated from that playbook.
“I mean, there’s what a party usually does, and then there’s what the Brooklyn Democratic Party usually does, and those two things are very different,” he said.
‘We’re used to’ lack of support in southern Brooklyn, some candidates say
Some longtime political players say they were prepared to go it alone after years of neglect by the party.
McCreight, a second-time Assembly candidate who has been active in local politics for decades, said the Brooklyn Democratic Party has long focused on primary elections, not general elections. In deep-blue North Brooklyn, most Democratic nominees don’t face Republican challengers come fall, but that’s not the case further south.
That’s part of why he and a cadre of other local politicos — including former council member Justin Brannan and state Sen. Andrew Gounardes — founded Bay Ridge Democrats in the early 2000s.
“It wasn’t an attempt to win primaries, because quite frankly, back then a lot of the seats that we were trying to win were held by Republicans,” he said. “So it was very November focused. We were successful by and large, and we did this because you know overall we’ve seen for decades that the party itself, as a general rule, is more focused on primaries than general elections.”
McCreight (right) with Peña at the Brooklyn Democratic Party’s contentious county committee meeting in September. File photo by Gabriele Holtermann
McCreight has worked on successful campaigns for former Council members, including Brannan and Vincent Gentile; as well as current member Kayla Santosuosso, who defeated Republican George Sarantopoulos in a closely-watched race last year.
Now, he’s running against incumbent Republican Alec Brook-Krasny in AD-46, which covers a swath of southern Brooklyn from Bay Ridge to Coney Island.
Brook-Krasny represented the district as a Democrat from 2006 to 2015, but changed parties in 2022 and defeated Democratic incumbent Mathylde Frontus. McCreight first ran against Brook-Krasny in 2024, and lost by just over 1,000 votes.
Despite the success of other candidates, McCreight said he has not gotten any support from the Brooklyn Democratic Party during his campaign.
“I mean, we’re used to it,” he said. “You know, this is what we signed up for.”
McCreight, who supports Peña and NKD, said he has a solid coalition of supporters and community groups. Democrats in southern Brooklyn, who say they lack support from the party, have a different approach.
“My campaign has tons of local volunteers. We win our races by doing the right thing for the neighborhood, being active in the community, making sure people know who we are before we decide to run, and you know we organize around that and make sure that folks who want to get involved have an easy way of doing that,” he said.
He has also gotten plenty of support from clubs like the Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats and Brooklyn Young Democrats, he said.
DeCillis, who is preparing to face off against Malliotakis in NY-11, is using a similar tactic. He’s run in the district’s Democratic primary twice before, but dropped out both times after Max Rose entered the race. Since then, though, he’s stayed engaged in local politics, leading town halls on immigration and Medicare and Medicaid and organizing Staten Island’s first “No Kings” rallies. Shifting political leanings in the borough pushed him to run again.
“I realized that there was a genuine grassroots movement happening that was separate and different than what had happened before, because these are people who came to their first protest, their first town hall, their first rally,” DeCillis said.
Protestors outside Malliotakis’ Brooklyn office earlier this year. File photo by Gabriele Holtermann
The Richmond County Democratic Party is more involved in the nomination and endorsement process, DeCillis said, but he would, in theory, expect some financial and logistical support from the Brooklyn Democratic Party. But, in reality, they didn’t expect much, DeCillis said. He pointed to Bichotte Hermelyn’s spat with Brannan in 2023, when he faced off against Republican Ari Kagan.
At the time, DeCillis recalled a “really weird vibe coming to most of southern Brooklyn that [Bichotte Hermelyn] did not want to elect Democrats down here.”
He felt NY-11 was flippable, though, and that what his campaign lacked in funding and institutional support, they could make up for in manpower. With the help of hundreds of volunteers, he said, he and his team have been carrying out mass canvassing events, sending emails and targeted advertisements, and holding phone banks to reach voters.
“I like the way we’re doing it now because — not that I would turn down $8 million — but I think that what we’re seeing is that the level of enthusiasm and engagement is absolutely off the charts,” he said. “I’ve never seen it that involved down here, even in the 2018 flip.”
Peña and the New Kings Democrats have been helpful too, he said, and have hosted canvasses and worked to amplify the campaign. DeCillis, long frustrated with the Brooklyn Democratic Party’s lack of action, said the ongoing battle to maintain control had made things worse.
“They were fairly useless before, but what they’re doing now is literally handicapping these races by going through all of this logistical nonsense of trying to litigate something that is frankly not their right,” he said. “And so it’s been really unfortunate because it also has drawn attention away from what we’re trying to do.”
