Newly elected City Councilwoman Kristy Marmorato says it won’t be easy being the first Bronx Republican to hold a City Council seat in 50 years — but she vowed to stand for conservative values like education and public safety while even working with the likes of AOC.
“It’s tough being a Republican in The Bronx,” she told The Post Wednesday. “I listened to people and they appreciated that.”
The 45-year-old health care worker said that high on her list of priorities will be priorities are school choice, strengthening the NYPD and stopping a controversial halfway house in her north Bronx district.
She recognized she will have to work across the isle — saying that even though she is the “polar opposite” of Socialist Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, she would like to meet her to talk about issues as their districts partially overlap. That is if she can find her.
“I have never seen her in the community, actually,” she told The Post. “I think she needs to show more of a presence. We have an entire community that overlaps with each other. We have to make the constituents happy.
“I hope to address issues of the community she may not be aware of and give her a different viewpoint. We’re polar opposites with some of our viewpoints. But that’s ok. I want to see her more accessible to people in the community.”
The latest Board of Elections results show Marmorato beating incumbent Democrat Marjorie Velazquez by more than 700 votes — a margin of 52% to 46%.
The district covers Throggs Neck, Allerton, Morris Park, Pelham Parkway and City Island, which, like the rest of the northernmost borough, has been a Democratic stronghold for decades.
“I brought faith back into the voting system, my community,” Marmorato said. “Their voices were heard.
Marmorato, the sister of county GOP chairman Michael Rendino, squeaked to victory by just 56 votes in the GOP primary in June, edging out George Havranek.
Valezquez, 42, who won the general election in 2021 by 10 percentage points, breezed past a four-way primary in June by fending off challenges from community activist Bernadette Ferrara, Bronx Community Board 11 Chair Irene Estrada and US Army veteran John Perez.
But the Democrat wasn’t able to overcome Marmorato’s momentum on Tuesday, making the GOP challenger the first from her party to hold elected office in the borough since former longtime state Sen. Guy Velella called it quits in 2004.
Marmorato is a healthcare worker at Greenwich Hospital in Connecticut and previously worked as an X-ray technician, primarily in the South Bronx, the Bronx Times reported in a February profile.
She told the outlet that she decided to run for office after getting involved with the Morris Park Community Association to oppose the planned Just Home project, a proposed facility to treat homeless ex-convicts at a vacant building at Jacobi Medical Center.
Energized by that fight, she threw her hat into the political ring and got a 36-1 endorsement from the Bronx Republican party, the Bronx Times said.
Now elected to the council, she told The Post she plans to continue the fight to block the plan.
“They could be child molesters,” she said. “That’s a public safety issue. There’s no amenities to support the project. The community is dead set against it.”
She said she also wants to improve educational sources for parents in her district and supports giving families $10,000 grants so they could put their kids in the school of their choice.
Marmorato also said she opposes rezoning the district to allow for taller buildings and denser housing — one issue that went a long way toward knocking Valezquez out of the council seat.
Former District 13 Councilman James Vacca, a Democrat, said Valezquez’s support for a plan to rezone a Throggs Neck neighborhood to allow a 348-apartment project is one reason he didn’t endorse her.
Velazquez originally opposed a plan but switched sides and the plan was approved last year.
“I disagreed with Marjorie on that issue. I did not endorse her,” said Vacca, who worked with former Mayor Michael Bloomberg to limit zoning. “People in the district cross party lines when they think they should.”
In other city council races, Democrats took the new 47th District seat in Brooklyn, with Republicans now holding just six of the 51 seats on the board based on unofficial results.