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    New York City Council Primary Election Results 2025

    Christopher MarteC. MarteMarte 49% Elizabeth LewinsohnE. LewinsohnLewinsohn 24% 91% Helen QiuH. QiuQiu Uncontested Harvey EpsteinH. EpsteinEpstein 39% Sarah BatchuS. BatchuBatchu 21% 83% Jason MurilloJ. MurilloMurillo Uncontested Erik BottcherE. BottcherBottcher 74% Jacqueline LaraJ. LaraLara 25% 81% Virginia MaloneyV. MaloneyMaloney 26.8% Vanessa AronsonV. AronsonAronson 25.4% 79% Debra SchwartzbenD. SchwartzbenSchwartzben Uncontested Julie MeninJ. MeninMenin 73% Collin ThompsonC. ThompsonThompson 26% 81% Alina BonsellA. BonsellBonsell Uncontested Gale BrewerG. BrewerBrewer Uncontested More

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    Jumaane Williams Wins Democratic Primary for Public Advocate

    Mr. Williams, a progressive who has served as public advocate since 2019, has been a forceful critic of Mayor Eric Adams. He faced two more moderate challengers.Jumaane Williams, the progressive organizer who as New York City’s public advocate emerged as one of the most prominent critics of Mayor Eric Adams, handily won the Democratic primary for the office on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press.Mr. Williams, 48, faced a challenge from Jenifer Rajkumar, 42, a state assemblywoman from Queens and an ally of the mayor, and Marty Dolan, 67, a former insurance executive. Both argued that Mr. Williams was too left-leaning to effectively hold the office. And as the Democratic mayoral primary narrowed to a two-man race between the moderate former governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the progressive state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, Mr. Williams’s opponents sought to portray him as a would-be adversary of Mr. Cuomo’s who could impede the city’s progress.The public advocate race grew contentious in its final weeks, with Ms. Rajkumar distributing political cartoons and campaign mailers painting the incumbent as lazy and hostile to women. Mr. Williams rejected her claims.But Mr. Williams, who trailed Ms. Rajkumar in fund-raising by about $100,000, easily bested his opponents through heavy advertising and name recognition. In one of his advertisements on Instagram, he underlined his ability to stand up to both Mr. Adams and President Trump, saying the city needed a “strong, independent public advocate to stand up — not just stand by.”Mr. Williams has emerged as one of the highest-ranking progressive Democrats in city leadership since taking office after a special election in 2019. He previously served on the City Council, and in 2022, he challenged Kathy Hochul in the governor’s race. A self-proclaimed “activist elected official,” Mr. Williams has been arrested more than a dozen times at protests, including while demonstrating in favor of tenants’ rights and against deportations.He is one of Mr. Adams’s loudest critics. As the mayor stared down a federal corruption indictment last fall, Mr. Williams said the city was rudderless under his leadership. And as Governor Hochul weighed removing the mayor over his perceived quid pro quo with the Trump administration to drop the charges, Mr. Williams, who as public advocate is first in the line of succession to the mayor, made plans to take the helm in City Hall.The public advocate serves as a city watchdog, helping New Yorkers navigate issues with government and services. The position offers a bully pulpit and has often been considered a springboard to higher office; former Mayor Bill de Blasio and the state attorney general, Letitia James, have both held the post.Mr. Williams also weighed in on the mayoral primary as he campaigned for re-election. In late May, he endorsed a slate of progressive candidates that included Mr. Mamdani; Brad Lander, the city comptroller; and Adrienne Adams, the City Council speaker. He expressed concerns about Mr. Cuomo’s candidacy and said that he would not be ranking the former governor on his ballot.Mr. Williams will face a slate of independent candidates in the general election. Mr. Dolan is expected to also run as an independent. More

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    Hanif Wins Re-election in Council Contest Defined by Israel and Gaza

