Louis Ingrassia, a longtime commissioner of public works for the town of Wallkill, won the Republican primary for New York’s 100th Assembly District on June 25.
The district covers the city of Middletown, the town of Wallkill, and most of Sullivan County.
Mr. Ingrassia received 1,249 votes, while his primary opponent, Camille O’Brien, received 858 votes, according to the unofficial results published by the New York State Board of Elections.
“I want to thank everyone who has backed and supported me during the race,” he said in a statement. “I look forward to working even harder on the campaign trail over the next few months and listening to what is on the minds of the good and hard-working residents.”
“Congratulations to Lou Ingrassia on his primary win,” Ms. O’Brien, a staffer for state Sen. Peter Oberacker, said in her concession statement, “I am proud to have run a good, clean campaign and hope that we have both demonstrated that campaigns can be run with the character and integrity that is so often missing in the current political landscape.”
Mr. Ingrassia faces Democrat candidate and veteran attorney Paula Kay in November’s general election.
The assembly seat has long been held by Democrat lawmaker Aileen Gunther, who decided not to seek reelection after almost 20 years in office.
Statistically, registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans in the district by about one-third, or 10,000; the number of independents mirrors that of registered Republicans, according to voter enrollment data as of Feb. 27.
Mr. Ingrassia told The Epoch Times that his post-primary strategy is to reach out to voters of all stripes with his messages on affordability and taxes, public safety laws, immigration, road infrastructure investments, and more.
“From our standpoint, there is no more party in this race,” he said. “It is just about the residents and voters in the district deciding what’s best for them and who’s best to represent them.
“We are going to target everyone to get our message out and say, ‘At this point, you are voting for the person and the candidate. You are not voting for the party.’”
As of June 11, Mr. Ingrassia had raised close to $52,000 for his Assembly run, according to publicly available data from the state’s Board of Elections.
