What is on the June 23 primary ballot in Onondaga County

A three-way Democratic race for state comptroller, a generational challenge to a 28-year Assembly incumbent, and three contested county Legislature seats top the official June 23, 2026 primary candidate list released by the Onondaga County Board of Elections.

By Marcus DeAngelo, Government and Elections Reporter, CNY Signal. May 23, 2026.

Truth-check: Frank Mahoney, Editor-in-Chief. Every candidate name, party label, district, and date in this piece was cross-verified against the official Onondaga County Board of Elections Primary Candidates List dated May 2026 and corroborating local reporting.

Voters across Onondaga County will go to the polls Tuesday, June 23, 2026, to settle a relatively short but high-stakes list of party primaries. Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Early voting runs nine days, from Saturday, June 13 through Sunday, June 21, according to the New York State Board of Elections election deadlines poster for 2026.

The Onondaga County Board of Elections published its Official Primary Candidates List for the June 23, 2026 contest on May 18, 2026. The single-page document lists nine races with contested primaries inside the county. Most of the action is on the Democratic side, with one Republican county committee fight in the town of Pompey.

This is the only primary ballot Onondaga County voters will see this spring. The May 19 school board votes that wrapped four days before this story was filed are governed by the New York State Education Law, not the Election Law, and do not appear on the June primary ballot.

What is on the June 23 primary ballot

The races, exactly as the Board of Elections has certified them, are:

• State Comptroller (Democratic primary, statewide, vote for one): Thomas P. DiNapoli, Drew Warshaw, Raj Goyle.
• Member of Assembly, 129th District (Democratic primary, vote for one): William B. Magnarelli, Maurice Mo Brown.
• Legislator, 8th County District (Democratic primary, vote for one): Chad Ryan, Tammy M. Honeywell.
• Legislator, 15th County District (Democratic primary, vote for one): Bill Kinne, Jo Bennett.
• Legislator, 16th County District (Democratic primary, vote for one): Charlene Tarver, Nyatwa Bullock.
• Councilor At Large, City of Syracuse (Democratic primary, to fill vacancy, vote for one): Cjala Surratt, Helen Hudson, Moise Laub.
• Member of Democratic County Committee, Town of Geddes District 5 (vote for two): Daniel J. Berkowitz, Alex V. DiTullio, Donna E.B. DiTullio, Madeline R. Thibault.
• Member of Republican County Committee, Town of Pompey District 6 (vote for two): Deborah A. Grenier, Nicholas Peter Palladino Jr., Michael G. Penoyer.

Notably absent: no contested primary appears for the towns of Manlius, Salina, Camillus, Clay, Cicero, DeWitt, or for the Onondaga County District Attorney or any federal seat. Those offices will appear on the November 3, 2026 general ballot, but the major-party nominees either drew no opposition or were settled through party designating conventions.

Race by race

State Comptroller: a rare primary challenge to a 19-year incumbent

State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli faces his first-ever Democratic primary since taking office in February 2007, making him the second-longest-serving comptroller in New York history. The challengers are Drew Warshaw, the former co-CEO of national nonprofit affordable-housing developer Enterprise Community Partners, and Raj Goyle, a former Kansas state representative now based in New York. DiNapoli secured the Democratic Party’s official designation at the state convention in February 2026, according to a WXXI News report.

The state Working Families Party voted in May 2026 not to endorse any of the three, an unusual rebuke for a sitting Democratic incumbent. The three candidates met in a televised debate on NY1 on May 21, 2026, two days before this article was filed. Whoever wins June 23 will appear on the Democratic line in the November 3, 2026 general election.

Assembly 129th District: Magnarelli faces Mo Brown

William B. Magnarelli, first elected to the state Assembly in 1998 representing a district anchored in Syracuse, is seeking his 15th term in the chamber. His challenger is Maurice Mo Brown, the sitting Onondaga County Legislator for the 15th District (the same county district that includes the University Neighborhood), who has held that county seat since January 2023. Brown announced his Assembly bid on February 20, 2026, in reporting first published by Spectrum News Central New York.

The Onondaga County Democratic Committee designated Magnarelli as its candidate. Brown is running as a member of Syracuse Democratic Socialists of America and has been endorsed by the state Working Families Party, according to reporting in Central Current.

Onondaga County Legislature 8th District: a 2025 rematch

The Democratic primary for the 8th County Legislative District is a direct rematch from one year ago. Chad Ryan, a former Syracuse Common Councilor, defeated Tammy M. Honeywell in the June 24, 2025 Democratic primary by roughly 56 percent to 44 percent, then went on to flip the seat by defeating incumbent Republican Shawn Fiato in November 2025 with about 75 percent of the vote, per Central Current’s election coverage. Honeywell is back on the ballot in 2026 seeking the same nomination. The 8th District covers Tipperary Hill, Park Avenue, parts of Strathmore, downtown Syracuse, and the Near Westside.

Onondaga County Legislature 15th District: Kinne returns

With Mo Brown vacating the 15th District seat to run for Assembly, two Democrats are competing for the nomination to succeed him. Bill Kinne previously held this seat from 1991 to 2010 and again from 2020 to 2023, when he left to mount an unsuccessful campaign for County Executive against Republican Ryan McMahon. Kinne is now seeking a return to the body that he served in for roughly 22 years across two stints, according to WAER public radio and The NewsHouse, the Syracuse University student news outlet. His opponent is Jo Bennett, a public school teacher who is running on a self-styled Affordability Slate with Brown and Honeywell, all three of whom are Syracuse DSA members and Working Families Party endorsees, per The Daily Orange.