    Shahana Hanif defeated Maya Kornberg, a first-time candidate, in an acrimonious race for a City Council seat in Brooklyn.Shahana Hanif, the first Muslim woman elected to the City Council in New York City, has held onto her seat in Tuesday’s Democratic primary contest, which had turned into a tense race where the politics of the Middle East became a focal point.Ms. Hanif, who represents Brooklyn neighborhoods including Park Slope, Windsor Terrace and Kensington, defeated her challenger, Maya Kornberg, a senior research fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, according to The Associated Press.Ms. Kornberg, 33, said she decided to challenge Ms. Hanif, 34, who was elected in 2021, because of the councilwoman’s focus on the plight of Palestinians in Gaza, and she regularly characterized her as being insufficiently concerned with the needs of the district.“The Council member’s disproportionate focus on that issue and taking public divisive stances on that issue, instead of focusing on the local issues facing our district — on fixing potholes and planting trees — is precisely the progressive attitude we need to change,” Ms. Kornberg said in a recent television interview.The race was animated this winter by the vandalism of an Israeli restaurant in Park Slope. Ms. Hanif condemned it, but some constituents felt she had not been vocal enough in calling out the vandalism as antisemitic. In an interview before the primary, Ms. Hanif said her opponents had tried and failed to belittle her efforts to bring more housing to Brooklyn, among other priorities.She cited as an example her efforts to rezone the site of the Arrow Linen & Uniform Supply Company in Windsor Terrace for housing. Many community members opposed the redevelopment, which passed the City Council earlier this year. Before it did, Ms. Hanif worked to scale it down and to ensure that more affordable units were included.“My campaign has been a multiracial and intergenerational coalition of people who want to build bridges,” said Ms. Hanif, who was supported by and campaigned aggressively with the progressive mayoral candidates Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani and Comptroller Brad Lander.“If you look at the other side, you’re not going to see anything close to that sort of coalition.”In the end, Ms. Hanif, who grew up in the district in Kensington, prevailed in part because of her grass-roots outreach in immigrant communities. The efforts helped her withstand about $400,000 in super PAC spending from, among others, Uber and companies associated with Madison Square Garden, deployed to boost Ms. Kornberg’s campaign and attack Ms. Hanif. More

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    Anthony Weiner Hopes Voters Have Forgiven or Forgotten

    Mr. Weiner returned from a prison term to launch an unlikely campaign for the City Council. Outside a polling place on Tuesday, it was hot, mostly friendly and a little awkward.Anthony Weiner, posted on a sunbaked corner of the East Village on Tuesday, had stooped to hear an older woman tell him that she had just voted for him when a much younger woman stopped, took a quick selfie in front of the candidate and muttered “pedophile.”“What did she say?” the older woman asked.“Supports another candidate,” Mr. Weiner deadpanned.That he is himself a candidate is a plot twist in a story that many believed had ended badly. Mr. Weiner resigned from Congress in 2011 following a sexting scandal. A second sexting scandal cost him a run for mayor in 2013. Four years later, he was convicted of a felony and served 18 months in prison for sharing sexually explicit photos and texts with a 15-year-old girl.He is now seeking an improbable comeback, running for a City Council seat in Lower Manhattan, asking voters to return him to an office he first won in 1991, in his mid-20s, in a Brooklyn district.During his campaign, he has owned those dark episodes without, as he put it, “wallowing” in them — “contrition, but not scraping.” He hopes his practical, street-level ideas to fix what ails the city — hire more police officers, find proper care for the mentally ill and homeless living in parks — attract voters ready to set aside his past.“I can’t think of another political campaign that’s quite like this,” he said.One thing that is undeniable, watching him greet person after person under a punishing midday sun that reduced his pole-thin shadow to a sliver, is that Mr. Weiner loves this part of the game. He is a tireless retail politician.“You guys vote yet?” he asked a passing couple.“We’re not from here.”“Maybe someday!” he replied.He recalls running for the Council in 1991 and has pictures of himself that year, looking gaunt and strung out.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

