ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Adam Bello has become the first Democrat to get re-elected as Monroe County Executive.

He defeated Mark Assini who served as the Gates Town Supervisor for eight years and a county legislator for 10 years. Bello will serve in office for another four years after winning with more than 60% of the votes. Here are the final numbers:

• Adam Bello: 61% (85,520 votes)
• Mark Assini: 39% (55,131 votes)

Bello said his focus in the second term will be on economic development, lowering taxes and public safety. He said that, from knocking on doors campaigning, public safety was one of the main concerns of residents. Bello explained what county residents can expected over the next four years.

News10NBC investigative reporter Jennifer Lewke: “You came in initially and then the pandemic hit. I’m sure you had objectives that you wanted to get to and weren’t able to. Is there anything new and different that people in Monroe County can expect from you in your second term?”

County Executive Adam Bello: “That was actually one of the more frustrating things about the first term. We didn’t really talk about a global pandemic when I was running but obviously that put a lot of plans on hold. It did that all over the country so a lot of things we wanted to do particularly around infrastructure investments, workforce development, a lot of that didn’t happen in the first year or two.”

It may be even easier for Bello this time around as Democrats have enough seats to take the majority in the Monroe County Legislature for the first time in nearly three decades.

Assini took the podium at the Republican election headquarters in Henrietta where he wished Bello the best. Assini called Bello to congratulate him just before 11 p.m.

“Even in a tough fought election, we want them to succeed,” Assini said. “This community, the people in it, our neighbors are too important to route against our elected officials. So I ask you to get behind our county executive, help him lead this community, and help him to fix the very difficult problems he’s going to face in the next couple of years.”

You can see more election results here.