Onondaga County Legislature 16th District: an open Southside seat

The 16th District seat, currently held by Legislator Charles Garland, is being contested between Charlene Tarver and Nyatwa Bullock in the Democratic primary. Bullock is a former Syracuse City School District Board of Education commissioner and a lifelong resident of the Southside, according to her own campaign site at nyatwabullock.com and reporting by Central Current.

The 16th District has been the subject of legal and political dispute. It centered, before the latest redraw, on the city’s heavily African American Southside and was Onondaga County’s only majority-Black district. The county Legislature passed a revised district plan that expanded the 16th into less heavily Black areas of the city, which Legislator Garland challenged publicly, per UrbanCNY’s coverage.

Syracuse Common Council, Councilor At Large: a three-way race to fill a vacancy

The Syracuse Common Council has a vacant At Large seat, and three Democrats are running in the June 23 primary for the chance to fill the unexpired term: Cjala Surratt, Helen Hudson, and Moise Laub. Helen Hudson is a familiar name in city politics, having served eight years as Common Council president before her term ended in November 2025, after a previous five-year run as a councilor at large. Cjala Surratt is the owner of Black Citizens Brigade, a clothing store and bookstore in downtown Syracuse, and she carries the official endorsement of the Onondaga County Democratic Committee, per The Daily Orange.

The Common Council itself separately interviewed both Surratt and Hudson in 2026 to fill the seat on a caretaker basis. The June 23 primary winner will appear on the November ballot for the final year of the term.

Town committee primaries: Geddes and Pompey

Two town-level party committee primaries round out the ballot. In the town of Geddes, four Democrats are vying for two seats on the Democratic County Committee from District 5: Daniel J. Berkowitz, Alex V. DiTullio, Donna E.B. DiTullio, and Madeline R. Thibault. In the town of Pompey, three Republicans are competing for two seats on the Republican County Committee from District 6: Deborah A. Grenier, Nicholas Peter Palladino Jr., and Michael G. Penoyer. County committee members are the party volunteers who choose endorsed candidates and run get-out-the-vote operations at the precinct level, so although these are low-profile races, the outcomes shape who runs for higher office in the next two-year cycle.

Key deadlines

The New York State Board of Elections set the following deadlines for the June 23 primary, all of which apply in Onondaga County:

• Voter registration deadline: postmarked by June 14, 2026, or in person at a county Board of Elections by the same date.
• Mailed and online absentee or early-mail ballot requests: must be received by the Board of Elections no later than June 13, 2026.
• In-person absentee or early-mail ballot requests: must be received no later than June 22, 2026.
• Early voting: Saturday, June 13 through Sunday, June 21, 2026, at designated early-voting sites in Onondaga County.
• Primary Election Day: Tuesday, June 23, 2026. Polls open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
• Completed ballot return: postmarked or returned in person by June 23, 2026; ballots returned by mail must reach the Board of Elections by June 30, 2026 to be counted.

How to vote

Voters in Onondaga County have three ways to cast a ballot in the June 23 primary. The Onondaga County Board of Elections is located at 1000 Erie Boulevard West in Syracuse and can be reached by telephone at 315-435-8683.

First, voters can vote early in person at any designated early-voting location in the county between June 13 and June 21. The Board of Elections publishes the full list of early-voting sites on its website at onondaga.gov/elections. Early voters may use any open early-voting site in the county, not just the one closest to their address.

Second, voters can vote on Primary Day, Tuesday, June 23, at their assigned election-district polling place. Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. New York is a closed-primary state, meaning a voter must be registered as a member of the party whose primary they want to vote in. To vote in a Democratic primary in Onondaga County on June 23, the voter must be registered as a Democrat. To vote in the Republican county committee primary in Pompey, the voter must be a registered Republican living in that committee district.

Third, voters can request an absentee or early mail-in ballot. Requests must reach the Onondaga County Board of Elections by June 13 if submitted by mail or online, or by June 22 if submitted in person. The completed ballot must then be postmarked or returned in person by June 23 and must arrive at the Board of Elections no later than June 30 to be counted.

Why this primary matters

Primaries in non-presidential odd-year and even-year cycles in New York routinely draw under 20 percent of registered party members in many counties. The Working Families Party’s decision not to endorse in the comptroller race, combined with the Democratic Socialists of America’s slate strategy in the 129th Assembly and the 8th, 15th, and 16th County Legislature districts, has shaped what would otherwise be a low-turnout June into a series of contested intra-party fights.

For the city of Syracuse and its inner suburbs, the practical stakes are direct. Three of the four contested local races are inside city limits, and the fourth is the Geddes county committee primary that sits adjacent to the Solvay village line. Whoever wins the Democratic nomination on June 23 in a county Legislature race or a Syracuse Common Council vacancy race will, given Democratic registration advantages in those districts, almost certainly hold that seat after the November 3 general election.

Town supervisor primaries that voters often expect in Manlius, Salina, Camillus, Clay, Cicero, and DeWitt are not on this ballot because no challenger filed a designating petition by the state Election Law deadline. Voters in those towns will see town offices in November with only one major-party nominee per slot.

For the latest updates and any post-certification changes to the candidate list, voters can consult the Onondaga County Board of Elections at onondaga.gov/elections or call 315-435-8683.

CNY Signal commits to fact-only, non-partisan election coverage. Every candidate name, party label, and district in this story was verified against the Onondaga County Board of Elections Official Primary Candidates List published May 2026.