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    Manhattan Democrats Will Weigh Tenure of District Attorney in Primary

    Patrick Timmins, who is challenging Alvin L. Bragg, says the groundbreaking felony conviction of President Trump is irrelevant. He promises to tackle crime in the subway.While New Yorkers have been inundated with news about the Democratic primary for mayor, voters in Manhattan on Tuesday will also decide whether to re-elect their top prosecutor.Alvin L. Bragg, the Democrat who has been Manhattan’s district attorney since 2022, is facing a sole primary challenger in the race to lead one of the country’s largest prosecutors’ offices.His challenger, Patrick Timmins, a civil litigator who served in the Bronx district attorney’s office in the late 1990s, has said Mr. Bragg ushered in an increase in crime in Manhattan, especially in the subway.Mr. Timmins, 69, said that he has heard a desire for new leadership during his conversations with Manhattanites in recent months.“They fear crime, they fear where Manhattan is going, and so they want a change,” Mr. Timmins said. “They want a change from Alvin Bragg.”Mr. Bragg’s campaign rejected the assertion that crime has risen. In Manhattan, the seven felony crimes that the New York Police Department uses as benchmarks — murders, rapes, robberies, felony assaults, burglaries, grand larcenies and grand larcenies of automobiles — are overall 13 percent lower this year compared with the same period in 2022, when Mr. Bragg took office, according to police data.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

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    Why Ranked-Choice Voting Could Have a Pivotal Effect on the Mayor’s Race

    The candidates have struck alliances and made cross-endorsements to take advantage of the ranked-choice voting system.This year’s Democratic primary will be only the second time New York City has used ranked-choice voting — which allows voters to list up to five candidates on their ballots in order of preference — to select a nominee for mayor.The campaigns have worked hard to educate voters about how to make the most of their rankings, and some candidates have struck alliances to improve their chances of winning.A critical partnership emerged the day before early voting began this month when two progressive candidates — Zohran Mamdani, a state lawmaker, and Brad Lander, the city comptroller — cross-endorsed each other in an effort to beat the front-runner, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.The two candidates’ hope is that if most of their supporters rank them in the top two spots on their ballots — and leave Mr. Cuomo off — they can combine their share of the vote and overtake Mr. Cuomo.Trip Yang, a Democratic strategist who is not working on any of the mayoral campaigns, said that it was a smart move by Mr. Mamdani, who has been second in the polls and catching up to Mr. Cuomo.“Given how close the polls are, and the likelihood that Lander will be the last candidate eliminated before the Cuomo-Zohran climax, the X-factor is how overwhelmingly Lander’s votes go to Zohran,” he said.If 65 to 70 percent of Mr. Lander’s votes go to Mr. Mamdani, “then we might have our first Muslim, socialist mayor,” Mr. Yang said.Under the ranked-choice system, if a voter’s top choice is eliminated, their vote is transferred to the next candidate on their ballot, and so on.Before the city began using ranked-choice voting in citywide elections in the 2021 primary, New Yorkers would cast their votes for only one candidate. If no candidate received more than 40 percent of the vote, the top two finishers would go to a runoff. The ranked-choice system amounts to an instant runoff.Mr. Cuomo led in the polls for months, but Mr. Mamdani has generated momentum and the race narrowed considerably. Mr. Cuomo has struck his own alliances, but has not made a cross-endorsement with another candidate.Mr. Cuomo was endorsed by Jessica Ramos, a state senator from Queens who is running for mayor and who had reservations about Mr. Mamdani. Another candidate, Whitney Tilson, a hedge fund executive, also opposes Mr. Mamdani and said he would rank Mr. Cuomo second on his ballot.The left-leaning Working Families Party endorsed a slate of four candidates, including Mr. Mamdani and Mr. Lander, and held a rally on Sunday to show unity against Mr. Cuomo.Adrienne Adams, the City Council speaker who is part of the slate, said she supported the group, but chose not to make a cross-endorsement with Mr. Mamdani.Mr. Mamdani and Michael Blake, a former state lawmaker from the Bronx, also cross-endorsed each other. Mr. Blake has trailed the others in polls, but had a strong debate performance. More

