New York City
Politics

Obama Gets Second Term, as Gillibrand, Jeffries and Meng Declare Victory

By Julie Shapiro and Jill Colvin on November 6, 2012 7:56pm

 
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NEW YORK CITY — Voters reelected President Barack Obama to the White House Tuesday after a hotly contested campaign against Republican Gov. Mitt Romney.

At Londel's in Harlem, the crowd broke into dancing and cheers when Obama was announced the winner. "Ain't No Stopping Us Now" played as people danced and hugged one another.

"Four years is not enough," said Christine Staggers, a 36-year-old paralegal. "To make a difference you need 8 years."

Hundreds celebrated in Times Square late Tuesday night, chanting, "Obama! Four more years!"

"It's a triumph of the people," said James Lauala, 42, a Hell's Kitchen resident who is originally from Liberia and made phone calls for Obama on Election Day. "It's a triumph of the soul of everyone who has worked hard to make this country what it is."

Obama supporters on the Lower East Side also erupted when the race was called.

"I'm feeling amazing. I was so stressed and so tense," said Raj Malhota, 39, from Brooklyn, who said he supports Obama for ending the war in Iraq and for his tax policies. "It's so important that he won."

Emma Ensign, 24, who watched the results come in at a viewing party at Culturefix bar on the Lower East Side, said she was still processing the news of Obama's victory.

"I'm so happy — I'm so relieved," she said. "I can't really believe it.... One second he was behind and the next second he was elected."

Polls closed in New York at 9 p.m., and within seconds, the Associated Press declared the state and its 29 Electoral College votes for the president. It also declared Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand as the winner of her Senate seat.

“I can’t thank you enough for the honor and privilege of continuing to serve this state,” Gillibrand told supporters at a victory party in Midtown, where the devastation of Hurricane Sandy weighed heavily on the celebration. “Rather than focusing on politics tonight, I really want to focus on the New York that I've seen visiting New Yorkers recovering from Hurricane Sandy."