Result
Assemblyman Christopher Friend (R-Big Flats) won reelection in New York Assembly District 124 on Tuesday, Nov. 3, defeating Democrat Andy Fagan with 59.8% of the vote. Unofficial results show Friend with 28,338 votes to Fagan’s 19,022, or 40.1%.
It was Friend’s first general election against a major-party opponent since 2020. He ran without one in 2022 and 2024, when he won more than 99% of the vote. Friend appeared on the Republican and Conservative lines and Fagan on the Democratic and Working Families lines, and Friend’s new term begins Friday, Jan. 1, 2027.
Candidates and Platforms
Friend, a chemist with a doctorate from the State University of New York at Buffalo, served on the Chemung County Legislature before winning his Assembly seat in 2010. In a WSKG candidate profile, he said making housing easier to build depends on lower taxes, lower energy costs and fewer regulations, and he criticized state climate mandates for raising energy costs. He also called for repealing or substantially reforming the state’s HALT Act limiting solitary confinement and supported New York joining the federal school-choice tax credit program.
Fagan grew up on a dairy farm and previously directed Cornell Cooperative Extension in Tioga and Chemung counties. He called affordability the most pressing issue for New Yorkers and opposed the federal tax credit program, citing lost public school funding. Miriam Osorio also ran as a write-in candidate after the state disqualified her petitions for the Democratic line.
District and Chamber
District 124 covers all of Tioga County, much of Chemung County including Elmira, Big Flats and Horseheads, and several Broome County towns. Statewide, Democrats won at least 111 of the Assembly’s 150 seats, expanding their supermajority.
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