Democrats captured a majority in Orange County, New York’s Legislature on Tuesday — despite losing to Republican candidates in a majority of districts in the November 2025 elections.
Democratic New York State Sen. James Skoufis, who represents almost all of the county, celebrated his party’s newfound majority in its legislature, writing in a Wednesday morning post on X that Democrats accomplished this feat “for the first time in the nearly 60-year history of the chamber.” The county’s legislature elected Democrat Laurie Tautel as chairwoman on Tuesday, with longtime legislator Michael Amo, an independent who usually votes with Republicans, casting the decisive vote, local outlet Mid Hudson News reported.
Tautel bested Barry Cheney, a Republican, by an 11–10 margin, with Amo joining the chamber’s 10 Democrats, the outlet reported.
The most recent legislature election in the county took place in Nov. 2025, and the GOP won a majority then, according to unofficial results published on Nov. 5, 2025. Republicans had previously maintained the majority in the Orange County Legislature throughout most of its history over the past 55 years, Mid-Hudson News reported on Tuesday.
“Today Orange County is at a new crossroads,” Tautel said, as reported by Mid Hudson News. “Families are struggling with rising costs, seniors are worried about staying in their homes, young people want to build lives here, but aren’t sure they can afford to. Our infrastructure is aging, our health systems are under strain, and too many residents feel disconnected from [the] county government all together.”
County Executive Steven Neuhaus, a Republican, said that the “proof will be in the pudding on how everyone works and governs,” according to Mid Hudson News.
“To me it doesn’t change the dynamics at all. The proof will be in the pudding on how everyone works and governs but I have always had this relationship, and I got along with people,” Neuhaus said, per the outlet. “When Laurie Tautel was a new councilman in Highland Falls, I was a young councilman in Chester, so we have had a long relationship, and I expect everybody to do what is best for the taxpayers of Orange [County].”
Skoufis wrote in a separate X post on Wednesday that this marks a “major win” for Tautel.
“This was an opportunity a couple of us saw early on and seized. A reminder that electoral politics ≠ only Election Day,” Skoufis wrote in the social media post. “A major win for new Chair and longtime friend, Laurie Tautel, as well as incoming Leader Ramos along with the entire Dem caucus, [including] seven (!) new electeds.”
“Laurie Tautel has been a diligent and compassionate advocate for the Town of Highlands for many years, and I’ve been proud to know and work alongside her in her capacity as a county legislator and, previously, as a local elected official and my former Assembly Chief of Staff,” Skoufis said in part of a statement sent to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Her ascension to Chair of the Orange County Legislature is equally well-deserved and exciting.”
“This moment didn’t happen by accident,” Orange County Democratic Party Chair Zak Constantine said in a press release Orange County Democrats sent to the DCNF. “This was the result of sustained, deliberate work before and after Election Day recruiting working-class leaders rooted in their communities, building momentum with increasingly successful campaigns, and strengthening our coalitions year-round and across the county.”
“This moment is not about party labels — it’s about the responsibility we share to govern differently and govern better,” Tautel said in the same press release. “For too long, county government has been cautious when families needed courage.”
In November 2024, President Donald Trump notably won Orange County, New York, securing 54.05% of the vote to former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 45.69%. The county notably has a large Orthodox Jewish population and includes the predominantly Hasidic village of Kiryas Joel, which is in Amo’s district.
Kiryas Joel voted almost unanimously for Trump in 2024, with the president winning the 98.4% of the vote there — but the village also voted overwhelmingly for Skoufis, a Democrat, on the same ballot.
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