Democratic socialist Alexa Avilés is tested in a redrawn NYC Council district

New York City Council seats were redistricted two years ago, but a southern Brooklyn seat will have a first real test of how much its politics have shifted this June.

Democratic socialist Council Member Alexa Avilés is facing a challenge from moderate Democrat Ling Ye in Council District 38. Local politicos see the winding district as a collection of around four parts: the progressive stronghold of Red Hook and a slice of South Slope, the historically Puerto Rican half of Sunset Park, parts of southern Brooklyn’s large Chinese population that meander down through Bensonhurst, and the new part of the district – whiter, more moderate Dyker Heights.

Avilés has a strong edge in the race as an incumbent with the support of not just major progressive power brokers like the Working Families Party, the Democratic Socialists of America and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, but also powerful labor unions including 32BJ SEIU, 1199SEIU and the United Federation of Teachers. (She was previously endorsed by District Council 37, but the public sector union withdrew their endorsement over her support for legislation in a controversial fight over city retirees’ health care.)

But as incumbent challenges go, Ye’s is nothing to scoff at. Ye – a former staffer for former Council Member Carlos Menchaca as well as Reps. Nydia Velázquez and Dan Goldman – is well-funded, backed by both a real estate lobby PAC and a pro-Israel PAC, and has experience on the ground in the district. Plus, she has a message that could appeal to more moderate voters – including a focus on public safety and housing over new homeless shelters – and a foothold in the district’s large Chinese American community. Ye immigrated to the U.S. from China as a teenager and grew up with a single mother who worked in a garment factory and then as a street vendor. 

Avilés, whose family immigrated from Puerto Rico when she was a child, is seen as a lefty politician who can nonetheless build coalitions and relationships outside of that circle, and who is touting her office’s constituent support services, particularly to immigrant communities, at a time when those populations are under threat by the Trump administration, and fighting budget cuts by Mayor Eric Adams’ administration. She’s also passed environmental bills that could have a local impact – like mandating a city redesign of truck routes and restricting vehicle idling near city parks.

The 38th council district is roughly 37% Latino and 32% Asian, and in her last competitive primary in 2021, Avilés did best in the white and Latino neighborhoods in Red Hook and Sunset Park, while Yu Lin, a moderate Chinese American candidate who came in a distant second, performed best in the parts of Sunset Park that are more heavily Chinese.

Since the district was redrawn – excising that chunk of Sunset Park and drawing in whiter and more moderate parts of Dyker Heights – Avilés hasn’t faced a competitive primary. 

“Ling has a reputation as a moderate, and we know Alexa is a socialist. But neither of them seems to be running on ideology, which is smart,” said Democratic strategist Trip Yang. (Yang is not involved in the race but has donated to Avilés.)

Despite differences in their ideology and approach, both candidates are attuned to the community’s most pressing concerns. In a candidate forum hosted by APA Voice (Asian Pacific Americans Voting and Organizing to Increase Civic Engagement) on Thursday, both candidates were asked to name their top three priorities and landed on virtually identical answers: Affordability, public safety and education. (Avilés said public education while Ye said making the city budget work better, naming education spending as the first example.)

But both candidates have still tried to draw distinctions – with Ye pointing to “defund the police” calls among progressives including Avilés as damaging to the community’s relationship with police. Broadly, Ye has characterized Avilés’ approach as too activist, in comparison to what she says would be a more pragmatic approach under her own leadership. As one example, she pointed to Avilés’ multiple protest votes against the city budget. “It’s putting drama (and) putting moral grandstanding above practicality and the needs of the community,” Ye said. “When … you take a ‘defund the police’ position, you’re throwing away your (bargaining) chip. Why should 1 Police Plaza pay any attention to this community when you're going to defund them anyways?”

Avilés was not in the council when the prospect of defunding the police was more seriously up for debate in 2020, but she maintains that the city should be more strictly scrutinizing the NYPD’s spending – including its runaway overtime budget – and that police shouldn’t be a part of certain responses, like mental health calls.

Avilés said those budget votes have been difficult, but she argues they haven’t negatively impacted her ability to get things done in the council. (Unlike some of her colleagues who voted against the budget in 2023, she didn’t entirely lose out on a committee chair position doled out by the speaker.) “I've been able to vote on principle and still negotiate what I’ve needed from the city, and still negotiate and be in good practice with the speaker and with other players,” Avilés said. “I think that really kind of speaks to an ability to navigate a challenging terrain.”

Of the newer, more moderate part of the district in Dyker Heights, Avilés said residents’ concerns are not so different. “Where we may have a disagreement in party, ultimately, we’re both talking about better trash services, right, or removing dead trees, safety hazards, or, you know, concerns around speeding and traffic violence, not getting your packages stolen,” she said. 

District 38 is still overwhelmingly Democratic, with progressive strongholds in the Red Hook and Park Slope sections. Last fall, socialist Assembly Member Marcela Mitaynes outperformed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in the district that overlaps with the Red Hook and Sunset Park sections. But we’ve seen rightward shifts in neighboring or overlapping districts with more purple configurations in recent years too. Last fall, Democratic state Sen. Iwen Chu was ousted by Republican Steve Chan in a neighboring district.

Former Council Member Menchaca, who represented a previous version of the district before Avilés, is a progressive who ousted an incumbent member of the council who he cast as asleep at the wheel in 2013. “That’s not Alexa at all,” Menchaca said. In that way, he said, this year’s primary is not comparable to the race that made him an insurgent victor. But that doesn’t mean Ye’s is not a viable challenge. “Incumbency doesn’t matter. What matters is what people want to see, and that’s shifting too, right?” 

Menchaca hasn’t endorsed in the race and was complimentary of both candidates, saying they’re both “values-driven” leaders. Menchaca now hosts a radio show on WBAI but has been traveling around the country and no longer lives in the district.

But the former council member noted that people who supported his political campaign and who were involved in his district’s participatory budgeting work are now split – with some supporting Avilés and others supporting Ye. Public safety concerns have now prevailed over the defund calls that were more prominent when he was in office, he suggested. “I’m so curious about that. How is it that they were all together for me as a progressive and now it’s shifted?”