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

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      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

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      Why N.Y.C. Business Leaders Fear Mamdani

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      As voters head to the polls, the democratic socialist candidate appears to be neck-and-neck with Andrew Cuomo. That has many executives worried.Business leaders have poured money into efforts to defeat Zohran Mamdani in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary.Victor J. Blue for The New York TimesBusiness’ Primary Day worriesBusiness leaders have plenty of global issues to worry about. But on Tuesday, another matter is hitting closer to home: the Democratic primary for New York City’s mayor.The latest poll suggested that Andrew Cuomo could ultimately lose to Zohran Mamdani, an assemblyman and democratic socialist. Executives are concerned that could have negative potential consequences for the city.Why executives fear Mamdani: While Cuomo carries baggage like his resignation as governor over a sexual harassment scandal, Mamdani is proposing ambitious and expensive ideas, like a rent freeze, free city buses and the creation of city-owned grocery stores.How he could fund them is causing agita: raising the corporate tax rate and income taxes for the city’s millionaires by 2 percent. He also wants New York to borrow $70 billion over the next decade, on top of billions in additional planned debt-raising.Cuomo has drawn support from a who’s who of the city’s business elite, including:Mike Bloomberg, who has given $8.3 million to a super PAC tied to CuomoRepublican-leaning executives like the financiers Bill Ackman (who called Mamdani “a dangerous and catastrophic choice”) and Dan Loeb, as well as John Catsimatidis, the supermarket mogulWall Street deal makers such as Blair Effron, Steve Rattner and Antonio WeissAlex Karp, the Palantir co-founder and C.E.O.“Terror is the feeling,” Kathryn Wylde, the chief executive of the Partnership for New York City, which represents top business leaders, told Andrew on CNBC on Tuesday.Mamdani opponents say businesses and top taxpayers will flee New York if he wins:“We may consider closing our supermarkets and selling the business,” Catsimatidis, who owns the Gristedes chain, told The Free Press.“I will never move from New York, but there’s a lot of other people that will and are leaving New York,” Neil Blumenthal, the co-founder and co-C.E.O. of the eyewear brand Warby Parker, also told The Free Press.Writing about wealthy elites criticizing Mamdani, Loeb wrote on X, “Another possibility is that they love New York and don’t want it to turn into a hellscape like San Francisco, Chicago or Portland.”Mamdani says he doesn’t oppose private industry. He told The Times, for instance, that he now believes the private market has “a very important role” in housing construction.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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      Primary Day, by the Numbers

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      Here’s what to know about the primary election for mayor and a number of other posts, which will take place on the hottest day of the year so far.Good morning. It’s a very hot Tuesday. We’ll get details on today’s Democratic primary.Supporters of Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo outside the second Democratic primary debate for the New York City mayoral race this month.Anna Watts for The New York TimesAt the end of a day like today, Primary Day in New York, it’s always about numbers.There’s the number of votes the winner won by.There’s the number of people who voted.And today, there’s also a number that election-watchers usually don’t watch: the temperature.With the city under an extreme heat warning until 8 tonight, it may hit 100. That is far warmer than the last time there was a primary for mayor, in 2021. That day, the high was a seasonable 78.This time around, the heat could affect the turnout in a race that could turn on whether former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s union supporters and paid staff members head off Zohran Mamdani’s volunteers.Here’s another number: 384,338.That’s the number of voters who don’t have to think about standing in a sweaty line at a polling site. They’ve already cast their ballots, having taken advantage of early voting, which ended on Sunday. (Here is yet another number: 78,442. That is how many voters checked in at polling places on Sunday, by far the busiest of the nine days of early voting.)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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      Cuomo and Mamdani Push to Raise Turnout in ‘Jump Ball’ Mayor’s Race

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      A new poll shows the New York City mayor’s race tightening in its final days. Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani are scrambling for every last vote.In the final hours before Primary Day, the Democratic race for mayor of New York City appeared to be razor-tight, leaving the two leading candidates — Andrew Cuomo and Zohran Mamdani — in scramble mode to boost turnout on Tuesday.A new poll released on Monday by Emerson College suggested the race was too close to call, with Mr. Cuomo drawing the most first-place votes but falling short of the 50 percent threshold required to be declared the winner under the city’s relatively new ranked-choice voting system.The poll shows Mr. Mamdani pulling ahead in the eighth round, topping Mr. Cuomo by 3.6 percentage points — matching the poll’s margin of error. It is the first major survey that shows Mr. Mamdani winning, seemingly reflecting his momentum, especially among younger voters.“It is essential that we turn out in record numbers in order to turn the page on Andrew Cuomo, his billionaire donors, and the politics of big money and small ideas,” Mr. Mamdani, a state assemblyman and democratic socialist, said on Monday.Mr. Cuomo, the former governor who resigned in 2021 following a series of sexual harassment allegations that he denies, has led in polls for months, including one also released on Monday by Fix the City, a super PAC tied to Mr. Cuomo’s interests. His campaign called the Emerson poll an “outlier.”“We will continue to fight for every vote like he will fight for every New Yorker as mayor,” Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for Mr. Cuomo, said.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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      A Bustling New York Mayoral Race Reaches a Pivotal Moment

