Calone, Throne-Holst Primary Race Too Close to Call

With 100 percent of machine votes counted, Anna Throne-Holst, the former Southampton Town supervisor, maintained a razor-thin lead over David Calone in Tuesday’s Democratic primary election to represent New York’s First Congressional District, and the race will come down to absentee ballots. 

With a light turnout at the polls, Ms. Throne-Holst led Mr. Calone by just 29 votes out of almost 11,000 cast. As of 11 p.m., Ms. Throne-Holst had 5,446 votes to Mr. Calone’s 5,417. If that lead holds, once the absentee ballots are counted, she will face Lee Zeldin, a Republican serving his first term in the House of Representatives, in the Nov. 8 election.

"We are waiting for all votes to be counted, but are proud to have a lead at the end of election night," Ms. Throne-Holst said in a statement released at about 11:30 p.m. "We are confident going forward that victory will be ours now . . . and in November." 

Should she prevail in the primary and win the election, Ms. Throne-Holst would be the first woman to represent New York’s First district, in a year in which Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, would also represent a first in American history. Ms. Throne-Holst told The Star earlier this month that she hoped Ms. Clinton’s coattails will be long enough to carry her to victory. “There’s some synergy there,” she said. “I think we have an excellent chance of winning this in November.”

New York’s First district includes eastern and most of Central Suffolk Country, including East Hampton, Southampton, Shelter Island, Southold, Riverhead, Brookhaven, and most of Smithtown.