Early Voting for NYS Senate Seat on West Side Postponed
Early voting was scheduled to start Jan. 25 but an impending winter storm prompted Gov. Kathy Hochul to postpone its start. The special election is slated for Feb. 3.
| 23 Jan 2026 | 07:30
The start of early voting in the special election for the New York State Senate on the West Side, which was slated to start on Sunday, Jan. 25, has been postponed by Gov. Hochul due to the impending winter storm.
The special election for the New York State Senate seat on the West Side of Manhattan in District 47 which pits Democrat Erik Bottcher against Republican Charlotte Friedman has postponed the start of early voting on Sunday, Jan. 25.
In making the announcement to postpone that race and two others in the city–including the race for the NYS Assembly seat held by Zohran Mamdani before he took office as Mayor–Hochul said the second day of early voting on Monday Jan. 26 could be postponed as well, depending on the severity of the storm.
The district includes Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen as well as parts of Greenwich Village and part of the UWS up to W. 113th St.
Bottcher, the incumbent city council member from that side of Manhattan, has picked up a slew of endorsements from other leading Dems in his run for NYS Senate including Congressman Jerry Nadler, comptroller Mark Levine, City Council speaker Julie Menin, Democratic majority leader in the city council Shaun Abreu and upper west side assembly member Micha Lasher. Botthcer, who is gay is running with strong support from the LBGTQ+ community and is running on a platform stressing affordability, addressing mental health crisis, environmentalism and defense of democracy.
His Republican challenger Charlotte Friedman has never held elected office but is running on a platform of law and order and enforcement of immigration laws, fighting antisemitism and fighting socialism.