Nick LaLota led Chris Gallant by two points in Long Island's First District as the first wave of results showed Republican incumbents hanging on by far narrower margins than they had two years ago. LaLota had won the district by 11 points then, making the early count a sharp turn in a race that was suddenly much closer than many expected.
The timing matters because the national result was already clear: Democrats had taken back control of both the Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, and Long Island's four congressional incumbents appeared likely to go back to Washington, D.C. in January. On a night like that, every point in a close district carried extra weight, especially in the First District, where the gap had been cut to two points.
Gallant did not concede. He said there were still votes to count and that every single one of them deserved to be counted, adding that the closeness of the result showed Long Island was not satisfied with the status quo. That message fit a night when Democrats gained ground across the island, even if the leading Republican incumbents still held on in the early returns.
The First District was not the only race that tightened. Andrew Garbarino was up just two points on Patrick Halpin in the Second District, after winning there by 20 points in 2024. Halpin told News 12, “We'll see,” and Suffolk County Democratic Committee Chair Rich Schaffer said both races were too close to call. Neither Democrat had conceded the race yet, which left the final count more important than the first round of numbers.
Elsewhere on Long Island, Tom Suozzi led Michael LiPetri by 10 points in the Third District, a seven-point gain from 2024, while Laura Gillen led Jeanine Driscoll by 13 points in the Fourth District, an 11-point improvement from two years ago. Suozzi said at his victory party that the President had told voters to act like he was on the ballot, and that people did. Gillen told News 12 that the Democratic Party had not had many good nights and that 2025 had been hard in Nassau County, but that the country seemed ready to get back on a different track.
For LaLota, the early margin was the story. A two-point lead in a district he carried by 11 points two years ago suggested a far tighter fight than the one he won before, even if the outstanding votes could still move the numbers. What the first count showed was enough to keep the result alive, and enough to make the final tally in the First District the number that still mattered most.
