Erie County Democrat and Republican analysts react to election results

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Democrats won big on Tuesday night, sweeping most races across Erie County. Now, nearly 24 hours after polls closed, political analysts on both sides of the aisle are weighing in on what led to those results.

From the top of the ballot down, Democrats were victorious in a majority of races across Erie County. While Erie County is by and large a blue county, Republicans had high hopes in a number of races.

Len Lenihan, former chair of the Erie County Democratic Committee, attributed the party’s win in most races to the cost of living and promises made by President Donald Trump to lower prices, which he believes were not kept.

“Since Trump came into office, he was going to lower costs on Day One. OK, that was a little bit of a hype,” Lenihan said. “But, here we are 10 months later, and prices are up everywhere.”

Lenihan believes this is a sign of what’s to come in next year’s midterms.

“It’s a clean sweep, it was a great night,” Lenihan said. “It certainly portends well for the Democrats next year going into the midterm elections.”

A race local Republicans had high hopes for was the Amherst Supervisor race.

Democratic candidate and current Amherst Deputy Supervisor Shawn Lavin secured 52.9% of the vote over business owner Dan Gagliardo, who ran on the Republican line.

Not all Republicans feel defeated by last night’s result in Amherst but feel it’s something they can build upon.

“We got a lot of people that voted for Republicans in Amherst, more so than in the last decade and a half,” said Bob Davis, chair of the Amherst Republican Committee. “We’re not done. The energy level in this community, in this party, is the best it’s been in 20 years.”

Former Deputy Erie County Executive and political strategist Carl Calabrese agrees that last night’s result was a sign that Republicans are making inroads in Amherst.

“A good race, Dan Gagliardo lost by what, 1,800 votes, when Democrats have a 13,000-vote advantage, so certainly cut into it,” Calabrese said. “But, there are no participation trophies in politics, you either win first place or no place.”

Also an issue, according to Calabrese, was voter enrollment and registration for Republicans.

“The voter enrollment in Erie County is 135,000 voters down. That’s a tough hill to climb,” Calabrese said. “Republicans better look down the road and figure out how to motivate their base and register more voters, that is just something that is sorely lacking in Erie County.”

Overall, it was Republicans’ grassroots efforts and community canvassing that analysts believe led to their defeat, saying more should’ve been done to register voters and grow the party in Erie County leading up to the election.

Ultimately, both parties say they’re looking ahead to next year’s midterms. While local Democrats hope to maintain this momentum, local Republicans are taking what happened last night as a sign of what could happen next year if the party doesn’t make inroads on voter registration.