While McCreight and DeCillis forge their own paths, Cohen-Saban said he has enjoyed plenty of support from the county party in nearby AD45.
‘The support in that race … was Rodneyse’
A lifelong Brooklynite and chief of staff to local state Senator Sam Sutton, Cohen-Saban said he decided to run in AD45 in 2022, immediately after Democrat Steve Cymbrowitz lost his race to Republican Michael Novakhov by more than 4,000 votes.
“The problem was my base, which is the Sephardic Jewish community and the Orthodox Jewish community, historically, has not really come out to vote,” he explained. “That was the challenge. People were like ‘Well, you really need to have a strong base in order to run, especially in a district that is this conservative.’”
At the time, Cohen-Saban said, he had “no name recognition,” but believed he could win voters over. He spent a year “running around the district,” knocking on thousands of doors and meeting tens of thousands of voters.
Cohen-Saban (left) said he had “no name recognition” when he entered the race in 2024. Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Democratic Party
“My theory is that communities will vote for their own if the message is right, and if they believe that this person is going to fight for them,” he said.
In the 2024 election, Novakhov defeated Cohen-Saban by just 232 votes. In a district that went heavily for Trump in the presidential election, losing by such a slim margin was “extraordinary,” Cohen-Saban said.
“The support in that race really, from the very, very beginning, was Rodneyse,” he said.
Bichotte Hermelyn introduced him to people and stakeholders across the district, he said, helped him get his campaign off the ground, connected him with the New York State Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee, and helped with day-to-day operations.
“She was there every day,” Cohen-Saban said. “I was this first-time candidate who had no idea what I was getting myself into, no idea who to call, where to start, what to do … but she really helped walk me through it. She helped. I’ve got nothing but good things to say.”
He is familiar with the gripes some other candidates have about the county party, he said, and isn’t sure why Bichotte Hermelyn threw her weight behind him, especially since he had such a slim chance of victory in 2024.
“Maybe she just likes me as a person, I don’t know,” he laughed.
Since Lucas’ contested election as chair, she has helped too, he said, in getting volunteers and drumming up support from labor organizations.
Assembly Member Nikki Lucas, the contested chair of the Brooklyn Democratic Party.File photo Gabriele Holtermann
In the midst of the inter-party turmoil, he hasn’t seen much difference in how the party is operating, he said, and he feels there’s a sense of unity among “establishment” members.
Cohen-Saban — along with Xie and He — have largely sided with Bichotte Hermelyn and the establishment. They voted in favor of Bichotte Hermelyn’s rule changes in August, and supported Lucas as the new chair earlier this month, while McCreight abstained from both votes.
Xie and He did not return requests for comment.
It wasn’t Bichotte Hermelyn’s support that spurred Cohen-Saban’s choices, he said, but a clash with his fellow district leaders earlier this summer. In June, newly-elected district leader Carmella Charrington, who was backed by NKD, shared a video promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories on social media.
Cohen Saban, furious, put together a petition calling for her resignation. But NKD president Tony Melone reportedly texted district leaders not to sign it. Instead, Melone wrote, they would work together “to fight antisemitism and educate all our coalition partners.” That was “the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Cohen-Saban said.
“This guy’s not a district leader. Yes, he’s the president of NKD or whatever it is, but we are colleagues and we stand together. At least that’s what it’s supposed to be, right?” Cohen-Saban said. “I cannot support anybody that can take a stance or a stand against anti-Semitism, and it’s especially the case if that anti-Semitism is coming from someone from within our party, someone from a certain faction. We should call it out, irrespective of the politics.”
‘Waste of resources’
He feels the infighting is a “waste of resources,” and said he wished party members could “put our differences aside” to carve out a path forward, rather than arguing the same issues over and over again.
“I don’t think that’s going to happen, especially not before the election,” he said.
While both sides seem to agree that the disagreement is wasting time, they can’t agree on whose fault it is.
Peña, McCreight and the reformers say the party establishment should drop their legal challenges and accept a new era; Bichotte Hermelyn, Lucas and their allies say they have done plenty for candidates, and that reformers are getting in the way of their success.
Bichotte-Hermelyn and her lawyer, Anthony Genovesi, during a hearing on the party’s ongoing leadership battle .File photo by Gabriele Holtermann
Earlier this month, reformers named Xie, He and Cohen-Saban — along with dozens of other county party members — in a lawsuit over the likely-illegal Oct. 4 vote to elect Lucas as party chair. Days later, Lucas sent out an email slamming the suit.
