Twelve of the 13 incumbent state legislators who lost their seats Tuesday were routinely failing at addressing environmental legislation.
The 13 averaged 49.7 out of 100 on Environmental Advocates NY’s 2026 Scorecard, roughly 14 points below the Legislature-wide average of 64.1, according to the non-partisan environmental analysis of unofficial election returns. The nonprofit released the scorecard in August rating lawmakers' votes, bill sponsorships and public statements during the last session.
All seven defeated Assembly members fell at least ten points below the chamber's average score of 59. The ousted assembly members ranged an average 41 by comparison.
Five of the six defeated senators scored better, but well below their Senate counterparts' average of 75.2. Those five averaged 60 on the EANY Scorecard. Although Sen. Robert Rolison, R-Mid-Hudson, was the exception, he lost against his opponent, Lisa Kaul, who ran on climate as a top issue.
The lowest-scoring lawmakers often voted against a one-year moratorium on hyperscale AI data centers and against statewide limits on PFAS, a class of toxic chemicals, in drinking water, the scorecard shows.
EANY's Executive Director Vanessa Fajans-Turner tied the results to voters’ cost concerns. “Candidates across New York campaigned on affordability,” she wrote in a statement. “The incumbents now trailing averaged 49.7 on that record, well below their peers and what New Yorkers deserve.”
Gov. Kathy Hochul won re-election by nearly 20 points. The group’s statement described her victory as a mandate to continue regulating data centers, an issue it said energized voters across party lines nationwide.
Hochul signed an executive order in July that created the country’s first statewide moratorium on new data centers of 50 megawatts or more. A broader bill, the Responsible Data Center Development Act, awaits her signature. Sen. Kristen Gonzalez, D-New York City, sponsors it.
Fajans-Turner said they are watching what Hochul does next adding that the governor and the next Legislature “now own the choices” about who pays for, benefits from and answers for data center development.
