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.

Of the 168 ballots cast Wednesday, 99 went to Powers, 29 went to Jenkins, 25 went to Batchu and 15 went to O’Keefe. (Percentages differed slightly from those numbers as not all ballots were weighted equally.)

As the likely victor of the upcoming special election, Powers will carry out the remainder of Epstein’s term wrapping up at the end of next year. Come June 2026, the typical Democratic primary will take place at which point he may need to fend off an array of challengers to hold onto the seat. Many of the same candidates who sought the Democratic nomination in the special election have also voiced interest in running in the primary, including Batchu, Keefe, Jenkins, and democratic socialist Josh Arnon.

But for now Powers was all smiles. “I am ready for it,” he told the crowd after he was announced the Democratic nominee, citing issues like fighting for affordability and contending with the Trump administration. “And I’m ready to be your next Assembly member.”