Reformers clinch a majority of Brooklyn DL seats, threatening Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn’s power

Things aren’t looking good for Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn’s reign over the Brooklyn Democratic Party machine. 

Nearly two dozen candidates backed by the Brooklyn Can’t Wait coalition – a group spearheaded by progressive reform club New Kings Democrats – won district leader races in the borough Tuesday night, giving reformers the majority of seats on the county party’s 42-member executive committee. 

The night was rife with seismic upsets. Eight of the nine reform-aligned candidates running in contested races successfully unseated old guard incumbents. In addition to the coalition’s 14 returning district leaders who ran uncontested, that’s likely enough to wrest control of Brooklyn’s political machine from Bichotte Hermelyn – if reformers are able to consolidate around a candidate during the county leader election this September.

The New King Democrats have been attempting to gain influence in the party for years, but progress had been slow. Power struggles between reformers and Bichotte Hermelyn’s county-aligned allies for thankless, unpaid district leader roles have been savage. This cycle was no exception. A handful of candidates sought to get their challengers knocked from the ballot. Still, Bichotte Hermelyn was contemplative while speaking with City & State about the results.

“Change is hard for many – even when it’s your own party,” Bichotte Hermelyn said. “I believe that you embrace the winners, even those you were not with, and you move forward with change. I think yesterday’s results, all of these unprecedented victories, says that progress requires both reflection and renewal.”

Bichotte Hermelyn, who has led the party for six years, didn’t commit to running for reelection. She said that decision depends on the committee members – and that she looks forward to working with everyone who won in the weeks to come. “My priority is to be supportive of our members and to continue to build a team, a party, whether I’m county leader or not,” she said. 

Her hands will likely be full in the months to come. She said one of her biggest priorities is to help flip several Republican-held Southern Brooklyn seats this November. Of course, one of reformers’ arguments against her is that she has said the same thing in the past, while doing far too little to keep all of Brooklyn blue.

Insurgent challengers triumphing over establishment Democrats was the theme of last night’s primaries across the city – a colossal reckoning of the political power showcased by the left. All three congressional candidates backed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani notched decisive victories against powerful opponents, ousting one of Congress’s wealthiest members and the chair of Congressional Hispanic Caucus. The slate of candidates for state legislative seats endorsed by the mayor and the Democratic Socialists of America also triumphed.

The parallels between these higher profile races and the district leader contests in Brooklyn aren’t an exact parallel. New Kings Democrats is not DSA. Only some of the candidates endorsed by the Brooklyn Can’t Wait coalition also scored endorsements from DSA. And one of the candidates who lost his congressional race last night, Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, actually founded New Kings Democrats two decades ago. In that particular race, Bichotte Hermelyn said she’s more aligned with its victor, democratic socialist Claire Valdez – her colleague in the state assembly – than she is Reynoso. 

New Kings Democrats President Tony Melone was thrilled by how well the coalition’s candidates performed. Going in, he’d said the group needed to unseat eight establishment incumbents – a feat they’d ultimately accomplished with races across the borough.

New York City Council Member Sandy Nurse, co-chair of the legislative body’s progressive caucus, and community organizer Alan Gamboa were among the winners, easily capturing their district leader races in Bushwick and Cypress Hills. As did deed theft advocates Carmella Charrington and Omar Hardy in Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights. The two political newcomers successfully unseated the county-aligned Kenesha Traynham-Cooper and Brooklyn Dems Executive Committee Vice Chair Henry Butler, who many had seen as a potential compromise candidate for party chair. Former state committee member Akel Williams unseated Anthony Beckford in Central Brooklyn. And the lone insurgent candidate who’d lost, Stanley Scutt, did so against one of the party’s most powerful members: former Brooklyn Democratic Party boss Frank Seddio in Southern Brooklyn. 

The dust is still settling – it’s unclear which reformer will emerge to challenge Bichotte Hermelyn should she run again. Melone said many important meetings between coalition members loom. 

“We certainly don’t want to get ahead of them and we don’t want to rush the process,” he said. “It seems important that the coalition have some real conversations and really talk about what this party should look like and how we can make it better.”