Lunsford narrowly defeats incumbent Johns in 135th Assembly District race 

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Jen Lunsford, the Democratic challenger for the 135th Assembly District seat, has narrowly defeated the Republican incumbent, Mark Johns, according to unofficial results of the election released late Tuesday by the Monroe County Board of Elections.

Johns, who has held the seat since 2011, led with 55 percent of the vote following Election Day. As of the close of the polls on Nov. 3 with all election districts reporting, 32,599 voters had cast a ballot for Johns in contrast to 26,344 for Lunsford — a difference of 6,255 votes.

But absentee ballots had yet to be counted, and could not be under state law until Monday. When the counting concluded Tuesday, according to the Board of Elections, Lunsford had amassed 41,446 against 40,762 for Johns.

The difference gave Lunsford the edge by 684 votes, translating to her capturing 50.4 percent of the vote.

The race was Lunsford’s second attempt to break into elected office.

She came close to unseating state Sen. Rich Funke in 2016, and had planned to challenge him again this year before he announced that he would not seek re-election and she launched her run for Assembly.

Lunsford, of Penfield, is a personal injury lawyer whose platform revolves around ideas intended to help New York recover from the pandemic.

This is a developing story. Check back for more details.

David Andreatta is CITY's editor. He can be reached at [email protected].