Nicole Watts, District 9 County Legislator, hosts Syracuse's Northside Issues Forum on Housing Monday, February 16, 2026, at North Side Learning Center. Watts is among the Democratic legislators who will have to prove to voters they deserve a majority in the legislature for the next four years. Credit: Michelle Gabel | Central Current

Editor’s note: This story is part of CNY Decides, a collaboration between Central Current and WAER Syracuse Public Media to demystify the political process and bring you the stories and information you’ll remember in the voting booth in 2026. Click here to read, watch and listen to other installments in the collaboration.

Last year, local Democrats surprised the county by flipping five seats in the Onondaga County Legislature, winning control of the legislative body for the first time in decades. 

This year has presented county legislature Democrats with a new challenge: winning those seats after less than a year in power. Election changes at the state level forced Democrats to again run the races they won in November 2025. 

Only three of the Democratic seats will be contested during the June primary: 

  • In the Onondaga County Legislature’s 8th District, incumbent Chad Ryan will face challenger Tammy Honeywell, a rematch of last year’s primary
  • In the Onondaga County Legislature’s 15th District, the county Democrats’ selected candidate Bill Kinney, a former legislator, faces challenger Joe Bennett
  • In the Onondaga County Legislature’s 16th District, Nyatwa Bullock will face Charlene Tarver for the Democratic nomination

Democrats began their tenure by slowly learning their new roles but have recently begun implementing new local laws and putting pressure on County Executive Ryan McMahon. On Tuesday, Democrats at a legislature committee meeting proposed a three term limit for McMahon and future county executives.

Legislature terms are uniquely short this year because county races are switching to even year elections. During the November 2025 elections, Onondaga County voters also greenlit a move to give legislators four year terms, longer than the current two year terms. That has ratcheted up pressure on this year’s elections: Democrats have to prove to county voters after just 10 months in power they’re deserving of four years of control. 

Republicans are eying a return to power. Democrats meanwhile hope to flip two more seats this time around — which would give them a supermajority and the ability to override McMahon.

“If we had run 17 candidates last year, we probably would have won 15 seats,” said Dustin Czarny, a Democrat and one of two county elections commissioners. The Democrats had flipped every county legislature seat they ran for, he added. 

Kevin Ryan, also a county elections commissioner and the local Republican party’s city chair, said he believes last year’s wave was a one-off.

Voters were affected by the media “hammering” U.S. President Donald Trump, he said. The November 2025 election happened during a government shutdown. Ryan blamed the shutdown on Democrats but said  Republicans took the brunt of the blame, which he said affected the race. 

He said he’d like to think Republicans will flip all the Democrats’ newly won seats. 

This year, Democrats plan to run a candidate in every district. Republicans have candidates for all but one seat, District 16, which straddles Interstate 81. 

Both commissioners agree that the county has become more Democrat in recent years. The switch to even year elections is also likely to increase voter turn out, which could benefit Democrats, both commissioners said. 

Czarny believes Democrats are most likely to flip two seats in Clay. Those are held by Kevin Meaker and Cody Kelly.

He said that he has seen the same registration and demographic changes in Clay, Camillus, and Onondaga that he saw several years ago in Marcellus, Geddes, and Dewitt. The latter three have seen shifts toward Democrats. 

Czarny added that Democrats were gaining in voter registration in almost every town in Onondaga County. Cicero, represented by Tim Burtis, was the one exception, he said.

“Thirty years ago, when I first got involved in politics here, this was a very red county,” said Czarny. “It is not anymore. It is a very light blue, if purple, county.

Still, Czarny added, elections could be surprising. He would not have been able to predict last year’s blue wave in the spring of 2025, and it would be hard to be certain what November could hold. 

Ryan said that the Republicans he talked to were “absolutely outraged” by the flip in the county legislature and that they were determined to flip it back. He had not yet begun reaching out to swing voters when he talked to Central Current. 

He said that his party would be very focused on pointing out the differences between the Democrat and Republican legislatures when it came time. 

Legislator Kevin Meaker, a Republican who represents one of the two districts that Czarny believes is most vulnerable, said he’s seen a shift toward party neutrality.

That shift started with national politics, he said, but has continued as Clay has seen rapid economic growth through Amazon and Micron. 

“I’ve noticed that their registration — D or R — doesn’t matter to them as much anymore,” Meaker said. “They’re looking for substance.” 

Meaker believes voters care more about how representatives follow through for them. He cited an example in which he recently helped a woman get a utility pole up in her yard after it had been knocked down for months. 

As affordable housing becomes a central topic in the county government, Meaker said that he would like to focus on building more senior housing. Seniors who want to stay in the county could sell their own single family homes, opening up more housing that way, he said. 

Legislature Democrats since coming into office have focused on housing and transportation. They have started a new public advisory committee to make progress on those issues, and recently overhauled the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency board in hopes of reining in tax breaks.. 

Housing access and affordability is a bipartisan issue but Democrats and Republicans differ on how to build that housing. Recent committee meetings and legislative sessions have turned contentious as Democrats have acted toward their goals in ways Republicans view as going too far. 

Legislature Chair Nicole Watts and Elaine Denton, chair of the Planning and Economic Development Committee, respectively, have led Democrats’ housing push.

Denton flipped her seat last year, while Watts won hers on the Working Families Party line. 

Beyond housing, legislature Democrats and Republicans believe affordability, public safety, Micron and energy costs will play a role in who ultimately starts 2027 with control of the legislature. 

“I do think we have a lot of people asking, ‘Okay, now you have the power. What are you going to do with it?’” Watts said. 

One of the biggest factors, however, is likely to be national political winds, Watts said. 

The races 

While each race has at least two candidates, some may be more competitive than others.  

Three races have no incumbent, as the currently serving legislator plans to leave at the end of their term. 

Legislator Maurice Brown will leave behind his District 15 seat, which includes the University and Meadowbrook neighborhoods as well as portions of the Valley and Southwest neighborhoods. Richard McCarron will leave District 11, in the towns of Onondaga and Otisco, to run for state senate. Charles Garland also plans to leave at the end of his term. 

Only legislature Democrats are facing primary challengers. 

Two of those challenges reflect a broader trend within the Democratic party of progressive Democratic Socialist candidates running against long-established Democratic party names. 

Incumbent Chad Ryan will compete with Tammy Honeywell, a Democratic Socialist and union organizer, in District 8, which includes portions of Syracuse’s West Side and the western suburbs. 

Bill Kinne, who served on the legislature for nearly 25 years before challenging McMahon for the role of county executive, is running for Brown’s District 15 seat. Challenging Kinne will be another Democratic Socialist and union organizer, Jo Bennett. 

Syracuse City School Board Commissioner Nyatwa Bullock and nonprofit executive Charlene Tarver will compete to take over Charles Garland’s seat in District 16. 

Six of the eight incumbent Democrats have filed petitions to also run on the Working Families Party line, while Chad Ryan and Dan Romeo plan to run on only the Democrat line. An additional six non-incumbent Democrats have also filed to run as Working Families candidates.

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Laura Robertson is a staff reporter covering Onondaga County. Prior to joining Central Current, she lived on the edge of the Bering Strait in Nome, Alaska, where she worked as a reporter for a year. She...