Incumbent Eddie Gibbs Wins East Harlem Assembly Primary

Assembly member Eddie Gibbs outpolled first-timer Xavier Santiago for a nine-point win in the Democratic primary on June 25 for District 68 that includes parts of the UES, Spanish Harlem, East Harlem and Randall’s Island.

Santiago, who is known locally as the head of Community Board 11 and the director of the International Puerto Rican Heritage Film Festival, also had the endorsement of Congressmen Adriano Espaillat and Jerry Nadler. That helped Santiago pull 33.5 percent of the vote, but it was not enough to catch Gibbs who was backed by Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie from the Bronx and labor unions and pulled 42.5 precent of the vote in a four-way race.

Two local district leaders, Army veteran Tamika Mapp, who ran and lost against Gibbs in 2022, and William Smith also ran.

Incumbents scored big margins of victory in other Manhattan races. In a race downtown, Congressman Dan Goldman beat back two opponents with 66 percent of the vote. In a NY Senate Democratic primary race for a district that includes a slice of mid-town East and also parts of Brooklyn and Queens, incumbent Kristen Gonzalez won with over 80 percent of the vote.

In two other Manhattan Assembly races, incumbents had announced they were stepping down. On the UWS, 20-year veteran Assembly member Danny O’Donnell said he was not seeking re-election, inspiring five candidates to declare in the Democratic primary. Micah Lasher, who received the support of most of the Democratic establishment including Congressman Nadler and borough president Mark Levine, and City Council member Gale Brewer, pulled 53 percent of the vote. His closest opponent, Eli Northrop’s who was backed by O’Donnell and the Working Families Party, pulled 34.4 precent.

Newcomers were also running in a four-way Assembly race in central Harlem to succeed Inez Dickens, who was not seeking re-election. Jordan Wright, the son of Democratic party boss Keith Wright and a campaign manager for Yusef Salaam’s successful bid for City Council last year, won in his first bid for public office pulling 48.4 percent of the vote over Harlem housing activist and former City Council candidate Maria Ordonez, who was second with 29.68 percent of the vote. Also running were Shana Harmongoff and Craig Schley.

In Gibbs’ Assembly race, the AP called it at 11:15 p.m. on June 25. Espaillat had reportedly sought to have the district which includes Spanish Harlem (El Barrio) represented by a Hispanic candidate, since the district has a Hispanic plurality.

“The will of the people always prevails!” Gibbs wrote on X that night. “I promise to continue fighting to bring you affordable housing, transit equity, and safer streets!!!”

“Let me thank everyone who supported our efforts to make much needed change a reality in our lives,” Santiago wrote on X, following his loss. “The community deserves better leaders who bring integrity and stability to the district.”

Gibbs is the first formerly incarcerated individual to be elected to the NYS Assembly. As a teenager he drifted into drug dealing, selling cocaine in East Harlem where he was raised by a single mother, the second oldest of four siblings. At 17, in an attempted robbery right on his doorstep, he was stabbed in the leg but ended up shooting and killing his assailant which he said was in in self-defense. After 17 months on Rikers Island he accepted a plea deal and pleaded guilty to manslaughter, eventually spending a total of four years and a half years in prison. He earned an associate degree while incarcerated and after losing a big for elected office in 2006 became a community organizer. He was first elected to the State Assembly in a special election in Feb. 2022 in which he won 81 percent of the vote. He was reelected to a full two year term that November.

“Thank you District 68 for believing in me and entrusting me with another term,” Gibbs wrote.