Evans wins second term as Rochester mayor

Rochester’s voters gave Malik Evans a second term as mayor, unofficial results indicate.

Evans won with more than 85 percent of the vote against his Conservative Party opponent, Louis Sabo. Evans had faced a challenge from City Councilmember Mary Lupien and businessman Shashi Sinha in the June Democratic primary, but won handily with 57 percent of the vote.

As Evans begins his next term, he said his priorities over the next four years include work on crime and public safety, economic empowerment, the ongoing opioid epidemic, and continued development of affordable housing throughout the city.

With Rochester’s Zoning Alignment Project slated to release early next year, Evans spoke on continued debates around affordability, stating the city does not have to choose between affordable housing and urban development.

“We believe that we can do it all,” said Evans today. “We don’t think that we have to choose between someone having a vibrant downtown, making a living wage, and living in an affordable house or being able to own a home.”

The five open seats for Rochester City Councilmember At Large were won by incumbents Miguel Meléndez, Mitch Gruber, and Stanley Martin, along with newcomers Lashunda Leslie-Smith and Chiara “Kee Kee” Smith. Smith received the most votes overall, according to unofficial results.

In the Rochester City School Board race, incumbent Camille Simmons was joined by newcomers Kareem McCullough, and Heather Feinman in winning a commissioner’s seat. Their path to victory in the general election was made easier due to a chaotic primary, where three candidates failed to secure a spot on the ballot.

Kathy Hochul appointed Family Court Judge, Tonia Ettinger, held on to the position over challenger Republican Mallorie Rulison, winning with 60 percent of the vote. In the race for State Supreme Court Justice, with a single election district yet to be reported, Democratic candidates Darius Lind and David Siguenza held on to their victory over Republican opponents Kristina “Kitty” Karle and Joe Dinolfo.

Democrats flipped at least one seat in Monroe County’s 12th district. In a stunning upset, Democratic Party candidate Nazish Jeffery won the district, taking the seat over from Republican Minority Leader Steve Brew. Jeffery won with close to 45 percent of the vote. This is the first time a Democrat has held the seat, according to Monroe County Board of Elections records, which date back to 2001.

Jeffery was likely aided by the fact that her opponents, Leslie Schildt and Deborah Campanella ran along the Republican party line and Conservative and Westside first party line, splitting the vote on the right. Schildt and Campanella received 23 percent and 30 percent of the vote total, respectively.

After a night spent trading leads, Democrat Marvin Stepherson ended up with 11 votes over his opponent, Republican Scott Hand in Monroe County’s 3rd district race. In New York, an automatic recount is required if the margin of victory is 20 votes or less. This is Stepherson’s fourth time running for the district, and his vote count of 2,734 is his highest to date.

Here is a look at some other races:

■ Todd Baxter,  who ran unopposed for Monroe County Sheriff, won on the Democratic and Conservative party lines.

■ Jeffrey McCann won the Greece supervisor race over Republican Bill Murphy with 58 percent of the vote. McCann recently served County Executive Adam Bello’s deputy and ran on the Democratic and Conservative party lines. This is the first time a Democratic candidate has won the seat, according to Monroe County Board of Election records.

■ In a bid to replace the embattled Andraé Evans as Irondequoit town supervisor, Democrat John Perticone won the election against Republican Anthony Costanza, who was the subject of misconduct accusations this summer.

■ Penfield Republican incumbents lost in both the supervisor and council races. Kevin Berry will take over the supervisor role from Jeffrey Leenhouts, and Bill Lang and Jon Getz won over town councilmembers Candace Lee and Robert Ockenden.

■ In Pittsford, Republican William Smith Jr. won reelection as town supervisor while Democrats Michael Arcuri and Cha Ron Sattler-Leblanc won seats on the town council.

Alongside announced Democrat victories in the Greater Rochester area, Evans noted the historic nature of his re-election victory as the administration continues to work to mitigate the impact of federal decisions.

“I’m very pleased with the results last night, not just here in Monroe County and Rochester, but across the country, and I’m hoping that we will continue to see some good forward momentum,” said Evans. “In order to really accomplish anything, you have to move from the campaigning and political mumbo-jumbo, as I call it, to the actual governing and getting stuff done.”

Turnout for this cycle was 29.3 percent across the county, which is relatively close to other recent off-cycle elections. (There were turnouts of 28.9 and 30.1 percent in 2023 and 2021.) Unsurprisingly, off-cycle elections typically draw far fewer votes than presidential or midterm elections.

Jacob Schermerhorn is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer and data journalist. Narm Nathan is a Rochester Beacon contributing writer, contributed to this story.

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