Campaigns & Elections

Brooklyn could decide the 2022 Democratic primary for governor

The borough is even more important than usual as Jumaane Williams gets ready to take on Kathy Hochul again.

New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams is exploring a run for governor.

New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams is exploring a run for governor. Kevin RC Wilson/Shutterstock

New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams is officially exploring a run for governor, but he will not have to look far to see how his path to victory begins in his home borough of Brooklyn. The borough has more people than any other county in the state, and it’s where nearly 1 in 5 registered Democrats live in New York. His more than 70,000-vote victory in Brooklyn in the 2018 Democratic primary for lieutenant governor is largely what made him competitive against Kathy Hochul – despite losing 58 out of 62 counties to her. A repeat performance in Brooklyn in next year’s gubernatorial primary would be essential if he is to have any chance of winning. “Brooklyn will be the most important county bottom line,” Brooklyn Democratic Party Chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, who represents parts of Central Brooklyn in the Assembly, said in a text message.

Williams’ popularity with the political left, New York City connections and increased political profile since being elected to citywide office in 2019 could help him win a primary against Hochul next year, but he faces some formidable challenges to win Brooklyn by as big of a margin as he did three years ago. Hochul has leaned on the powers of incumbency in recent weeks to expand her presence in the borough. Fellow Brooklynites like state Attorney General Letitia James might enter the race and draw away the voters Williams would need to offset likely losses to Hochul in other areas of the state. So the more votes he gets in Brooklyn, the fewer votes he would need in places where his progressive politics might not fare as well.

Some activists said his cache with the political left has only grown in recent years because of his outspoken positions on issues like defunding the police and eviction rules as public advocate. “He’s been doing the work in terms of extending his name not just in the city but outside as PA,” said Boris Santos, a Brooklyn-based activist who was previously endorsed for the Assembly by the city chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. “I think Jumaane would excite folks right off the bat on the ideological end of things.” 

For the second time around though, it remains unclear whether the Working Families Party will endorse Williams next year. Party Chair Sochie Nnaemeka and a spokesperson for Williams did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.

election map
Center for Urban Research at the CUNY Graduate Center

This map of the 2018 results for the lieutenant governor race highlights how Williams and Hochul appealed to different constituencies. Williams won big in relatively wealthy and white neighborhoods like Park Slope, Brooklyn, as well as places like Flatbush that have much larger populations of Black and Latino voters, while beating Hochul by more narrow margins in working-class neighborhoods in the southeastern part of the borough. Hochul meanwhile won by significant margins in Jewish neighborhoods like Borough Park and among the Eastern European immigrant communities in southern Brooklyn. The only other place where Williams made a significant dent was in Manhattan, which Williams won by about 25,000 votes. His victories in Columbia County in the Hudson Valley and Tompkins County, which has Ithaca at its core, helped him gain on Hochul by an additional 2,644 votes in a primary where more than 1.4 million people cast ballots. Hochul carried every other county in the state.

Williams has talked about running a campaign that could appeal to voters across the state, especially those who live in upstate cities like Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse where problems like increasing rents and police brutality have energized grassroots activists in recent years. “There’s this false upstate-downstate thing,” Williams told New York magazine in an interview earlier this week. “That’s not real. The issues of transportation, the issues of education, the issue of gun violence, the issue of housing is remarkably the same in these municipalities.” The Democratic primary victory by democratic socialist India Walton for Buffalo mayor and a recent vote by the Albany Common Council to implement so-called good cause eviction protections highlight how progressive politics have gained ground upstate. A recent Siena College poll found that 4 in 10 registered voters still do not know enough about Hochul to form an opinion.

Yet, Hochul is not the same opponent he faced in 2018. She is now a sitting governor who can wield the powers of incumbency to her advantage in the upcoming primary, especially with supporters like state Democratic Party Chair Jay Jacobs urging potential primary rivals to wait on declaring their candidacies. The new governor has made several trips to Brooklyn as governor, including an early September trip to join activists in support of abortion rights, a mid-September appearance at a Central Brooklyn church to discuss gun violence and a Flatbush event to highlight vaccination efforts for children. Her spokespeople meanwhile have churned out press releases on Brooklyn-centric developments like two new pop-up vaccination sites. This past weekend, she even got to praise Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, Assembly Member Jaime Williams and New York City Council Member Farah Louis at the same Flatlands megachurch where former Mayor Michael Bloomberg delivered a key 2019 speech before launching his ill-fated run for president. These are all places where she performed relatively poorly in 2018. “It’s almost like she’s running for a local race in the city,” Josue Pierre, a Democratic district leader from Central Brooklyn, said in an interview. “That translates into basically taking away a lot of pieces that might have fallen into Jumaane’s support column.” And Hochul is not the only rival who Williams might have to deal with.

A big X-factor in the electoral equation next year is whether James enters the race for governor. “I think it’s a whole new game if Tish jumps in,” political consultant Camille Rivera said in an interview. “If you look at the numbers of what she won in her AG race, you know where she actually won big and that was in Brooklyn – Black women voted heavily and brought her the race.” Her profile in state politics has grown enormously since she was elected attorney general in 2018, especially because of her various investigations into former President Donald Trump and Cuomo, who stepped down just weeks after James released a damning report on sexual harassment allegations against him. Her political base of support also appears overlaps with Williams to a significant degree, in part because they have both represented areas of Central Brooklyn in the City Council. Add New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio into the mix (who continues to hint that he will run for governor in 2022) and you have three people who have represented Brooklyn. “If anything, what you’re going to see is that they’re kind of slicing each other,” Lupé Todd-Medina, a political consultant who also sits on City & State’s advisory board, said in an interview. Williams, James and de Blasio would all likely have to do well in Brooklyn to have a chance in the race while Hochul only needs to keep one of them from winning the borough by such a large margin that it would undermine her gains elsewhere in the state.

Additional candidates in the race could cut both ways for Hochul though. Her Buffalo roots give her an advantage upstate, but she still has to get a lot of votes in New York City and its suburbs to win the Democratic nomination next year. James, Williams or even de Blasio could woo voters away from her, though not because of a lack of attention from Hochul. Her nomination of former state Sen. Brian Benjamin of Harlem to replace her as lieutenant governor was an early signal of how she would focus on New York City during her campaign for a full term. His stated focus on issues like improving conditions at the New York City Housing Authority could reap her big rewards in places like Brooklyn, but she lost the borough three years ago and still won. She could do so again as long as she repeats her 2018 performance with voters in the rest of the state. The same cannot likely be said for Williams, who would have to lean on Brooklyn voters like never before to continue his remarkable rise in New York politics. “If he can’t win in Brooklyn, I don’t see him winning anywhere else,” Democratic political consultant Jake Dilemani said in an interview.

– Rebecca C. Lewis contributed reporting

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.