At a packed election night watch party, Democrat Chris McCreight conceded the race for the 46th Assembly District to incumbent Republican Alec Brook-Krasny, who is poised to secure re-election with over 52% of the vote.
As of 11:15 p.m., with an estimated 95% of scanners reporting, McCreight had garnered just over 47% of the vote (17,548 to Brook Krasny’s 19,474). The district includes parts of Coney Island, Dyker Heights and Fort Hamilton.
Shortly after polling sites closed, supporters of state Sen. Andrew Gounardes (who handily won re-election in the 26th Senatorial District) and McCreight gathered at Lock Yard in Bay Ridge for an election watch party.
Brook-Krasny was one of three Republicans who flipped Democratic-held southern Brooklyn Assembly seats from blue to red in 2022 when he toppled former Democratic Assembly Member Mathylde Frontus. McCreight, who currently serves as City Council Member Justin Brannan’s chief of staff, tried to recapture the district — which stretches from Bay Ridge to Brighton Beach and also includes Dyker Heights, Bath Beach, and Coney Island — for his party.
McCreight, who ultimately fell short, acknowledged the difficulty of the race and thanked his supporters for their tireless efforts during his concession speech.
“I’ve never seen a campaign that had so many people out there knocking doors, so many people out there making phone calls, being at train stations. This is all you guys, and you guys did so much,” McCreight said.
He also highlighted his strong performance in the district, noting that his numbers were better than those of Vice President Kamala Harris in the same area.
“It is a sign of a good campaign, a sign that people were actually receptive to our message, but the numbers that [Harris] put up in this area were the lowest we’ve ever seen in any presidential campaign in this district,” McCreight said.
Council Member Brannan emphasized the importance of local campaigning, saying, “I appreciate Democrats heading to Pennsylvania to get out the vote, but there’s a swing state here in southern Brooklyn. Sometimes it feels a little performative, but we’ve got real wars happening here.”
Brook-Krasny returned to the Assembly two years ago after serving there as a Democrat between 2006 and 2015 before switching parties in 2022. Two years after he resigned in 2015, Brook-Krasny was arrested for healthcare fraud, but the case was later dismissed in 2019.
Since regaining his old seat, the assembly member has said that it’s the Democratic Party that’s changed — not him.
“I realized that the Democratic Party just left me,” Brook-Krasny told City & State. “I was a conservative at the time I was a Democrat. I am still a conservative. My opinions about things did not really change… because we have more and more socialism in the Democratic Party, I just don’t belong there anymore. At least for now.”
Brook-Krasny supports increased funding for struggling schools, backing small businesses, improving NYCHA conditions and expanding affordable housing. He opposes bail reform and the legalization of cannabis, and has called for shutting down illegal cannabis shops across the city. While facing backlash for comments against transgender youth, he maintains that his agenda is based on “common sense” rather than strict party lines in an area that is politically purple.
At a victory party on Tuesday night, Brook-Krasny said this most recent campaign had been his most difficult — alleging that Democrats don’t “play a fair game these days, and just try to trash your name all the time.”
His win was possible thanks to the support of the Brooklyn Conservative Party, the Brooklyn GOP, and others, he added.
At Lock Yard, McCreight supporter Derek Gaskill, who had spent the day knocking on doors, praised the candidate’s policies and character.
“Mostly, it comes down to his opponent, who is very anti-LGBT, and Chris is extremely pro-LGBT,” Gaskill explained. “And the people of South Brooklyn deserve someone that’s gonna stand up for them and not actively insult them at a bare minimum, which Chris would never.”
Council Member Shahana Hanif, who represents Brooklyn’s 39th District, attended the watch party to show solidarity with McCreight. Hanif had been visiting polling locations in her district since 6 a.m., focusing particularly on Kensington, a neighborhood with a large Bangladeshi immigrant community.
“But I particularly focused on the parts of my district that have people who are less likely to cast their ballots. And so that, for my district, is Kensington, a huge Bangladeshi immigrant community,” Hanif told Brooklyn Paper.
Hanif emphasized that simply providing translated materials was not enough; voter engagement and education were key.
“It’s not enough to just have translated materials because that doesn’t automatically mean that people are comprehending those materials. It’s a question of voter engagement, civic engagement, capacity, language accessibility,” Hanif said. “Because, literally, our health care access is on the line, reproductive health care is on the line, immigration is on the line, and most of these families are waiting to be reunited with their families. There’s so much at stake here.”
Speaking to Brooklyn Paper Wednesday morning, Kings County Conservative Party Chair Fran Vella-Marrone celebrated the turnout for Brook-Krasny.
“What happened in Assembly District 46 is fantastic. I’m confident in that margin of victory,” she said, adding that she expects Republican Assembly Member Michael Novakhov to finish the race for Assembly District 46 within a similar margin. “I’m proud that [the Kings County Conservative Party] is playing a big role in helping to get these people elected.”
— Additional reporting by Robert Pearl
