How Southern Brooklyn Democrats Flipped State Seats in Immigrant-Heavy Areas

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It was around 9:30 p.m., when the loud chants began.

“La-rry, La-rry!” “Joyce, Joyce!”

Inside the two-story house in Bensonhurst, it felt as though the roof could come off. Dozens of community members and campaign volunteers for State Senate District 17 and State Assembly District 49 candidates gathered inside Tuesday night to watch the election results pour in.

Standing in the center of the crowd was Larry He, the Democratic challenger to incumbent Republican state senator Steve Chan. Beside him was Joyce Xiaoqiong Xie, the Democratic challenger to incumbent Republican Assembly member Lester Chang. 

By 10 p.m., the updated vote counts flashed across a large TV screen with more cheers following from the crowd. Both He and Xie were victorious, unseating the incumbents in previously Republican-held districts — part of a wave of shifts toward Democrats that happened all over the country on Tuesday.

The following morning, WeChat groups run by local Chinese residents in Bensonhurst were buzzing with the news. 

In this part of South Brooklyn, the Republican and Democratic tickets were each represented by Chinese American candidates. After leaning increasingly Republican in recent years — driven in part by local voters’ concerns about public safety and the placement of homeless shelters in the neighborhood — the neighborhood had turned blue.

Like many Democrats, Xie, the budget director and community liaison for City Council member Susan Zhuang, and He, the chief of staff to Assembly member William Colton, had campaigned on issues such as housing, affordability, supporting local families and small businesses with essential resources and improving public safety. 

He handily trounced the incumbent Chan by over 14 percentage points to secure a seat in the state Senate. In the state Assembly race, Xie beat Chang by nearly six percentage points, according to the latest results from the New York State Board of Elections.

On Election Day, several Chinese voters told Documented they were concerned about public safety, citing the recent fatal stabbing of a runner in Bath Beach and a proposed homeless shelter in South Brooklyn as reasons for their concern. But more important were issues that directly affected their daily lives, such as affordability and broader economic conditions under the Trump administration that have taken precedence over broader political debates, voters told Documented. Some specifically mentioned the administration’s immigration enforcement policies. 

Dan Chen, 44, cast her ballot at P.S. 97 The Highlawn in Bensonhurst before 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, hoping to finish voting before heading to work.

“Exercising our rights as citizens is important,” said Chen, an immigrant from Fujian, China, who became a U.S. citizen in 2016.

Chen voted for Donald Trump and Republican candidates in 2024. But over the past two years, rising living costs and concerns about public safety have shifted her support toward Democrats.

“I hope Democrats can do a better job,” she said in Mandarin. “Trump did a good job maintaining border security and improving safety when many immigrants came into the country in recent years. But the cost of everything in our daily lives has gone up — rent, food, utilities, you name it. At the end of the day, what matters is our own lives.”

Kenneth Lee, 74, who has lived in Bensonhurst for more than three decades, said that while he hopes Democrats will do more to improve public safety and address immigration issues, he still voted for Democrats because he believes the party cares more about low-income residents, particularly as inflation continues to squeeze many New Yorkers.

“Food prices are so high now. Twenty years ago, you could buy several apples for $1. Now, a single apple costs more than $1, while our incomes haven’t increased at the same pace,” he said. “Many people have to rely on food stamps to get by.”

Another voter, Li, who requested to only use his last name for privacy reasons, cast his ballot for Democratic candidates at P.S. 101 in Bensonhurst. Li, who is 70 years old, said that he has voted in every election since becoming a U.S. citizen four years ago.

Li said rising prices and inflation over the past few years have made life particularly difficult for low-income residents, like him, especially after the federal government stopped reimbursing stolen SNAP [food stamp] benefits in December 2024. “Life has been very difficult,” he said.

For Li, supporting Democrats was an obvious choice.

“The simplest way to look at it is that inflation has been high under Republican leadership, and life has become more difficult for low-income people,” he said. “I hope things will get better. We ordinary people don’t know that much about policy. These are just our simple thoughts,” he added.

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