“These so-called reformers have spent years creating chaos in a grab for power instead of building the Democratic Party,” the email read. “At a time when Democrats should be fighting Republicans, they are targeting fellow Democrats. These tactics are divisive, disruptive, and undermine the democratic process by attempting to weaken candidates who have earned the support of their communities.”
District leader and lawyer Mark Hanna told City & State that the candidates were only named “so they are listed when it comes time for a judgement that has to do with their vote,” and that he had warned all three that taking part in the vote would violate a temporary restraining order handed down by a judge.
In the same email, the party said it had spent years “identifying, recruiting, mentoring, and supporting community leaders who reflect the neighborhoods they seek to represent.”
“Through thousands of volunteer hours, door-knocking efforts, phone banks, canvasses, and grassroots organizing, we have helped build a pathway for candidates like Larry He, Joyce Xie, and Joey Saban to seek office and provide meaningful representation for their communities,” it wrote.
Recent campaign finance filings seem to show that the party has spent very little — if any — money on the races, which Peña said seemed “100% accurate,” though he noted the filings are sometimes delayed. Reformers for months have said the Brooklyn Dems already owed their lawyers hundreds of thousands of dollars, and worried that an ongoing legal battle would drain their coffers altogether.
The Brooklyn Democratic Party may have forgotten about the ONLY Republican congressional district in Brooklyn but we certainly haven’t. Less than one month to go until Election Day – let’s win this! #Brooklyn https://t.co/lBPnAnM9Ce
— Julio Peña III | 胡立歐 (@Julio_PenaBK) October 10, 2026
Peña said he and NKD have reached out to Cohen-Saban, He and Xie — they were already in touch with DeCillis and McCreight — but only heard back from Xie. In the final days of the campaign, he organized canvassing events for Xie, DeCillis and McCreight.
“Our number one job is ensuring that we are electing Democrats in elections, and I want to bring that kind of back as our core responsibility, as it should be,” Peña said. “In the interim, I am doing anything and everything I can to ensure that candidates, particularly in southern Brooklyn, have the support they need to win on Election Day.”
Business as usual for Brooklyn conservatives
Meanwhile, the Brooklyn Conservative Party is going about business as usual, said chair Fran Vella-Marone.
“We try to do as much as we can for each candidate. You know, some are incumbents, some are new, but we try to do as much as we can,” Vella-Marone said.
They work closely with the county’s Republican Party, and many candidates run on both the Republican and Conservative party lines, though Vella-Marone noted that the Conservative party also recruits Democrats — like Kalman Yeger and Simcha Felder — in right-leaning districts.
In the weeks and months leading up to election day, the party has hosted dozens of events in support of their candidates — “Beer at Buckey’s” for Civil Court candidate Etan C. Harris, a birthday fundraiser for AD-47 challenger John Ricottone, an Oct. 22 annual Conservative Party Fall Reception.
At the same time, the party has purchased ads on social media, launched text and social media campaigns, and hosted regular canvasses. Each week, they campaign outside of local churches, Vella-Marone said, to chat with voters and hand out custom palm cards with the party’s slate. It’s the same routine the party has followed for years, Vella-Marone said. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel.
Brooklyn Republicans Michael Novakhov (second from left), Ari Kagan, Alec Brook-Krasny and Lester Chang (far right.) File photo by Robert Pearl
“We got the same wheel we use all the time. Same wheel, just different spokes,” she joked. “We’ve been doing this for many, many years and I’m lucky to have a good group of people around me.”
While Democrats have struggled to comprehend their sudden losses in the borough, she feels the explanation is straightforward.
“We’ve been giving [voters] a message that they want to hear, and the people that we’ve been electing are people that are working hard in the community,” she said. “We’ve tapped into the Asian community, we’ve tapped into the Russian community. We’ve tapped into all these communities, and these people agree with the message that we have, and they want to keep people that have that message representing them.”
Outside of their ideologies, Vella-Marone said there are significant differences between the Democratic and Conservative party operations in Brooklyn. The Conservative Party is much smaller, she said — with fewer people and “entities” to deal with, the way they function is fundamentally different.
“I do hear from their candidates that they don’t necessarily get the support that they feel they should get,” she said. “Or many of them don’t even bother with the party per se. They just do their own thing. They just never even think about contacting county for assistance.”
“That’s what I see,” she added. “It’s a much different environment than what we have … if we endorse you, if you’re on our line, you’re mine. You know what I’m saying? I’m taking care of you.”
She dismissed the thought that the Brooklyn Democratic Party’s disorganization had led to the Red Wave. “Anyone” can raise money and get matching funds, she said, and should be able to run a good campaign as long as they have a solid core operation, even if they lack institutional support.