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      The New York Times’s City Hall bureau chief preps us for the Democratic primary.Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together.Tuesday’s Democratic mayoral primary is a pivotal marker in the race to lead New York City.One candidate who is polling well, former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, 67, would be the oldest elected mayor in the city’s modern history. Another front-runner, Zohran Mamdani, 33, a state lawmaker, would be the youngest in a century. Mr. Cuomo has a long track record laid with a style of governance that rubs many the wrong way. Mr. Mamdani was unknown to most people before his media-savvy campaign.There are other prominent candidates who are trailing in the polls but who may still affect the outcome as voters use a ranked-choice ballot system for the second time.In an interview with Times Insider, Emma G. Fitzsimmons, the city hall bureau chief for the Metro desk at The New York Times, explained the contours of the race. This conversation has been edited.One of your colleagues described the final weeks of the race as “chaotic.” How so?First, the race is close. Different polls say different things, but Andrew Cuomo, the former governor, has been leading for months. Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist lawmaker from Queens, has been rising in the polls. The current mayor, Eric Adams, decided not to run in the Democratic primary and is running as an independent in the November general election.The race has gotten pretty nasty in the final weeks. Cuomo is attacking Mamdani; a super PAC that is supporting Cuomo is running millions of dollars’ worth of advertisements calling Mamdani radical, and some people believe those advertisements are Islamophobic because Mamdani is Muslim. Mamdani is hitting Cuomo pretty hard, saying he’s the candidate of the billionaire class and that he’s a disgraced former politician who doesn’t deserve a second chance.A year ago, for different reasons, it seemed unlikely that Mamdani and Cuomo would be in the positions they are in today. How did they get here?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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      As Black New Yorkers Move Out, N.Y.C. Politics May Be Reshaped

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      Housing affordability and quality-of-life concerns are pushing longtime Black New Yorkers out of the city, underscoring Democrats’ challenges with their base ahead of the mayoral election.For the better part of the 35 years that she lived in Brooklyn’s East New York neighborhood, Dorinda Pannell made affordable housing her top — if not only — mission.A lifelong Democrat, tenant leader with East Brooklyn Congregations and avid voter, Ms. Pannell, 75, known to her neighbors in the Linden Houses as “Miss P,” spent years organizing her fellow residents to push for better housing conditions. She even took her fight to City Hall to give a speech about it.Now she is following New York’s mayoral primary closely, hopeful that the city’s next leader will do more for the millions of New Yorkers experiencing housing insecurity, particularly longtime Black and Latino residents who say that good-quality, affordable places to live are more and more elusive.But she will not be voting in the primary or be able to see for herself how the next mayoral administration affects her community. For the last five years, Ms. Pannell has lived in Hampton, Va., where she can be closer to her son, obtain better health care and enjoy what she believes is a higher quality of life and lower cost of living.“I’m still sad that I had to leave, you know?” she said, pointing to the organizing work she felt she had to put on hold. When it came time to move, she added, “I never cried so hard.”Ms. Pannell is one of the hundreds of thousands of Black New Yorkers who over the last decade have made the excruciating choice to leave the city they’ve called home for generations.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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      Big Names, Bigger Money and Global Themes Color the N.Y.C. Council Races

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      All 51 seats are up for election this year, and the Democratic primary battles feature crowded fields, moneyed interests and some recognizable figures.The ballots feature political figures who resigned in disgrace. Global story lines related to Israel and President Trump have defined contests. And millions of dollars from corporate interests have been injected to sway outcomes.Even as most of New York City’s political attention is focused on Tuesday’s Democratic mayoral primary, this year’s races for City Council have also drawn widespread interest and money.Two names well known in New York congressional circles will grace the ballots in Manhattan: Anthony Weiner, the former congressman who spent about a year and a half in prison and much longer in public exile; and Virginia Maloney, whose mother, Carolyn Maloney, was a longtime congresswoman. Each is running to fill an open seat.All 51 Council seats will be up for election in November, and eight have no incumbent. But with most districts heavily Democratic, the primary on Tuesday has become the real race.Super PACs backed by companies, unions and housing advocacy groups, many with interests before the Council, have spent about $13.4 million to influence the contests, $6.8 million more than in 2021.Some of the races have been defined by local issues. In Lower Manhattan, for example, candidates have sparred over the fate of the Elizabeth Street Garden, where a long-gestating plan to build affordable housing for older New Yorkers has been put on hold.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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      Bill Clinton Endorses Andrew Cuomo for NYC Mayor

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      The former president’s endorsement came as Letitia James, the state attorney general who supports Andrew M. Cuomo’s mayoral rivals, criticized the former governor over harassment allegations.Former President Bill Clinton endorsed former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in the New York City mayor’s race on Sunday, giving a last-minute boost of support to Mr. Cuomo, as he urged supporters to head to the polls for the last day of early voting.Mr. Cuomo worked in the Clinton administration as the housing secretary. The backing of the former president, as well as a taped robocall providing his support, could help turn out older voters in the tightening Democratic mayoral primary on Tuesday.Mr. Clinton said in the robocall that he had hired Mr. Cuomo “because he knew how to get things done” and that he believed he would “stand up and protect the people of this city” from President Trump.Mr. Clinton, 78, who lives in a Westchester County suburb north of New York, has not often weighed in on city primary races. His endorsement is another indication that some establishment Democrats prefer Mr. Cuomo to Zohran Mamdani, a state lawmaker and Democratic Socialist who is second in the polls.The endorsement came as Mr. Cuomo and his rivals attended campaign events across the city, trying to convert undecided voters and to ensure that their supporters showed up at the polls. The push appeared more urgent this weekend, with a forecast heat wave potentially depressing turnout on Primary Day.By the end of the early voting period on Sunday, 384,000 Democrats had voted in the primary. That was nearly twice as many people as voted during the same period four years ago, when the coronavirus pandemic was still raging and many New Yorkers voters cast ballots by mail.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