A Democratic candidate for Congress on the South Shore is withdrawing his candidacy following challenges filed by both of his opponents against his campaign filings. One of his opponents is facing similar allegations in a new lawsuit filed by the third candidate.
Garrett Petersen, a Democratic candidate for the state’s Second Congressional District, is suspending his campaign for his party’s nomination amid allegations by his opponents that he received fewer valid signatures than required to appear on the primary ballot.
“I do not want to withdraw from this race, as the fight for the future of our community and our nation is so important, but there is no viable path forward to victory at this time,” Petersen said in a statement. “Once I’ve taken some time to decompress with my family, I will redouble my efforts to get Democrats elected up and down the ballot.”
Petersen added that he urges supporters to back whoever becomes the Democratic nominee for the Second Congressional District.
In Democratic congressional primaries across the state, candidates must collect at least 1,250 valid signatures from registered Democrats during the petitioning period to have their name appear on the June primary ballot. Petersen said he received around 1,270 signatures.
The other two candidates running against Petersen, former Suffolk County executive Patrick Halpin and real estate professional Jessica Murphy, filed separate objections with the State Board of Elections in recent weeks, alleging that up to a few hundred signatures Petersen received came from people either not registered with the Democratic Party or not registered to vote at all.
“My team actually went through and pulled their [the signatories’] voter files,” Murphy said. “He didn’t meet the numbers based on that.”
Petersen said that, statistically, at least some signatories may have provided incorrect information, but given that he received only a few signatures above the minimum threshold, his margin of error was slim.
In addition to filing an objection with the State Board of Elections against Petersen, Halpin's team also filed a complaint and lawsuit against Murphy, the third candidate for the Democratic nomination for Congress, over similar signature-fraud allegations.
According to a Suffolk County Supreme Court petition Halpin filed against Murphy, Halpin’s team claims that Murphy’s petition to appear on the June primary ballot “is permeated with fraud.”
Murphy’s designating petition, according to the court documents, allegedly included signers who weren’t registered with the Democratic Party or at all; didn’t live in the district; didn’t include accurate addresses; were forged, or even signed a competitor’s petition beforehand.
The lawsuit also alleges that “subscribing witnesses” of those signing Murphy’s petition did not fill out all the required information on the petition’s forms.
In an objection that an Islandia voter, Raymond J Malone, filed with the State Board of Elections, 797 of the 1902 signatures Murphy received are being challenged, which would leave Murphy 145 signatures short of the threshold to appear on the June primary ballot.
Despite the allegations, Murphy said she “definitely” received the 1,250 signatures required to appear as an official Democratic candidate in the June 23 primary.
“It's obvious that they [Halpin’s team] don't want us on the ballot,” Murphy said. “If there is no primary, then he automatically gets the nomination.”
Murphy also said that hundreds of signatories on her petition also signed for candidates in different races, including local election districts, and that Halpin’s campaign not targeting those petitions showed a political move against her.
“They really don’t want to let the voters decide; they just want to take it for themselves,” Murphy said.
While Halpin, who claimed to have received around 6,000 signatures, would not comment directly on the pending litigation and signature-fraud allegations, he denied that the objections were a political ploy to take down his opponents before the voters could decide.
“Everybody's got their point of view,” Halpin said. “The way I've always run campaigns is you want to make sure you get as many signatures as possible to qualify—legal signatures that are collected according to election law—so you never have to put that in doubt.”
Whoever triumphs in the lawsuit and wins the Democratic Party’s nomination for the Second Congressional District won’t be out of hot water just yet. According to the Cook Political Report, the congressional district, currently held by Republican Andrew Garbarino, is rated “solidly Republican” for the 2026 midterms.
The Murphy and Halpin teams are scheduled to appear before Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice John J. Leo on April 21.
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