Election Day 2018 in New York: Cuomo, Gillibrand win re-election
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, both Democrats, sailed to re-election on Tuesday, defeating much less well-known Republican challengers. LIVE ELECTION RESULTS
Cuomo won a third term by beating Republican Marc Molinaro.
The Democrat was seen from the start as the prohibitive favorite in the race, with big advantages in fundraising and name-recognition.
He worked throughout the campaign to link Molinaro to President Donald Trump, who is unpopular with many New Yorkers.
Cuomo also touted his administration's work rebuilding airports and bridges and boosting the upstate economy.
The victory would give Cuomo the same number of terms as his father, the late Gov. Mario Cuomo.
Cuomo has been talked about as a potential 2020 presidential candidate but said he would serve out his entire term if re-elected.
Molinaro is the county executive in Dutchess County.
Cuomo is the 10th New York governor elected to a third term.
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Gillibrand, of New York, has defeated Republican challenger Chele Farley to win re-election to the U.S. Senate.
Gillibrand was heavily favored in Tuesday's election and has been talked about as a potential presidential candidate in 2020.
At a recent debate, Gillibrand pledged to serve her entire six-year Senate term.
Gillibrand was appointed in 2009 to the Senate seat vacated when Hillary Clinton was nominated secretary of state.
She rose to prominence in the #MeToo movement last year when she was the first Democratic senator to publicly call for fellow Democratic U.S. Sen. Al Franken to resign amid sexual misconduct allegations.
She has also focused on sexual assault in the military and on college campuses.
Farley works in the financial services industry. She has never held elected office.
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Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has defeated a little-known Republican opponent in a district representing part of New York City.
Her victory Tuesday over economics professor Anthony Pappas was widely expected after Ocasio-Cortez scored an unanticipated upset over 10-term U.S. Rep. Joe Crowley in the Democratic primary in June.
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New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson is calling for the resignation of the city's Board of Elections director amid reports of malfunctioning ballot scanning machines and hours-long lines at some polling stations.
Johnson said in a Tweet that "voting should not be this difficult."
He called for the resignation of elections director Michael Ryan and "a full top to bottom review of what went wrong today."
A Board of Elections spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to inquiries.
Hard numbers on the extent of the city's problems weren't immediately available, but voters took to social media to complain about multiple locations where scanners were having trouble reading ballots or had stopped working entirely, leading to severe bottlenecks.
New York's attorney general says by mid-afternoon it had received 225 complaints about voting problems.
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Rainy, windy weather in New York City and around the state didn't seemed to deter voters, with higher-than-usual turnout reported at some polling places.
Turnout was so heavy at one packed precinct on Manhattan's Upper West Side that the line to scan ballots stretched around a junior high school gym on Tuesday morning.
Poll workers there told voters that two of the roughly half-dozen scanners were malfunctioning. Repairs were underway. Reports of broken scanners were surfacing at other New York City polling places as well.