John Avlon Beats Nancy Goroff In 1st Congressional District Democratic Primary

Long Island Morning Edition

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Former CNN anchor John Avlon beat chemist Nancy Goroff in the closely watched 1st Congressional District Democratic primary yesterday, according to unofficial Suffolk County Board of Elections returns. Vera Chinese reports in NEWSDAY that as of 11 last night, with 98% of votes counted, Avlon had 70.2% to Goroff's 29.6%., according to the BOE.

Avlon, 51, of Sag Harbor, will face incumbent Rep. Nick LaLota in the Nov. 5 general election. Lalota is a Republican from Amityville who was first elected to congress in 2022.

Avlon declared victory Tuesday night in a speech to supporters at Riverhead Brew House in Riverhead.

“Today we proved that the positive defeats the negative,” Avlon said.

“Today we showed the politics of addition can defeat the politics of division and that's going to be the key to finally flipping this swing seat and winning in November,” he said.

“Now is the time for all Suffolk County Democrats to come together,” Avlon said. “We need to unite so we can fire up the base and then because Democrats are in fact the last big party that believes in bipartisanship we need to reach out with clarity and confidence to get to the real business going — winning this election and winning back Congress.”

Avalon’s landslide Democratic primary victory notwithstanding, Republicans said last night they are confident Congressman LaLota will keep the seat.

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Former CNN political analyst John Avlon will be the Democratic candidate in this fall’s race for the East End’s First Congressional District seat, after taking home a decisive 70 percent of the vote in yesterday’s Democratic primary against Nancy Goroff, a chemist and former chair of the chemistry department at Stony Brook University. Beth Young in EAST END BEACON reports that the 1st Congressional District, which includes all of the five East End Towns along with Huntington, Smithtown and the northern part of Brookhaven, is currently represented in Congress by Republican Nick LaLota, a first-term incumbent from Amityville.

With a centrist message focusing on keeping Long Island affordable and protecting democracy, Mr. Avlon, a former speechwriter who lives in Sag Harbor, has energized voters throughout the brief campaign with the assertion that CD1 is a swing district, and could be returned to Democrats this year, when party control of Congress is very much in play.

At his acceptance speech in Riverhead last night Avlon said, “We in Suffolk County are lucky to live in a swing district. Most Americans don’t. That’s a problem. That’s what’s lead to all this poisonous hyper-partisanship that has frustrated so many of us. But here, we can do something about it, because winning in a swing district requires the politics of addition, not division.”

“The positive defeats the negative,” Avlon told supporters gathered at the Riverhead Brew House on the Peconic Riverfront in downtown Riverhead. “Now is the time for all Suffolk County Democrats to come together.” Avlon said with unity, Democrats can win the 1st Congressional District and win back the House in November’s general election. Republicans say they are confident incumbent first term Rep. Nick LaLota of Amityville will keep the seat. Savannah Viar, spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said in a statement that Avlon “leaves this primary bruised and with more baggage than what he packed for his temporary trip to Long Island from his permanent residence in Manhattan. No amount of posturing will fool voters into thinking he is anything other than an opportunist who only wants to see himself on television. Rep. LaLota has been delivering for Long Island since he took office and will continue to do so.” Avlon, who owns a Manhattan condominium, switched his voter registration to Suffolk County in 2020, county Board of Elections records show. Avlon has not said when he moved to Sag Harbor, only that he purchased his home there in 2017. Avlon, 51, of Sag Harbor, is a journalist, author and political commentator who registered as a Democrat in August and left his job at CNN in February to run for Congress.