Kristy Marmorato pulled off a surprising victory over Marjorie Velázquez in District 13 Tuesday night — making history as the first Republican elected to the City Council from the Bronx in 40 years.
With her win — it remains unofficial until certified by the city Board of Elections (BOE) — Marmorato will flip the East Bronx seat in an off-year election, removing the one-term incumbent Democrat from office and giving Republicans a small foothold in the heavily blue borough.
The Associated Press called the race for Marmorato on Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday evening, Velázquez conceded.
“While this is not the outcome we wanted, I know that if we continue the hard work of organizing for values of inclusion, acceptance, and diversity – this community will ultimately reject fear in favor of hope,” she said in an official statement. “I want to thank my family, our volunteers, my dedicated campaign staff, my brothers and sisters in labor, the elected officials who had my back, our allies at issue organizations doing the hard work every day to make our city a better place, and most of all, my East Bronx constituents.
“I urge my successor to work for all of District 13 – especially those who’ve been underrepresented for generations,” added Velazquez, who won office in 2021 as the first Latina ever elected in Council District 13.
With 98.3% of BOE scanners reported on Thursday, Marmorato had secured almost 53% of the vote, ahead of Velázquez’s nearly 47% — the candidates were separated by 708 votes. Marmorato’s turnout on the Conservative ballot line, where she netted nearly 800 votes, proved vital. That coupled with a poor showing at the polls by Democrats — despite a decided advantage in voter registration numbers — left the door open for the Republican.
District 13, which pundits view increasingly as a swing district, includes the northeast neighborhoods of Throggs Neck, Allerton, Morris Park, City Island and Pelham Parkway. The district is made up of 61.7% registered Democrats, 14% registered Republicans and 20.8% unaffiliated voters, but recent elections showed a possible pathway for the GOP. In 2021, Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa won the district by one percentage point over Eric Adams, the Democratic mayor.
A string of GOP futility — nearly 20 years since the last Bronx Republican, Guy Velella, held office — now comes to a close after a tough campaign and the significance was not lost on Marmorato following the win.
“This is huge. This is huge for the Bronx, it’s huge for the Republican Party,” she told the Bronx Times. “We’re going to get the momentum up and going and hopefully win more seats.”
As for Democrats, the finality of the loss began to settle in Tuesday night. Ariana Collado, executive director of the Bronx Dems, told stunned Velázquez supporters that the result should serve as a “wake up call.”
In the June primary, Velázquez easily scooted past her Democratic challengers who ran to the right of her — securing 67% of the total vote.
The primary wasn’t as quick and painless for her challenger, however.
Marmorato — a radiologic technologist at Greenwich Hospital in Connecticut — ran on both the Republican and Conservative lines in the primary and just narrowly eclipsed her opponent George Havranek.
The two candidates went head-to-head at several debates, the most recent on BronxNet TV — which escalated to heights never before seen by the network.
For the past year, Velázquez has taken heat from low-density housing proponents over her about-face on the Bruckner Boulevard rezoning project. The plan, which is set to bring 348 new apartments to Throggs Neck, including units set aside for seniors and veterans, passed the full City Council in October 2022 after Velázquez’s unexpected decision to back the project. The incumbent has repeatedly defended her final “yes” vote — saying the original Bruckner proposal and the one she landed on were “vastly different.”
Marmorato likely won some votes across party lines with her stance on the project — she said that she would not have voted to approve it.
The Republican now looks ahead to a four-year term in a seat that pays a base salary of $148,500 annually, according to SeeThroughNY.
Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that a Republican from the Bronx hadn’t been elected to the New York City Council in 50 years. The last time the Bronx had a Republican City Council member was in 1983 with Joseph Savino Jr.
– Steven Goodstein, ET Rodriguez and Erin Edwards contributed to this report
For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
