Now That the 2020 Presidential Election is Over, What Comes Next For Us?

As Former Vice President Al Gore said when he conceded to then-Governor George W. Bush in the contested 2000 Presidential Election, “This has been an extraordinary election!” The 2020 Elections have truly been extraordinary. Trump will join the list of single-term Presidents, and historic popular vote levels have been reached, as Biden surpassed the 80,000,000 vote mark. However, after the January Georgia Senate Runoffs between Senators Kelly Loeffler (R) and David Perdue (R) versus Raphael Warnock (D) and Jon Ossoff (D) respectively, what’s next for New Yorkers? Well, county and town elections aren’t so far away.

In 2021, an off-year from normal federal and other gubernatorial-related positions, several Town of Hempstead and Nassau County positions are up, and several key races will be up for grabs for both political parties. Let’s start with the Town of Hempstead.

In 2021, the positions of Town Supervisor, District Members 1 and 6 of the Town Council, and Town Clerk are up for election. A key race in this area is the Town Supervisor’s Race, as incumbent Supervisor Donald X. Clavin, Jr. (R) narrowly defeated incumbent  Supervisor Laura Gillen (D) in 2019 for the position. Throughout his first term, Clavin has been seen as a strong leader during the pandemic, although he did attend a controversial event at the Plattdeutsch that was feared to be a “super-spreader” event. He has also been seen battling  Nassau County Executive Laura Curran (D) over certain aid funds during the pandemic. This will be a big race to watch next November.

Hempstead Town Clerk, Kate Murray, a former Town Supervisor, is up for re-election. She defeated incumbent Clerk Sylvia Cabana (D) in 2019 alongside Clavin’s win for Supervisor. Murray won by a bigger margin than Clavin won in the Supervisor’s election. Finally, District One member Dorothy Goosby, a Democrat, and District 6 member, Dennis Dunne, who had run a campaign in 2020 against incumbent State Senator Kevin Thomas, are also up for re-election. These are all races that may be close come election night 2021.

Onto the Nassau County elections in 2021. We have incumbent  County Executive Laura Curran (D) is up for election. She is the first woman to serve in the position and the first Democrat since Tom Suozzi held the office in the late 2000s. Curran won in 2019 after incumbent  County Executive Ed Mangano (R) was exposed, tried, and convicted for committing federal crimes during his ten years in office. This will be a heated election, as Republicans have traditionally held this position over the years. Lastly, the legislature is up. In contrast to Curran’s affiliation with the Democratic Party, the Republican Party controls the legislature, which first flipped back in 2019. These elections have proven crucial for the County Executive’s election, as it foreshadows a possible winner in the end.

While these Elections aren’t until November of 2021, they are the ones to watch. The vast majority of North’s current seniors will be 18 years old and eligible to vote in these elections which will likely be their first, if they get registered and decide to vote. These elections change a lot more than you might think about life here in New York and in Nassau County.