New York Democrats have lost their supermajority in the state Senate which means they have lost the power to override any veto that may come from the governor’s office.
Republicans only needed to flip one state Senate seat in this year’s elections to dismantle the Democrats’ razor-thin supermajority, and they managed to do just that in Brooklyn with Republican Stephen Chan unseating Democratic state Sen. Iwen Chu in the district 17 race. New York Democrats have held the supermajority in the Senate since 2020.
"It's more of a psychological boost for Republicans than anything," said University at Buffalo Political Science Professor, Shawn Donahue. "We actually haven't had a veto overridden in New York since George Pataki was governor."
That legislature override on Pataki's veto happened in 2006.
The race for the state Senate's 50th district is still too close to call, but no matter the outcome, the Democrats needed 42 seats to hold on to their supermajority and will have 41 at most, even if that race goes their way.
Donahue says the Democrats are lucky they did not lose more seats, given how narrow the presidential race was in New York compared to four years ago.
"We'll have to see what the final numbers are, but from Biden winning [New York] by 23 points in 2020 to Harris winning by maybe 11 or 12 points, I mean that's one of the more dramatic shifts in the country," Donahue said.
Republicans made gains in New York overall in 2024. This year Harris won the state with 55% of the vote to Trump’s 43%. By contrast, Biden took 61% of the vote in 2020 to Trump's 38%.
