NY 31st State Senate Results: Robert Jackson Declared Winner

NEW YORK, NY — Former city councilman Robert Jackson will serve as upper Manhattan's new state senator after defeating one-term incumbent Marisol Alcantara.

Jackson's win represents a victory in a movement to replace State Senator's once aligned with the Independent Democratic Caucus — a group of elected Democrats who caucused with the senate's Republicans to form a majority. Several other members of the Independent Democratic Caucus, including its former leader Jeffrey Klein, also lost their seats during Thursday's election.

Jackson, who represented northern Manhattan in the city council for 12 years, will now represent much of the same area in addition to parts of Harlem and the Upper West Side.

The former city councilman enjoyed a strong lead over Alcantara and two relatively unknown challengers. With 86 percent of precincts reporting, Jackson captured 56 percent of the vote compared to Alcantara's 38 percent, according to unofficial reports from the New York City Board of Elections. Lesser known challenger Tirso Pina garnered about 4 percent of the vote and Thomas Leon received a little more than 1 percent.

While Thursday's election was only a primary, Jackson will be the heavy favorite to win the general election in a majority Democrat district.

Thursday's primaries also represented a victory for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The governor defeated challenger Cynthia Nixon handily and his preferred candidate for Attorney General, New York City Public Advocate Letitia James, also won her race.

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