Burke-Gonzalez defeats Larsen in East Hampton Democratic supervisor primary

Kathee Burke-Gonzalez defeated East Hampton Village Mayor Jerry Larsen in the Democratic primary by 24.51 points, taking 62.24% of the vote to 37.73%. Unofficial Suffolk County Board of Elections results gave the incumbent town supervisor 2,054 votes to Larsen’s 1,245, with one write-in vote, and sent Burke-Gonzalez into November with the party nomination and a clearer claim to the town’s direction.

The margin mattered because the campaign turned less on party labels than on the East End problems that shape daily life in East Hampton Town. Burke-Gonzalez made affordable housing, environmental protection, public safety, Building Department efficiency and taxes the center of her case, arguing that the town’s recent investments in housing projects, septic upgrades and stormwater improvements were the right response to growth and infrastructure strain. Larsen pushed for more homeownership opportunities through low-interest loans, more open-space preservation, fewer permit delays and lower taxes. For residents in Amagansett, Montauk, Wainscott and the village, the result points to continued support for the incumbent’s approach to balancing development pressure, municipal costs and environmental demands.

The primary was also a test of how much weight voters placed on state support and on Burke-Gonzalez’s ability to deliver it. Gov. Kathy Hochul endorsed her on May 11, and the governor’s endorsement statement said East Hampton had received more than $3 million in state funding for affordable housing projects, plus $2.5 million for dune restoration and shoreline protection at Ditch Plains, $2.2 million for wildfire mitigation and forest management in Napeague and Hither Hills State Parks, and a $200,000 Climate Smart Communities award for a townwide natural resources inventory. Burke-Gonzalez also used her January State of the Town address to argue that East Hampton’s year-round population had grown 35% over the last decade, a figure that has made housing and infrastructure the defining issues of her administration.

Larsen’s challenge carried an organizational dimension as well. His campaign backed a full slate of 38 challengers for the East Hampton Town Democratic Committee, and after the vote he said his side appeared to have picked up about eight committee seats, while Burke-Gonzalez’s supporters said Larsen’s slate had won nine. The split underscored the town-village divide that has shadowed East Hampton politics since Larsen began lining up a run last fall and then formally challenged the incumbent after party leaders backed Burke-Gonzalez.

The result also sharpened the November stakes in a year shaped by New York’s even-year election law, which moved local offices onto a new cycle and gave the next supervisor a two-year term ending in 2028. Burke-Gonzalez had already won reelection in November 2025 with 4,853 votes in an uncontested race, and in 2025 the town approved 174 septic incentive applications, bringing the total to almost 1,000 low-nitrogen systems since the program began. Early voting for the June 23 primary ran from June 13 through June 21 at the Windmill Village community room, and the Democratic line now puts Burke-Gonzalez in position to carry those policy fights into the general election.