Campaigns & Elections

The weird public advocate race between Jumaane Williams and Jenifer Rajkumar

Original cartoons and polling intrigue abound.

Assembly Member Jenifer Rajkumar, left, is challenging New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams.

Assembly Member Jenifer Rajkumar, left, is challenging New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams. Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images; New York City Public Advocate’s Office

By Sophie Krichevsky

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No matter how you slice it, the reality of the New York City public advocate Democratic primary is that the only publicly available independent poll thus far has Assembly Member Jenifer Rajkumar getting 6% compared to incumbent Jumaane Williams’ 51%.

That poll came out in April – as Rajkumar is quick to point out – eons before primary voters are thinking about who should be the next public advocate and long before either candidate is running ads on TV. Rajkumar also said internal polling showed she was much better positioned, but her campaign failed to produce its poll in full for review.

A more recent poll paid for by a pro-Rajkumar independent expenditure committee with overtly pro-Rajkumar questions also did not show Rajkumar coming close to winning. Williams was still ahead by about 11 points, with roughly 18% undecided.

Pretty much anyone you ask in New York politics will call this race a long shot for Rajkumar – despite the fact that she was leading Williams in fundraising as of the last filing deadline in mid-March, and she’s known as a tireless campaigner. These are two very different elected officials: Williams, the Black, lefty, activist incumbent from Brooklyn; and Rajkumar, the South Asian, striving, moderate Assembly member from Queens. At the same time, they share some qualities essential to the largely ceremonial role: Both have a flair for theatrics (albeit, in different styles). They also share intense ambition that has led them to set their sights on a position that has launched two prior occupants to higher office – Williams has run for governor and lieutenant governor, while Rajkumar moved across the city to finally win her third campaign for legislative office. What we’re left with is an out of the spotlight, lopsided and weirdly acrimonious race with plenty of mudslinging and millions in campaign cash.

The origins of the race

Rajkumar initially planned to run for New York City comptroller, launching her campaign in August 2024 and raising some $400,000 in private donations. She told City & State the November election returns for Democrats prompted her choice to abruptly switch to run for public advocate in late January. (Erstwhile AOC challenger Marty Dolan also made the ballot, but his campaign is in the red, as of the last filing deadline in mid-March.)

Tanbir Chowdhury, who served as Rajkumar’s campaign manager until late December and left his position as her campaign’s Queens borough lead in March, said there was concern about Rajkumar’s chances competing with Mark Levine, a popular Jewish Manhattan liberal who officially launched his campaign for comptroller in December after filing a campaign committee in August 2024.

“The Jewish community … she has strong support there – that’s going to be a big part of her base. It already is,” Chowdhury said, noting her endorsements from prominent Jewish Assembly Members Nily Rozic, Sam Berger and David Weprin following her pivot. “So I think that played a part in the switch.”

Rajkumar said Williams hasn’t “taken a clear stand against antisemitism.” He has condemned antisemitism, but his supportive take on protests surrounding the Israel-Hamas war and his outspoken criticism of Israel’s campaign in Gaza is perhaps less popular with many Jewish voters. The issue has dominated city politics of late – particularly as it relates to the race to unseat Mayor Eric Adams.

When Rajkumar made the switch, the chances of Williams becoming mayor as a result of the City Charter’s order of succession – likely leaving his seat open, depending on the timing – also looked pretty good. After Adams’ indictment on federal corruption charges, and again after Trump’s Department of Justice moved to have the case dropped, a long list of elected officials called for the mayor’s resignation or removal from office.

This wasn’t the first time Rajkumar has pivoted. She ran for City Council and Assembly in lower Manhattan before moving to Queens and ousting former Assembly Member Michael Miller in 2020. After winning the Assembly race, Rajkumar became one of Adams’ most loyal supporters, endorsing him early in the 2021 mayor’s race and continuing to appear by his side at every opportunity for the first three years of his term, though their relationship seems to have cooled considerably since Adams was indicted last fall.

Asked whether she had any concern switching races might be viewed as a move to simply improve her chances to win a citywide office, Rajkumar interjected, “What’s wrong with that?”

