NY-AD74: Keith Powers secures Democratic nomination for Assembly
Keith Powers is well-positioned in his bid to join the Assembly after securing the nomination from the Democratic county committee for the upcoming special election to succeed Harvey Epstein in Manhattan.
Roughly 170 members of the committee representing Assembly District 74 participated in the vote, which took place at the Sirovich Center for Balanced Living in the East Village Wednesday night. Powers, a term-limited City Council member, was declared the winner after only one round of voting, defeating three other candidates with around 60% of the vote. Also seeking the nomination was nonprofit leader Sarah Batchu, St. Vartan Park Conservancy President Kevin O’Keefe and Marquis Jenkins, a local district leader and director of advocacy for Housing Works.
While the actual special election isn’t slated to take place until late January or early February 2026, the committee’s vote was a pivotal part of the process to replace Epstein after he vacated his Assembly seat early to join the City Council earlier this month. As the Democratic nominee, Powers is all but guaranteed to win it. The district, which encompasses parts of the Lower East Side, the East Village, Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village, Gramarcy, Flatiron and Murray Hill, is heavily blue. The Republican county committee has yet to nominate its own candidate — and it’s unclear whether it’ll even do so. Others could theoretically get on the ballot as an independent if they gather enough signatures, though they’d face immense odds.
As a sitting elected official, Powers had a big advantage going into Wednesday’s meeting. Those odds were only further boosted earlier after Epstein endorsed him for the seat earlier this month. He also spoke in favor of Powers minutes before the vote, formally nominating him for the committee’s consideration.
https://www.cityandstateny.com/politics/2025/12/keith-powers-secures-democratic-nomination-assembly/410086/?oref=csny-homepage-river