17th Congressional District: Jones Ahead After NY Primary Day

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — With voter results in from Primary Day for Congressional District 17, Rockland County resident Mondaire Jones leads his rivals running for the Democratic line on the November ballot. Maureen McArdle Schulman of Westchester holds a commanding lead for the Republican line.

Longtime Rep. Nita Lowey is retiring from the district, which includes most of Westchester County and all of Rockland. Ten people from the two major political parties sought to replace the powerful congresswoman, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee. Catherine Parker dropped out of the race after the ballots were printed.

Results of the primaries are still weeks away. Unofficial election night results do not include the results of absentee ballot voting. State election officials said county boards of elections have received a historically high number of absentee ballots for all the June 23 primaries due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Absentee ballots postmarked by June 23 must be received by the Board of Elections no later than June 30, 2020 to be counted, as per New York State Election Law Section 8-412(1).

Jones, 33, is a former litigator in the Westchester County Law Department and former Department of Justice staffer during the Obama Administration. He has degrees from Stanford University and Harvard Law School.

"I think we get better policy outcomes when we have more people in Congress for whom policy is personal," he told Patch. Read his complete candidate profile.

Schulman was one of New York City's first female firefighters. "Our individual rights and freedoms are currently under attack. We are being forced into conformity of opinion and speech by those claiming to be politically correct," she told Patch. Read her candidate profile.

The New York State Board of Elections posted these interim vote tallies:

Democratic primary

• Catherine F. Parker - 670
• Mondaire Jones - 13,625
• Adam P. Schleifer - 6,253
• Allison H. Fine - 533
• Asha Castleberry-Hernandez - 921
• David Buchwald - 1,683
• Evelyn Farkas - 2,759
• David Carlucci - 3,958

Republican primary

• Maureen McArdle Schulman - 4,283
• Yehudis Gottesfeld - 1,160

In the Demcratic Primary, in Rockland County, Jones ended Tuesday with 39 percent of the votes. Westchester resident Adam P. Schleifer picked up 26 percent of the vote and Rockland resident David Carlucci was the third highest vote getter with 20 percent. In Westchester County, Jones had a stronger showing, picking up 47 percent of the votes. Evelyn Farkas was the second-highest vote getter with 13 percent. Schliefer received 12 percent of the vote.

In the Republican primary, Schulman picked up 61 percent of the vote in Rockland and 78 percent of the vote in Westchester.

You can also check out results on your county's board of elections website.

• Rockland County
• Westchester County