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    2025 NYC Mayoral Race: Photos From the Campaign Trail

    New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary field is crowded, diverse and tenacious, like the city itself. It includes candidates who would be the first woman, the first Muslim and the oldest person elected to lead City Hall. As the race has heated up, the contenders have traversed the five boroughs in an effort to gain support from millions of voters who hold competing interests and visions of New York.Running for citywide office, like much of American politics, is a contact sport. Candidates seeking to raise money and boost their name recognition have had to take their message directly to voters — meeting them everywhere from the seats of the G train to the steps outside an N.B.A. playoff game at Madison Square Garden. And that was just before the first debate.Candidates often campaigned in places where they had personal connections, or sought out New York City icons like the Cyclone roller coaster and the Staten Island Ferry.Yet the dark political mood has cast a shadow over the contest. All the Democrats running have made big promises to bring the city they love back. Rising costs of living, threats from President Trump and enduring concerns over public safety have captured New Yorkers’ attention and are driving their votes. This atmosphere has prompted some of the candidates who currently hold public office to leverage their positions to make waves and force tough policy conversations.The race coincides with continuing tensions within the Democratic Party, which is still forging a path forward after bruising losses in last year’s presidential election. And as the candidates seek to galvanize voters and make a name for themselves, they have also sought to paint themselves as fighters for their city, and against Mr. Trump. Here are some moments captured by New York Times photojournalists of the leading candidates on the campaign trail.Adrienne AdamsAdrienne Adams marching in the Haitian Day Parade; marking the anniversary of her father’s death from Covid-19; and campaigning with Attorney General Letitia James and union leaders.Victor J. Blue for The New York Times, Janice Chung for The New York Times, Dave Sanders for The New York Times and Todd Heisler/The New York TimesWe 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

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    What to Watch for When the N.Y.C. Mayoral Results Come in

    A winner on Tuesday night is unlikely, but not impossible. Ranked-choice voting will play a big role in the outcome. Here’s what else you should look for as votes are counted.We are unlikely to know the winner of the Democratic primary race for mayor on primary night.Polls show a close contest between two candidates, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani. In the ranked-choice election, voters can select up to five candidates in order of preference, and if neither man gets more than 50 percent of the first-place votes on Tuesday, a series of subsequent rounds will tally the final results based on voters’ second-through-fifth-place choices.But that count will not take place until July 1, a week after the election, because absentee, mail-in and affidavit votes, which can be important in a close race, can be received and counted up until then.Polls close in New York at 9 p.m., and first results will start to come shortly after that.Here’s what else you’ll need to know ahead of Primary Day:The math of ranked-choice votingThis is New York’s second mayoral primary election using the ranked-choice voting system. Vote counting proceeds in rounds, with the last-place candidate eliminated in each round. If a voter’s top choice is eliminated, the vote is then transferred to the voter’s next choice. Elimination rounds continue until there are two candidates left and one gets more than 50 percent of the vote.Most reliable polls suggest that neither Mr. Mamdani nor Mr. Cuomo will receive more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round of vote counting on Tuesday night. But their performances will offer a look at who has the upper hand: The closer a candidate is to 50 percent, the better chance that candidate has to win in the end.The first results to come in on Tuesday night, from a period of early voting that began more than a week ago, are likely to favor Mr. Mamdani. That’s because a jump in the number of early voters this year appears to be driven by younger voters, who tend to prefer Mr. Mamdani.Bill Knapp, a strategist and consultant for Fix the City, the pro-Cuomo super PAC that has raised roughly $25 million from billionaire donors and corporate interests, acknowledged that the first votes counted would probably not favor Mr. Cuomo.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