Kavanagh Drops Out of Senate Run, Upending Downtown Primary Contests

State Sen. Brian Kavanagh speaks last month at a candidate forum sponsored by the Downtown Independent Democrats. The club endorsed his uncontested run for another term. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib 

UPDATE: 2/10/26 Since this story was first posted Grace Lee and Sommer Omar as well as Yuh-Line Niou have declared their candidacy for Senate in District 27. Mariama James, Jasmin Sanchez, Wei-Li Tjong and Jacky Wong have declared their candidacy for State Assembly in District 65.

Brian Kavanagh, who since 2017 has represented Lower Manhattan in the New York State Senate and was running unopposed in the June Democratic primary, said on Tuesday that he will not seek reelection. The surprise announcement upended the June Democratic primary contests for Lower Manhattan representation in the state Senate and possibly the Assembly.

With candidate petitioning set to begin on Feb. 24, “now people are going to scramble for that seat,” said Richard Corman, who after eight years stepped down recently as president of the Downtown Independent Democrats. 

“They’re going to need to start getting endorsements and money and then go out and collect signatures,” he added. “It’s a very tight time frame.”

Grace Lee, the current Assembly member representing Lower Manhattan’s 65th Assembly District and running unopposed for re-election this year, said on X that she is “exploring a campaign” for the Senate seat. If she goes ahead, it would set the stage for an unexpected contest in her Assembly district, which encompasses a large swath of Lower Manhattan east of Broadway, including the Financial District and Chinatown. 

Yuh-Line Niou, a former assemblywoman, announced that she will seek the Senate seat. Niou defeated Lee’s attempt to unseat her in 2020. Two years later Lee won the Assembly seat in an open election. In a bid for congress in 2022, Niou narrowly lost to Dan Goldman.

Kavanagh, who represents most of Manhattan below 14th Street, said he will complete his term through December. 

In a statement, Kavanagh said it was time for “a new generation of leadership and I believe that all of us in elected office owe it to our constituents to recognize when we have reached a point when we have given it our all and they would be well served by electing someone new.”

Kavanagh, 59, did not say what he plans to do next, but is “confident that there will be new, exciting, and impactful ways to continue serving the public.”

As recently as last month, Kavanagh spoke at a candidate forum sponsored by the Downtown Independent Democrats, where he again earned the club’s endorsement for what would have been his uncontested run for re-election. At the meeting, he touted his record on housing, gun violence and the environment. At a time when there’s intense focus on New York City’s lack of affordable housing, Kavanagh serves as chair of the Senate Committee on Housing.

Corman said he would like to have seen the senator serve “at least another term.”

“He was getting things accomplished, and he had some pretty strong housing-related issues that he was championing.”

Kavanagh, a former Assembly member representing the Upper East Side, first ran for the Senate in a 2017 special election when Sen. Daniel Squadron gave up his seat mid-term.