New York primary voters who tossed out a group of Democratic state senators in Thursday's election sent a clear message to their party: There's no room to work with Republicans in Albany in the age of Donald Trump.

Six of the eight Democratic senators who had formed an alliance with Republicans to help the GOP maintain control of the Senate since 2011 were thrown out of office by a restless base of progressive activists.

The grassroots Democrats mobilized voters in numbers that haven't been seen in a gubernatorial primary in years, as turnout reached about 27 percent statewide. Four years ago, 11 percent of Democrats voted in the primary election and about 34 percent of all voters in the general election.

Political analysts say the rejection of the six members of the Independent Democratic Conference -- including 14-year incumbent Sen. David Valesky in the Syracuse area -- underscores a shift among Democratic voters in New York.

"I think that's definitely a message to the Democratic Party," said Luke Perry, director of the Utica College Center of Public Affairs and Election Research.

"We're in a hyper-partisan era," Perry said. "We have a president who is controversial and polarizing. And that is going to have a reverberation throughout the state with Democrats in local elections."

Perry said President Trump has come to define the Republican Party, and grassroots Democrats see no reason their local elected officials should work with the GOP.

"Anybody who is connected to the Republican Party, such as the IDC, albeit in a limited capacity, are not acceptable to the grassroots," Perry said.

Even though the IDC agreed in April to reunite with mainstream Democrats in the state Senate, party activists say the move came too late and they no longer trust incumbents like Valesky to look out for progressive interests.

That was the message political novice Rachel May of Syracuse delivered to voters in the 53rd Senate District as she challenged Valesky in the primary.

"I think his brand of trying to please everybody on every issue is not what people want these days in their elected officials," May told Syracuse.com in August. "People, even if they disagree with me, say they appreciate that I took a stand on an issue."

May appears to have pulled off the upset by about 600 votes, but she hasn't declared victory and Valesky hasn't conceded as they await the counting of absentee ballots.

While May ran against the status quo for Democrats in Albany, establishment Democrats at the top of the ticket in New York survived primary challenges Thursday.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo ran his campaign almost entirely as a rejection of Trump's agenda on the federal level. Cuomo won 66 percent of the vote, easily defeating actress and progressive activist Cynthia Nixon.

Steve Greenberg, a Siena College pollster in Albany, said a lot of the IDC challengers had big-name endorsements from Bernie Sanders and other progressive activists, who may have influenced voters as much or more than Trump.

"There's no question that Democrats were more engaged, more participatory than they were four years ago," Greenberg said. "Does that continue into November? That remains to be seen. But there is no question Democrats are in much more of a voting mood than they were four years ago."

Judith Enck, a former Obama administration official and New York progressive activist who raised money for May and other IDC challengers, said Trump's impact in the local Senate races may be overstated.

May and the other five Democrats who upset the former IDC members simply ran good local campaigns, Enck said.

"The establishment really won on the statewide races, but incumbents rarely lose," Enck said. "I think the lesson here is that politics is local. If you have a compelling story to tell, you don't need a massive amount of money to win a state Senate race."

In May's case, she personalized the election by telling the story of her late husband who died while worrying that he may reach the limits on his health insurance and leave May in debt.

Valesky talked about broad policy issues, while May ran an aggressive social media campaign and personally knocked on more than 4,000 doors.

"Rachel just out-worked Valesky and she ran an old-fashioned grassroots campaign," Enck said. "I think her message really resonated."

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