Tiffany Cabán Claims Victory In Too-Close-To-Call Queens DA Race

QUEENS, NY — Public defender Tiffany Cabán is claiming victory in the six-person primary for Queens district attorney in a dramatic conclusion to the hotly-contested election, though NY1 is deeming the race too close to call.

Cabán, in her first run for elected office, led party favorite Queens Borough Melinda Katz by 1,090 votes Tuesday in the race to become the borough's next lead prosecutor.

Meanwhile, there are about 3,400 paper ballots from absentee voters that the NYC Board of Elections won't start counting until next week. Katz said she won't concede the election until all votes are counted.

While New York has no specific provisions for a recount, state law mandates a re-canvass of the election results to see if the number of votes recorded on ballot scanners matches the totals from the initial canvass.

About 85,000 Queens residents cast votes on Tuesday out of 766,000 active, registered Democrats in the borough.

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"They said we could not win, but we did it," Cabán said just after 11 p.m. Tuesday at her election night party in Woodside, amid chants of "Tiffany" and "people power."

"Tonight, we won the Queens district attorney's office!" Cabán added.

Cabán ran on a criminal justice reform platform with a mission to radically transform the traditional view of the role of a prosecutor.

"This is very much so about taking care of the communities that I come from — the ones that are disproportionately impacted by our criminal justice system, the ones that are starved of resources and really centering their voices and uplifting them," Cabán told Patch by phone in May.

Katz was widely perceived as the race's frontrunner as the favored candidate of the Queens County Democratic Party and a familiar face to the borough's voters, who have twice elected her to the borough presidency.

Katz out-raised her competitors and racked up endorsements from scores of elected officials and labor unions, an influential force in voter turnout.

But the results Tuesday suggest that wasn't enough to best Cabán, who cultivated an enthusiastic base of grassroots supporters that turned out in droves on Election Day to get voters to the polls.

Cabán counted among her supporters Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. She also won the endorsement of The New York Times editorial board.

Her campaign drew comparisons to that of Ocasio-Cortez, who pulled off an upset victory last year against incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley, the then-leader of the Queens Democratic Party.

Cabán's high-profile endorsements catapulted the political newcomer into the headlines and drew national attention to the type of local race that rarely garners such scrutiny.

I am so incredibly proud of @CabanForQueens - and EVERY single person who showed up for this election today.

No matter how this ends, you all have stunned NY politics tonight.

When people come together, we can beat big money in elections. People power is no fluke. https://t.co/hsJx7p3REN
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 26, 2019

Longtime prosecutor and judge Greg Lasak, who won the endorsements of the New York Post and New York Daily News editorial boards, won about 12,000 votes.

City Council Member Rory Lancman received just over a thousand votes despite dropping out of the race last week to support Katz.

Lancman, whose district includes Kew Garden Hills and parts of Jamaica, was still on the ballot due to the short notice.

The former Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown died in May at the age of 86 after battling health issues associated with Parkinson's Disease. He was the longest-serving district attorney in Queens history.

Chief Assistant District Attorney John M. Ryan is serving as the acting district attorney until Brown's successor takes office.

Patch editor Noah Manskar contributed reporting.