Democrats secure election victories at all levels, keeping with local blue wave in recent years
Democrats Pat Ryan and Josh Riley winning their elections with help from Ulster County voters is just one indicator of the county's blueness.
More Stories
Ulster goes blue again, and News 12 is taking a closer look at the politics of the mid-Hudson county, where voters helped deliver crucial congressional victories for two Democrats on election night.
Local leaders of both major parties spoke with News 12 about November 2024 voter turnout data and why the county continues to stay blue, despite national trends and being surrounded by historically red counties.
Democrats Pat Ryan and Josh Riley won their elections, with help from Ulster County voters - just one indicator of the county's blueness.
Democrats also won several state Senate and Assembly races Tuesday, and helped presidential candidate Kamala Harris win the county.
"We are a powerhouse," New Paltz Deputy Mayor Alexandria Wojcik said Wednesday afternoon of her party's influence in Ulster County.
Democrats voted in their largest numbers in New Paltz, Kingston and Saugerties, according to district-by-district data provided Wednesday by the Ulster County Board of Elections.
Democrats have been succeeding recently in off-year local races, too.
Current Ulster County executive and former state Sen. Jen Metzger is a Democrat, as are state Sen. Michelle Hinchey, Assemblywoman Sarahana Shriesta and Assemblyman Jonathan Jacobson.
Hinchey, Shriesta and Jacobson all won reelections Tuesday.
County Sheriff Juan Figueroa is also a Democrat who has endorsed both Metzger an Ryan in past political contests.
Chris Tague, a Republican who represents part of northwestern Ulster, also won reelection.
More locally, Democrats have a supermajority in the county Legislature.
Wojcik said local Democrats have put in more time and creativity into their efforts to shape Ulster's political scene.
She said Democratic organizers canvass year-round just to meet voters — not just to court their votes — and have successfully organized local college students.
"They knew exactly what they were doing," Wojcik said of local SUNY New Paltz students she helped organize. "Flipping the ballot, all of it. Bringing their roommates and their partners, all of that."
Republican voters' voices were loudest in the southern part of the county and in the Town of Ulster, outside Kingston.
"Obviously, we didn't have a successful day," said Ken Ronk, Shawangunk town supervisor and chairman of the Ulster County Republican Party, when reached be phone Wednesday.
Ronk said Democrats have been especially effective in recent years at registering new county residents, many who have moved here from New York City.
"It started before COVID," he said, "but I think the pandemic-related migration had exacerbated that."
Ronk said the party's main priority moving forward is to break up the Democrats' supermajority in the county legislature.
Wojcik said she is mainly focused on meeting more voters and strengthening the Democrats' grip on Ulster.
