The leading candidates for mayor – and some of the trailing candidates, too – fanned out across the city this weekend in a final blitz ahead of the June 24 primary and the end of early voting. It was a sweltering weekend, peppered with several frenzied storms – an early preview for the actual day of the election which is expected to be even hotter.
Both ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani, the leading candidates in the Democratic primary, argued that the other is absolutely unfit for the office. “You’re not the messenger as mayor. The mayor is the CEO,” Cuomo told reporters on Sunday, describing Mamdani as merely a social media messenger. “If you want to be the messenger, be the press person, be the head of communications – but mayor? You make the decision. The buck stops at your desk.” Mamdani meanwhile charged that Cuomo is “so scared” of Mamdani’s campaign that he’s calling up billionaires like former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Bill Ackman for more money. “We have one day left – one day – and I do not want anyone here (after polls close) at 9:01 p.m. to think what if,” Mamdani said at a Sunday night rally hosted by the Working Families Party.
Mamdani, who has narrowed the gap in recent polls with front-runner Cuomo, had plenty of help making his case against the former governor over the weekend. At that same rally, the Working Families Party, Attorney General Letitia James, New York City Publicate Advocate Jumaane Williams, Rep. Nydia Velázquez and a host of others came together in Crown Heights Sunday night to voice support for Mamdani, city Comptroller Brad Lander, City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and Sen. Zellnor Myrie as well as urge New Yorkers not to back Cuomo. “You cannot talk about the problems of New York City when you are to blame,”James said. “It’s time to turn the page.” And on Saturday, Lander, who cross-endorsed Mamdani, assembled a team of anti-Cuomo avengers on the Upper West Side to deliver a “closing argument” against the former governor. “We can’t love this city and send a certain individual to City Hall,” Lander said, hardly needing to invoke Cuomo's name for his point to come across.
But the surprising and extremely high-profile mayoral race to unseat Eric Adams is not the only one on the ballot, far from it. All 51 City Council seats are on the ballot, the public advocate has a challenge, and the city will choose a new comptroller as well. Here are five things to watch on Tuesday.
MAYORAL MARGIN – IS IT CLOSE?
We almost certainly will not know the winner of the Democratic primary for mayor on election night. We will not have the initial ranked choice tabulation of votes until July 1 – and the vote won’t be certified until mid-July. The New York City Board of Elections has said they’ll release only a tally of first-choice votes cast on election night and a portion of absentee ballots, the nonprofit news site The City reported. So we’ll only get a partial picture, but New Yorkers’ first choices will tell us a lot. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been leading almost all recent polls, so he’s expected to come out ahead on election night – but his margin matters, as well as his proximity to that all important 50% threshold, left-leaning political commentator Michael Lange told City & State. “I think if you’re Zohran Mamdani, you want to be within 5 points of Cuomo,” Lange said. “(2021 candidate Kathryn) Garcia almost came back from 11 points, but she was a ranked choice voting unicorn almost.” Lange added that Cuomo is more likely to be overtaken in a ranked choice tabulation the further he is from 50% of first-choice votes. “Obviously the caveat is 35-30 is a lot better (for Mamdani) than 40-35,” Lange said. Though the race is expected to come down to Mamdani and Cuomo, we’ll also be watching to see how much Comptroller Brad Lander’s whirlwind final week of campaigning impacts the first-choice results. Lander was (sort of) endorsed by The New York Times opinion section, backed by Ezra Klein and made international headlines when he was detained by ICE for trying to escort a man out of immigration court.
DOES ANYONE MAKE A NOTABLE COMEBACK?
While Cuomo is easily the most well-known former elected official looking to make a political comeback this election cycle, he’s certainly not alone. There are a handful of other men currently running for City Council after either losing their seat amid a swell of scandal or suffering a bruising defeat at the polls. With the exception of Cuomo, they face long odds – some more than others – but it’s worth keeping an eye on all the same. In The Bronx, Fernando Cabrera is challenging Democratic City Council Member Pierina Sanchez in hopes of winning back his old Council District 14 seat. Andy King is also hoping to win back his old seat in the northeastern Bronx, mounting a longshot challenge against Democratic incumbent City Council Member Kevin Riley. Over in lower Manhattan, former Rep. Anthony Weiner will be on the ballot for the Democratic primary in Council District 2, hoping to use the competitive open seat race as an opportunity to redeem himself in wake of the many scandals that derailed his once promising political career. Ruben Wills, convicted of corruption and later exonerated, wants back into the City Council eight years after his expulsion by way of his old southeast Queens District 28 seat. And finally in Southern Brooklyn, Ari Kagan is taking on Republican City Council incumbent Inna Vernikov in District 48.
WILL WE SEE A NEW BRONX BP?
Cuomo’s Saturday press conference in the South Bronx wasn’t the only bit of action the borough saw this weekend. The Bronx has a rare competitive primary race for borough president, with term-limited Council Member Rafael Salamanca challenging incumbent Borough President Vanessa Gibson as her first term comes to an end. While Gibson has the incumbent’s advantage, we’ll be closely watching turnout in the borough, including among Latino voters with whom Salamanca may have an edge. Over the weekend, Gibson pounded the pavement at the Bronx Pride Festival and a street festival in Coop City, while Salamanca campaigned with former Rep. Jamaal Bowman and canvassed in Riverdale, a typically high-turnout neighborhood that is one to watch in the race. Salamanca was also spotted at a festival in the South Bronx with the conservative former state Sen. Rubén Díaz Sr., with whom Cuomo also appeared.
WILL ANY CITY COUNCIL INCUMBENTS LOSE THEIR PRIMARIES?
While we won’t know the results of the mayoral race, we’ll likely have a good sense of who prevailed in a few different two-person contests. There’s been quite a bit of attention on two progressive incumbents who are fighting to hold onto their seats in Brooklyn: Shahana Hanif and Alexa Avilés. Both are members of the Progressive Caucus, and both are facing more moderate challengers who are backed by the pro-Israel Solidarity PAC: Maya Kornberg and Ling Ye respectively. If Mamdani has any coattails, it’ll probably help protect Hanif and Avilés, but both are certainly races to watch. With the help of public matching funds, challengers are also giving incumbent Council Members Sanchez, Riley, Vernikov, Chris Marte, Darlene Mealy, Shaun Abreu, Lincoln Restler and others challenges they can’t ignore.
WHO WILL BE THE NEXT COMPTROLLER?
There are only two competitive candidates in the New York City comptroller’s race, so we’ll likely know the results of the Democratic primary on election night. The contest between Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, an erudite liberal, and New York City Council Finance Committee Chair Justin Brannan, a rough-and-tumble, foul-mouthed Brooklynite, has made for some interesting coalitions. Levine has outraised and outspent Brannan, and he’s been favored in the polls, but Brannan hails from a vote-rich borough and has attracted progressive support that includes the Working Families Party and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders. There’s not too much daylight between them policy-wise, and they’re both white guys, so this is coming down to a bit of a personality contest to become the citywide official who has some ability to keep the mayor in check. The winner of the Democratic primary in this race is almost certain to become comptroller in 2026.