As was evidenced throughout the night, this one could have gone either way — and it did, with Laura Gillen (50.9%) winning out over Anthony D’Esposito (49.1%) in a NY-4 battle only separated by a 6,000 vote margin.
The Fourth Congressional District representing Nassau County saw the incumbent D’Esposito utilize his close local Republican party ties as a means to workshop his own campaign as a guest speaker ahead of now President-Elect Donald J. Trump at his historic Nassau Coliseum-held rally.
“One thing is clear: if we’re going to get our country back on track, we need all hands on deck,” D’Esposito said at the time.”
While the Executive Branch has been made red again per these efforts, the Democratic Gillen — a former Hempstead Town Supervisor who ran on an infrastructure improvement and health care access protection platform — vows that on the locally representative level, “it’s time to turn a new leaf.”
“It’s time to get Congress back to work again for everyday people,” she said at the Nassau Democratic HQ Watch Party. “It’s time to stop pointing fingers and start getting the work done and reaching across the aisle and solving the problems that we need solved.”
She added that regardless of one’s party affiliation, she is eager to play ball in a way she indicates her predecessor did not. “I look forward to humbly serving every constituent of this district. It doesn’t matter if you’re an ‘R’ or a ‘D’ or an ‘I,’ I’m here to work for all of you.”