“Activist elected” versus “legal powerhouse”

The role of the office of the public advocate, formed by a U.S. Supreme Court-mandated overhaul of city government in 1989, is vestigial. The public advocate used to be called the president of the City Council, and used to have a seat on the now-eliminated Board of Estimate. Now, it’s a largely symbolic role – one some have pushed to eliminate – mostly a bully pulpit with a loose accountability focus. The public advocate is also a nonvoting member of the City Council and, as such, can introduce bills.

A civil rights lawyer, Rajkumar has positioned herself as someone who will use the office’s legal muster to sue government entities – like the federal government or city agencies – coming up short for New Yorkers. “I will transform the public advocate’s office into a force,” she said. She has also highlighted her successes in the Assembly, noting her efforts to make Diwali a school holiday in New York City public schools and to give municipalities the power to shutter illicit cannabis dispensaries.

And Rajkumar has tried to paint Williams’ approach to the office as flawed, referring to him frequently as a “professional protester.” While Williams does not use those words to describe himself, he doesn’t exactly reject the label, either. He defines the role as “an ombudsman for the people of the city … with some charter-mandated powers.” “I’ve presented myself as an activist elected official, and I think we’ve done it very well,” he said. 

That’s not to say Williams has made his record so explicit. Both his campaign website and recent campaign ad lack specifics, and he was also vague in speaking with City & State about his record, saying he’s “very proud of the work we’ve done.” He did say his office has passed more legislation than all other public advocates combined. City Council records show he indeed has been the prime sponsor of more successfully passed bills than his predecessors.

Among those legislative achievements: Williams was the prime sponsor of two bills Adams vetoed and the council overrode – the How Many Stops Act, which requires the New York City Police Department to collect and report data on low-level stops, and a ban on solitary confinement at city jails. Both highlight Williams’ record of taking on the mayor. But he’s been pretty mum on that this campaign cycle, perhaps due to concern that those unabashedly progressive bills might not be so popular citywide these days.

To that end, in her interview with City & State, Rajkumar said, “I’ve never said defund the police, which Jumaane has said.” In 2020, Williams said he’d stop the city from collecting property taxes if it did not freeze New York City Police Department hiring, though he has said he is not a fan of the term “defund.”

Political consultant Evan Stavisky said it’s logical for Rajkumar to go on the attack. “Unless you can make the argument for change, you probably won’t be successful,” he said. But Rajkumar has summarized her critiques in an unusual medium: cartoons on social media. Several portray Williams as being absent, sleepy and lazy, often alongside the Queens lawmaker, hard at work and defiant, at times literally dunking on Williams.

Some elected officials have called out the depictions of Williams as racist; she says those allegations “make no sense” and that “holding an elected official accountable is important and not racist.”

“The one who’s always in the red dresses”

Rajkumar seems to be banking on the possibility that there is enough distaste for Williams among moderate voters to motivate them to attempt to oust him on primary day.

Meanwhile, Williams’ strategy has been pretty clear from the beginning: Run on name recognition, painting himself someone who stands up to President Donald Trump and Adams while tapping into a base of young progressive voters and those in Brooklyn’s predominantly Black neighborhoods. Williams doesn’t even mention Rajkumar in his first TV ad.

Rajkumar represents a fraction of the New Yorkers Williams does as a citywide elected official. Her former campaign manager Chowdhury was blunt about her odds: “At this point, a path to victory is not really existent.”

But she’s an ambitious politician who revels in the game. And she doesn’t have to give up her Assembly seat to run. As she seeks to carve out her own political future separate from that of Adams, the opportunity to spend hundreds of thousands of public matching funds on TV ads promoting herself as a legal eagle is a valuable one – win or lose.

In other words: She’s rebranding (sort of). Michael Tobman, who is running the pro-Rajkumar PAC, recalled speaking to a Manhattan civic leader recently who at first did not know who Rajkumar was. “I said, ‘You know, the one who’s always wearing the red dresses,’ and he said, ‘Oh, I like her,’” Tobman told City & State.

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