“Because of you, there will once again be a Latina in the New York state Senate,” Alcantara told supporters gathered at a second-floor lounge in the Inwood section of upper Manhattan.

Alcantara, who had previously worked for the New York State Nurses Association, defeated Micah Lasher, former city councilman Robert Jackson and Luis Tejada.

As of late Tuesday, with nearly 98 percent of the precincts reporting, Alcantara was up 8,309 to Lasher’s 7,737, according to the New York City Board of Elections. Jackson trailed Lasher with 7,616 votes. Tejada had 1,253.

In an unlikely alliance, Alcantara, who has told reporters that she voted for Bernie Sanders in April’s presidential primary, had the support the Independent Democratic Conference, which is aligned with the Republican caucus.

Late Tuesday night, Alcantara’s campaign spokeswoman, Lis Smith, said the senator-elect would join the IDC. Alcantara declined to commit herself publicly to the IDC during the campaign.

Alcantara’s campaign had been essentially bankrolled by the five-member IDC. As of earlier this month, the IDC’s Independence Campaign Committee spent nearly $100,000 to help Alcantara.

She made sure to thank IDC leader Jeff Klein, who joined her on stage, and IDC member Sen. Diane Savino as they “took a chance on a little brown immigrant girl from Northern Manhattan.”

While mainline Democrats and the IDC came to a detente this election cycle, that wasn’t the case in 2014, when both groups actively ran primaries against each other.

The 31st Senate District, which encompasses Washington Heights and Inwood and slivers of Harlem, was an open seat because the incumbent, Espaillat, is running for Congress. The race gave mainline Democrats and the IDC a chance to to flex their political muscle.

While the IDC supported Alcantara, some mainline Democrats threw their weight behind Lasher because he would join their ranks.

With Klein, Savino and fellow IDC member David Carlucci on stage with her, Alcantara urged Latinos and people of color to return the favor and support them.

Alcantara’s win is also a win for Espaillat, who had been forging his own political empire.

Espaillat, who will likely be the next congressman for the 13th Congressional District given the high Democratic enrollment advantage, will be the first Dominican in the House. He endorsed Alcantara, who is also Dominican.

Espaillat also endorsed another Dominican woman, Carmen De La Rosa, who unseated Assemblyman Guillermo Linares in Tuesday night’s primary. De La Rosa had served as Espaillat’s campaign manager and is the chief of staff to Ydanis Rodriguez, a city councilman who is Dominican.

Lasher had not given up hope late Tuesday night. “We find ourselves in a strange situation,” he told supporters at restaurant in Washington Heights that dubbed as a hookah lounge. “And the strange situation we find ourselves in is that there are at least 1,000 and maybe several thousand votes that were unable to be counted.”