Aurelia Butler

More stories

  • 113 Shares149 Views

    in Elections

    Your Questions About the New York City Mayor’s Race

    Readers wanted to know more about Zohran Mamdani, how he won the Democratic primary (and how Andrew Cuomo lost), and what it all means. We have answers.Good morning. It’s Wednesday. Today we’ll answer some reader questions about Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani and the New York City mayor’s race. We’ll also explain why the subway floods so often during rainstorms.Shuran Huang for The New York TimesAssemblyman Zohran Mamdani stunned New York City, the country and many in his own party when he defeated former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in the Democratic mayoral primary last month.As voters and political observers digest the primary results and look toward the general election, questions have also arisen: about the candidates, how journalists are covering the race and what it all means. We asked readers for their questions, and more than 100 poured in from all over the world. Our reporters and editors have answered 21 so far, a few of which are below. Read the full article here.We’ll keep at it until the November election, sharing selections in this newsletter. Submit your questions here.How does Mamdani’s race and subsequent win reflect the overall picture of politics — especially the identity of the Democratic Party — going into November and beyond?— Samantha Kaplan, Annapolis, Md.Age distribution of voters in New York City mayoral electionsIncludes 2025 mail ballots processed through the morning of June 26

    Sources: New York City Board of Elections; L2By Alex LemonidesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • 150 Shares129 Views

    in Elections

    A Scion of Democratic Politics Defeats the Upstarts in an Arizona Primary

    Adelita Grijalva beat back charges of “legacy” and embraced the memory of her father, Raúl Grijalva, to win the Democratic primary for the House seat opened by his death.The Mamdani momentum withered in the deserts of southern Arizona on Tuesday night.In a Democratic primary election that pitted continuity and experience against generational change, voters decided to stick with what they knew, nominating Adelita Grijalva, the oldest daughter of Representative Raúl Grijalva, to fill the House seat of her father, who had held it for more than 20 years until his death in March.The Associated Press called the race for Ms. Grijalva, who was winning more than 60 percent of votes counted. Deja Foxx, a Gen Z activist who tried to recreate the youthful magic of Zohran Mamdani’s campaign for New York City mayor, attracted millions of fans on social media. But with about 20 percent of votes, the 25-year-old was not able to translate viral support into victory at the polls.Daniel Hernandez, a former state lawmaker who ran as a moderate, won 14 percent of the vote. He had made the pitch that Democrats needed to move away from social issues and focus on economic struggles in order to win back Hispanic men who moved dramatically toward President Trump in 2024.Ms. Grijalva is all but guaranteed victory in the special election on Sept. 23, when she will face the Republican primary winner, Daniel Butierez, in a heavily Democratic district.Ms. Grijalva’s win showed the limits of anti-establishment energy in a heavily Latino district where many voters are still fond of Mr. Grijalva and his staunchly liberal support for immigrants and the environment.Young progressives and frustrated Democrats wanted a change of face, if not necessarily of policies. They had hoped the anti-establishment fervor that helped Mr. Mamdani defeat former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other better-known rivals in New York’s mayoral primary would also defeat the Grijalva name in Arizona’s heavily Democratic Seventh Congressional District.They criticized Ms. Grijalva as a “legacy last name,” and argued that her campaign to replace her father reflected a sclerotic Democratic Party’s reliance on uninspiring, familiar candidates over fresh voices.Ms. Grijalva unabashedly embraced her father’s legacy, saying she was proud to be his daughter and would carry on his liberal policies. During the campaign, she talked about how her time as a school-board member and Pima County supervisor had mirrored Mr. Grijalva’s own political career, and how he had discussed the possibility that she would one day run for his seat.Despite the country’s distaste for establishment Democrats, Ms. Grijalva benefited from her family’s deep ties with southern Arizona. She was endorsed by Arizona’s two Democratic senators as well as prominent progressives including Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, and Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez of New York, who was Ms. Foxx’s model, if not her ally.A host of unions, immigrant-rights groups and other progressive groups offered her support and help knocking on doors and goading voters to participate in a low-turnout summertime special election. More

  • 125 Shares179 Views

    in Elections

    Washington, D.C. City Council Ward 8 Special Election Results 2025

    The Eighth Ward’s City Council seat has been vacant since February, when Councilmember Trayon White was expelled after his arrest on federal corruption charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty. Now, voters in southeast Washington will choose between four Democrats vying to represent them—including Mr. White himself. More

  • 113 Shares169 Views

    in Elections

    Arizona Seventh Congressional District Special Primary Election Results 2025

    The Democratic primary to fill the seat vacated by the death of Representative Raúl M. Grijalva in Arizona’s deep blue Seventh Congressional District in Tucson will be a contest between legacy and change. Mr. Grijalva’s daughter Adelita is the favorite and has the backing of progressive groups, as well as institutional Democrats. But her opponents […] More

  • 125 Shares169 Views

    in Elections

    Mamdani Says He Will ‘Discourage’ the Term ‘Globalize the Intifada’

    Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee in the race for mayor of New York City, moved to distance himself from comments that sparked outrage during the primary.Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, told an influential group of business leaders on Tuesday that he would not use the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which has been seen as a call to violence against Jews, and would “discourage” others from doing so, according to three people familiar with his comments.The phrase has been a rallying cry among opponents of the war in Gaza, and Mr. Mamdani, an ardent critic of Israel’s military operations, had refused to condemn its use during the Democratic primary race that he won in June.His comments came in a closed-door meeting with roughly 150 business executives at the offices of Tishman Speyer in Rockefeller Center. It was hosted by the Partnership for New York City, a consortium of members representing banks, law firms and corporations.Mr. Mamdani told the group that while many people used the term to express solidarity with Palestinians, some New Yorkers viewed it as a reference to violence against Israel, according to one of the people who were familiar with his comments.Just two weeks ago, shortly after his primary victory, Mr. Mamdani said in an interview on “Meet the Press” that the term was “not language that I use” but that “I don’t believe that the role of the mayor is to police speech.”Mr. Mamdani’s shifting language comes as his campaign moves from his stunning victory in the June primary to the general election in November, when he faces a fractured field of competitors including Mayor Eric Adams and former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who are running as independents, and the Republican nominee, Curtis Sliwa.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • 125 Shares109 Views

    in Elections

    Mamdani for Mayor (if You Want to Help the Republicans)

