Jun 25, 2026
Aaron Gies, Democratic and Working Families party candidate for Congress in New York’s 23rd District, defeated primary opponent Kevin Stocker, receiving more than 71% of the vote during Tuesday’s primary.
Aaron Gies, Democratic and Working Families candidate for Congress in New York’s 23rd Congressional District, defeated primary opponent, Kevin Stocker, with more than 71% of the vote.
The district includes parts of nine counties stretching from southern Niagara down to the Pennsylvania border and across the Southern Tier to Tioga County. Gies carried each county in the Southern Tier of at least 50 points. Gies won Chautauqua County by a 2,118 to 433 margin, receiving 77.84% of the vote.
“Tonight, we proved that this race has momentum,” Gies said. “That Western New York Democrats have not given in to cynicism. There is a fierce love that still drives us to the streets … to protest, to donate, to canvass, and to vote.”
There was also a contested primary for state comptroller, with incumbent Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli facing a challenge for the first time in 20 years, with Raj Goyle and Drew Warshaw both vying for his role on the Democratic side. DiNapoli claimed victory Tuesday night. He won Chautauqua County with 70.72% of the vote.
The only other primary contest in Chautauqua County on Tuesday involved the Republican town clerk endorsement in Kiantone. Jennifer Schmitt defeated Sandy Volpe Jr., 55-23.
Across the state, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s slate of progressives swept establishment-backed Democrats in the state’s congressional primaries on Tuesday, ousting two sitting congressmen. U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, who leads the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and is in his fifth term, was defeated by Mamdani’s most polarizing pick, Darializa Avila Chevalier, a democratic socialist who once helped organize pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University.
U.S. Rep. Dan Goldman, a two-term incumbent, was beaten by the Mamdani-backed former city Comptroller Brad Lander, a fixture among New York progressives who has often shown sympathy to the democratic socialist movement. And another Mamdani ally, democratic socialist state Assembly Member Claire Valdez, defeated the handpicked successor of retiring U.S. Rep. Nydia Velazquez.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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