[Correction (Nov. 20, 2025): A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Lucy Gaffneyboro is a member of the organization Vassar Votes. This clause has been deleted for accuracy. ]
On Tuesday, Nov. 4, people across the Town and City of Poughkeepsie took to the polls to cast their ballots in local elections. By the end of the day, county Democrats had pulled off a clear and resounding victory. The Dutchess County Legislature flipped to Democratic control, and both the City Council and Town Board of Poughkeepsie expanded their Democratic majorities.
According to Rebecca Edwards and Daniel Atonna, two Democrats who won their respective races, key issues in this election cycle included environmental protections, walkability/bikeability, affordability, housing, food security, replacing lead pipes, slowing down speeding cars and repaving roads.
Edwards, who has served as Poughkeepsie’s Town Supervisor since 2023 and is on leave from her role as Vassar Professor of History on the Eloise Ellery Chair, spoke about what her priorities will be now that she has been re-elected. “One of my highest priorities is to build stronger ties between the Town of Poughkeepsie and the City of Poughkeepsie and to try to work together as much as we can,” she told The Miscellany News.
She also stressed future plans for creating more equitable infrastructure for both the City and the Town. “We share a joint water plant and we share a joint sewer plant. So some of the infrastructure issues around water, sewer or highway are all things that we need to be working together on as best we can. There’s potentially mutual grant writing and things of that sort of stuff that we could do,” Edwards said.
Furthermore, Edwards hopes to change the two arterials that run east and west across both the Town and City. “Those arterials really are dangerous and they cut through the city and the town in ways that enable people to speed through at 50 miles an hour, but they don’t necessarily help us develop the kind of community we want,” she asserted.
Amritha Dewan ’28, a Seattle, Washington, native and Poughkeepsie voter, expressed support for Edwards’ plans to tackle the arterials. “I think that would be great. I’ve crossed the east–west arterial on foot a number of times myself, and it’s definitely a very high speed road to be crossing on foot.” She continued, “I’ve crossed that street before when the pedestrian lights haven’t changed or worked, so I think some change there would be a great addition to Poughkeepsie.”
Atonna, who ousted Republican Austin Mora to represent Ward Eight on Poughkeepsie’s Common Council, cited lead pipes and affordability as central to his constituents. “I plan to engage people around these fights [in] replacing lead pipes and making sure that we minimize the costs that homeowners need to pay to get their lead pipes replaced,” Atonna told The Miscellany News. “We’re going to be engaging people to fight to restore rent stabilization in Poughkeepsie, and [we are] already working on launching a campaign on the county-wide level, around pushing the Dutchess County Legislature to make all the buses in the county fare-free.”
Reflecting on the significance of the overall Democratic victories across the Hudson Valley, Atonna said, “I think when Democrats deliver for working-class people, that’s when they can actually see those working class people come out and vote for them.” Regarding his electoral success, Atonna explained, “[People] want to see the housing crisis be addressed, and they broadly support my efforts to push to restore rent stabilization here in Poughkeepsie, and expand tenant protections.”
Edwards similarly acknowledged how local politics can enact crucial, direct change in communities. “The scale of politics is more human at this level,” she commented. “I also think that [in the national discourse] people have gotten very cynical about politics because they just think it’s a lot of words, and the words don’t mean anything.” She expanded, “In this environment, people don’t believe in words anymore. They want action. And at the local level there are particular ways in which you can try to get that done.”
Considering the importance of local politics, Dewan stated: “I think it’s really important to engage in local politics, and it’s not usually given as much importance and significance as national or even state-level politics, but big change starts small.” She added, “It makes a lot of sense that the hyper-local level is where that change is beginning to take place and also where that change will be felt by the most constituents.”
Lucy Gaffneyboro ’27, a Poughkeepsie voter, also voiced her opinion on the importance of local elections. “I think that we don’t see such high turnout levels at local elections, but I think that good local turnout leads to change that is more secure. And I think that’s incredibly important… At a local level when there is a democratic supermajority, there is a lot we can accomplish to protect individuals [who] may not be federally protected.”
Atonna expressed that the results of the elections were inseparable from the Trump administration’s increasingly far-right rhetoric and policy. “[The election] tells a story that people are really getting sick of what’s going on in D.C. with Donald Trump and MAGA and their extremism, and people want to see an agenda that’s actually fighting for working-class people,” Atonna commented.
He highlighted the 2025 election cycle’s results as an indication of how Democrats should shape their future policies. He argued, “[Democrats] need to have a clear economically populist agenda and run authentic candidates who are not taking corporate money and billionaire money… If you want a winning formula, there it is.”
Gaffneyboro expressed agreement when told about Atonna’s sentiment. “Accepting money from these billionaires to run a campaign, it kind of feels oxymoronic to be like, ‘I’m fighting for the working class, but I’m taking money from billionaires to make it happen’—they will always be indebted to those people [billionaires],” Gaffneyboro said.
For Atonna, the elections gave hope for what he argued could be the beginning of a larger movement towards more progressive politics in the Hudson Valley. “Democrats just took the majority in the legislature for the first time since 2009… I think that if they deliver for voters, they’re going to hold it, and I think that we’re going to see a lot more victories here in Dutchess County in terms of progressive legislation,” he concluded.
Dewan also contextualized, “I think it’s a pattern that we’ve seen a lot in the past, that really exciting progressive Democratic candidates brought on a very appealing platform, and then very little to none of [those] things come to life once they’re actually elected, and they are absorbed into the wider liberal Democrat politics.”
She expanded on what she feels voters can do to prevent this from happening. “I think at a personal level what I can do and what we can do at Vassar, everyone that’s registered to vote in Dutchess County cannot limit their participation in politics just to the election, but can email and call and continue to demand of our politicians what they’ve promised to us,” Dewan argued. Atonna expressed a similar sentiment: “The Hudson Valley is really changing. It’s getting a lot bluer, a lot more Democratic, but none of that is guaranteed. It’s on Democrats to actually deliver and fight for their constituents.”
Because of a recent change to New York State election laws, the candidates who were elected on Nov. 4, 2025 will be up for re-election again next November of 2026. Rather than having a usual two-year term, they will only have one year to hold power before running for re-election. Edwards commented on this added challenge: “[It’s] a little tiring, a little daunting, but I do think it’s good to be out there constantly and making sure you’re listening to everybody.” She concluded, “It’s hard to deliver a lot in six months before we start campaigning again, but we’ll keep trying.”