    Two groups must be especially thrilled by the prospect of Zohran Mamdani becoming New York’s next mayor.The first: young, progressive-leaning voters who gave the charismatic 33-year-old State Assembly member his come-out-of-nowhere victory in last month’s Democratic primary. They want what he wants: rent freezes, free public buses, city-owned grocery stores, tax hikes for corporations and millionaires, curbs on the police, a near doubling of the minimum wage to $30 an hour and the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu.The second: Republicans who want to make sure that Democrats remain the perfect opposition party — far-left, incompetent, divided, distrusted and, on a national level, unelectable. Remember when Ronald Reagan ran against the “San Francisco Democrats” in 1984 and carried 49 states? Get ready for the G.O.P. to run against “Mamdani Democrats” for several election cycles to come.That’s a thought that ought to give moderate Democrats pause before they accept Mamdani’s mayoralty as a political fait accompli, or even think of getting behind him. Among the reasons the Democratic Party’s brand has become toxic in recent years is progressive misgovernance in places like Los Angeles; San Francisco; Oakland, Calif.; Portland, Ore.; Seattle; and Chicago. If Mamdani governs on the promises on which he’s campaigned, he’ll bring the same toxicity to America’s biggest city.How so?Some of Mamdani’s proposals, like the city-owned groceries, are almost too foolish to mention: Public grocery stores struggle to stock their shelves, can’t compete with private groceries, lack economies of scale and have a recent record of failure in the United States. Other ideas, like free buses, would merely exacerbate the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s shaky finances, which is one reason Kathy Hochul, New York’s Democratic governor, didn’t renew a free bus ride pilot program last year.Turns out, socialism works no better in Brooklyn than it does in Havana.But those ideas won’t be as destructive as Mamdani’s other brainstorms. “Freeze the rent,” his popular campaign slogan, applies only to rent-stabilized apartments, which account for about half of the city’s rental units. But a rent freeze would have precisely the same effects in New York as it has everywhere else: Particularly in a time of inflation, it would lead landlords to cut costs on maintenance, jack up prices on non-stabilized units, convert rental buildings to condos or co-ops and stop new developments that would require affordable housing.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • 125 Shares149 Views

    in Elections

    Andrew Cuomo Test Drives a Warmer, Friendlier Version of Himself

    Mr. Cuomo, the former governor of New York, has vowed to run a more energetic campaign than he did in the mayoral primary, and aimed to demonstrate that on Tuesday.There were stops at a pizzeria in Queens, a coffee shop in Harlem and a few places in the Bronx. The childhood home got a visit. Hands were shaken; smiles were exchanged.Tuesday was Day 1 of former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s reimagined and reinvigorated campaign to become mayor of New York City, a corrective bid to what even his allies conceded had been a lackluster effort to win over voters.The appearances reflected the first faint signs of a different sort of Cuomo campaign taking shape — one that seemed inspired in part by the go-anywhere, talk-to-anyone strategy successfully deployed by Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist and state assemblyman who captured the Democratic primary.But in Mr. Cuomo’s hands, the shift in approach served a very particular mission: portray Mr. Mamdani as a socialist enemy of New York City, and convey Mr. Cuomo’s regret for neither effectively nor energetically delivering that message during the campaign.Sitting across from his daughter Mariah at Gaby’s Pizza in Queens, Mr. Cuomo took responsibility for his lackluster primary campaign, saying, “I did not communicate my vision effectively.”“There was this ‘play it safe, make no mistakes’ attitude,” he added, as a fleet of campaign videographers recorded his every move. “That was not who I am. It’s not what New Yorkers expected from a campaign.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • 100 Shares199 Views

    in Elections

    Democrats Broach Potential Walkout to Block Texas Redistricting

    Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, told Texas Democrats on a call on Tuesday that the moment required everyone to take extraordinary actions.National Democratic leaders are encouraging state Democrats in the Texas House to consider walking out of a special legislative session this month to block Republicans from redrawing the state’s congressional maps ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.At the same time, President Trump held his own call on Tuesday with congressional Republicans in the state, urging them to carve out five new G.O.P. seats from those held by Democrats, according to a person briefed on that call, which was first reported by Punchbowl News.“Just spoke to our Great Congressmen and women of Texas,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media. He added, “I keep hearing about Texas ‘going Blue,’ but it is just another Democrat LIE.”The redistricting of House seats is supposed to come at the beginning of each decade, after new census data shifts populations and changes the number of seats granted to each state. Reapportionment in the middle of the decade is rare and almost always contentious, since it is driven by political considerations, not demographic shifts. In this case, Mr. Trump is openly trying to use new maps to stave off midterm Democratic gains that would potentially cost his party control of the narrowly divided House.“It is important that we fight back,” said U.S. Representative Lizzie Fletcher, a Democrat whose Houston district could be affected. “What is happening is absolutely an unacceptable betrayal of Texans.”During the Democratic call on Monday evening, which lasted for more than two hours, the Democratic leader in the U.S. House, Hakeem Jeffries of New York, and the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Ken Martin, spoke with about 40 Democrats in the Texas House.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More