Melissa DeBerry for Queens Civil Court Judge | DMS International Case Study

Client: Hon. Melissa DeBerry | Queens Civil Court Judge | Digital Marketing Solutions International

Melissa DeBerry for Queens Civil Court Judge Campaign Banner

Meet Melissa DeBerry

Melissa DeBerry is a Queens-based legal professional with nearly 17 years of experience as a court attorney and principal law clerk, drafting judicial decisions and helping everyday New Yorkers navigate the civil court system. In 2024, she decided to take that experience to the bench and run for Queens Civil Court Judge. She had the credentials. What she didn’t have was a digital presence to help spread awareness of her campaign before Election Day.

The Challenge

Melissa entered the 2024 general election facing two problems at once: a tight deadline and a visibility gap. With five open seats on the Queens Civil Court and eight candidates competing to fill them, only the top five candidates with the best outreach across the community would win a seat on the Civil Court. Our pre-campaign projection placed DeBerry approximately sixth based on historical turnout and estimated vote-share assumptions. This is one spot outside the threshold required to win the judicial election.

While DeBerry had many supporters, other potential voters across the community didn’t even know that she was running for Judge. Everyone told her it was late in the race, but she wanted to try anyway. She knew she needed to find a way to gain more attention to her campaign. Melissa was referred to DMS International by another judicial candidate who had previously worked with our team. That recommendation gave her confidence to move forward despite the short timeline.

Pre-Polls

The chart below visualizes pre election projections for the Queens Civil Court countywide race, showing each candidate’s estimated vote share and projected votes before the digital campaign launched. At that time, Melissa DeBerry was modeled in sixth place, just outside the top five threshold required to win a seat, with a projected share trailing the Democratic slate leaders and slightly behind Sharifa Nasser Cuellar and William Shanahan.

The projections for the Queens Civil Court election were built from a baseline turnout estimate and relative share assumptions, then ranked to show likely outcomes if nothing changed. The takeaway is straightforward: before the website, SEO driven messaging, and voter tools went live, DeBerry was expected to miss the cutoff. After the digital campaign launched, DeBerry ultimately finished fourth in the official election results.

RankCandidatePartyStatus (Projected)
1Sharifa Nasser-CuellarDemProjected Winner
2Glenda HernandezDemProjected Winner
3Amish DoshiDemProjected Winner
4Peter F. LaneDem/RepProjected Winner
5William ShanahanRepProjected Winner
6Melissa DeBerryDemUnlikely to Succeed
7Mary-Ann MaloneyRepUnlikely to Succeed
8Stephen DachteraRepUnlikely to Succeed

The Solution

Digital Marketing Solutions International built and launched Melissa’s full campaign digital presence in under two weeks. When we developed DeBerry’s campaign website, we met the three main goals:

Website design and development: We created a clean, mobile-responsive, professionally branded campaign website that gave voters a trusted place to learn about Melissa DeBerry’s background, values, and platform. The site was hosted on a 100% renewable energy platform (backed by Google) and built to WCAG accessibility standards so every Queens resident could use it, on any device.

SEO copywriting: Our team translated Melissa’s legal expertise into clear, relatable content that resonated with Queens voters. Every page was optimized around the search terms voters were using, including “Queens Civil Court judge election 2024,” “Who is Melissa DeBerry,” “Queens voter registration,” so her website surfaced organically through search engines like Google, and in front of her target audience.

Integrated voter tools: We embedded official NYC Board of Elections resources directly into the site, so visitors could check their registration, find their polling location, request a mail-in ballot, and view early voting dates.. We also set up her Ballotpedia and Facebook pages, giving her campaign a consistent, credible presence across multiple platforms.

Official Results

Election outcome and vote breakdown

Within days of launch, the website gained traction. Organic traffic tripled in the first two weeks, driven by search-optimized pages and social promotion. More than half of all visitors engaged with at least one voter tool, which showed a strong sign that the site wasn’t just being seen, it was being used. Average session duration exceeded three minutes, meaning voters were reading, not just clicking away.

On November 5, 2024, Melissa DeBerry finished 4th out of 8 candidates, securing her seat on the Queens Civil Court with 363,119 votes, beating her nearest competitor by nearly 12,000 votes and finishing well above the five-seat cutoff.

She took office on January 1, 2025, for a ten-year term running through 2035.

Vote totals

CandidatePartyVotesVote shareOutcome
Peter F. LaneDemocrat/Republican532,15320.0%Elected (1st)
Glenda HernandezDemocrat391,47014.7%Elected (2nd)
Amish DoshiDemocrat384,30414.5%Elected (3rd)
Melissa DeBerryDemocrat363,11913.7%Elected (4th)
Sharifa Nasser-CuellarDemocrat351,21113.2%Elected (5th)
William ShanahanRepublican220,8788.3%Not elected
Mary-Ann MaloneyRepublican209,9427.9%Not elected
Stephen DachteraRepublican189,9047.2%Not elected
Write-in/other—11,2860.4%—

These official results show that DeBerry edged out Sharifa Nasser-Cuellar by roughly 11,900 votes to secure the fourth-place finish within two weeks.

Nomination context

There was no Democratic primary for DeBerry’s seat. Two Queens Civil Court seats appeared on the June primary ballot, and three additional countywide civil-court seats were later added to the general ballot, which is why multiple candidates advanced directly to November without a primary contest.

Project outcome

The goal was to convert a trailing candidate into a viable contender. Pre-launch assessments placed DeBerry outside the top five. By deploying a modern, renewable-energy-hosted site with embedded voter tools and SEO-driven content, DMS helped DeBerry move from a projected loss to a fourth-place win in the Queens Civil Court election.

In Melissa’s Own Words

“Digital Marketing Solutions International built my campaign website and helped me win my civil court election. The team was super helpful, always answered the phone, and even helped me set up my Ballotpedia and Facebook pages. Their support made the whole process smooth and stress-free. I’m truly grateful for their work and highly recommend them to anyone running a campaign or starting a business.”

— Melissa DeBerry, Queens Civil Court Judge

Conclusion

The DeBerry for Queens Civil Court campaign shows how a targeted digital strategy: green hosting, integrated voter tools, and SEO-optimized content that can convert name recognition into votes. The digital campaign helped strengthen Melissa’s visibility during the final weeks of the election, giving voters a place to learn about her background, access official voting information, and engage with her campaign. She ultimately finished fourth out of eight candidates and earned a seat on the Queens Civil Court.

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Works Cited