Overview:
After four years in office, Assemblymember Mathylde Frontus’ tenure has come to an end after a very close race against Republican Alec Brook-Krasny.
BROOKLYN — Haitian American assembly member Mathylde Frontus’ time as an elected official has come to an end, at least for now. The two-term Democrat representing parts of southern Brooklyn lost her seat to Alec Brook-Krasny, a Democrat-turned-Republican, by a little over 1,100 votes.
“Now that all the ballots in my race have been counted, it appears that the election results didn’t go as many of us hoped,” Frontus said in a statement she posted to Twitter on Nov. 17. “While the margins continue to be quite close, the math still does not add up in my favor.”
While a number of Haitian-American candidates declared victory in the midterm elections within a day or two of the races, Frontus’ results were too close to call. Some questioned whether she’d be able to eke out a win in the last hours of the count as she did in years past.
In 2018, Frontus won her first primary against Ethan Lustig-Elgrably by 51 votes. In 2020, she was slated to lose her race against Republican Mark Szuszkiewicz, but pulled through a win after mail-in ballots were counted.
“It has been the honor of my life to serve in elected office and I’m proud of the work that I’ve accomplished over the last four years,” Frontus said. “I will continue to advocate for change through a myriad of other avenues and look forward to what the future has in store.”
Brook-Kransy, who immigrated to the United States from Russia in 1989, held the same seat previously until 2015 as a Democrat. That year, he resigned from office to pursue a career in the private sector, during which he was indicted and later acquitted, for his role in an illegal opioid ring.
Brook-Krasny assumes office Jan. 1, 2023.
The district comprises Coney Island and parts of Bath Beach, Bay Ridge, Brighton Beach, Dyker Heights and Gravesend.