The men hoping to win a comeback seat in the NYC Council

You know what they say – once people get a taste for power, it’s hard to relinquish it. Be it redemption, revenge, pride or some combination of the three, there’s a long history of elected officials in New York City who’ve fought to get back into politics after losing their seat amid scandal or a bruising defeat at the polls. The 2025 election cycle has been no exception.

Of course if there was a poster boy for political comebacks this year it would be Andrew Cuomo, the front-runner in the Democratic mayoral primary, who resigned as governor in 2021 after a report from the state attorney general’s office concluded he’d sexually harassed nearly a dozen women. (He denies wrongdoing.) Many of the same political, union and business leaders who’d condemned Cuomo amid his fall from grace and pressed him to resign have since pivoted dramatically, backing him in his bid to oust Mayor Eric Adams. 

But while Cuomo might be the most high-profile – and so far successful – candidate to launch a comeback bid this year, he isn’t the only man hoping to claw his way back into the halls of political power. A handful of City Council candidates in races across the city are currently hoping to redeem themselves after they lost an election or their political careers were clouded by scandal. Here are the ones to keep an eye on during the June 24 primary.

Fernando Cabrera, Bronx City Council candidate

Former role: New York City Council member repping the same district

Last time he held office: 2021

What went wrong: He was term-limited and unsuccessfully ran for Bronx borough president.

What he’s running for now: City Council in Bronx District 14

Hoping to return to the City Council seat he held for more than a decade, Fernando Cabrera is challenging City Council Member Pierina Sanchez in the West Bronx. A longtime Christian pastor and a socially conservative Democrat, Cabrera is a familiar face in New York City politics. 

He represented District 14 from 2010 until he was term-limited in 2021, mounted an unsuccessful campaign for Bronx borough president that same year, and more recently, garnered a fair amount of controversy as a senior faith adviser to Mayor Eric Adams. LGBTQ City Council members and community advocates voiced deep concerns after the mayor tapped Cabrera to join his administration in 2022, pointing to his long history of anti-LGBTQ views – like aligning himself with an organization classified as a hate group and publicly praising the anti-gay governement of Uganda. These specific incidents occurred more than a decade ago and Cabrera apologized for his history upon his appointment at City Hall, but his reputation has lingered.

Cabrera is leaning on his previous record in the City Council as he challenges Sanchez, arguing he’s better equipped to improve public safety and quality of life in the district than the progressive incumbent. With his solid fundraising and name recognition, he’s perhaps got the best odds of any of the comeback City Council candidates seeking to topple an incumbent this election cycle, though Sanchez still leads handily in endorsements and money on hand.

Andy King, Bronx City Council candidate

Former role: New York City Council member repping the same district 

Last time he held office: 2020 

What went wrong: He was expelled by the City Council’s ethics committee for a cornucopia of misconduct. 

What he’s running for now: City Council in Bronx District 12

It’s been roughly five years since Andy King was expelled from the City Council after an ethics committee substantiated claims that he’d harassed a female staffer and other employees, taken a $2,000 kickback, and ignored the chamber’s attempts to discipline him. Now he’s trying to get back in – again – by way of his old District 12 seat in the northeastern Bronx, mounting a longshot challenge against Democratic incumbent City Council Member Kevin Riley. 

This isn’t the first time that King has attempted a political comeback since his expulsion, but it is his first time back on the ballot. While trying to run against Riley in 2023 who’d replaced him in a 2020 special election, King was booted from the ballot by the city Board of Elections over term-limit laws, then briefly reinstated after a Manhattan Supreme Court justice ruled in his favor, only to be kicked off again later that month. This time around, voters will actually have a chance to weigh in on whether they’d like to see King, the first person expelled from the City Council in recent history, back. As far as fundraising and endorsements go, King has picked up little traction and Riley, chair of the powerful Subcommittee for Zoning and Franchises, is widely expected to win another term.

Anthony Weiner, Manhattan City Council candidate 

Former role: member of Congress 

Last time he held office: 2011 

What went wrong: He resigned from Congress amid a sexting scandal, and then his attempt to run for New York City mayor a few years later was again derailed by another sexting scandal. 

What he’s running for now: City Council in Manhattan District 2.

You’ve probably heard of Anthony Weiner – the former Democratic Congress member whose once-promising political career was upended by a sexting scandal in 2011, turning his name into a punch line. There’s even a documentary chronicling his first attempt at a political comeback in the 2013 New York City mayoral race only to be derailed by yet another sexting scandal. In 2017, he was sentenced to 21 months in prison for sexting a minor. 

Unlike King and Cabrera, Weiner isn’t running against an incumbent. The lower Manhattan District 2 seat is currently occupied by term-limited City Council Member Carlina Rivera, leading to a competitive race for the open seat. Several candidates including Assembly Member Harvey Epstein, Manhattan Community Board 3 Chair Andrea Gordillo and nonprofit leader Sarah Batchu have been in the race months longer than Weiner, who launched his campaign late last fall. All three have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

Even by New York standards, Weiner's career has seen a remarkable amount of scandal – a fact that’s been seized upon by his opponents. While he appeared for an interview on The View last week, Batchu and Gordillo teamed up to protest outside. Both women have pointed repeatedly to Weiner’s past, questioning why a registered sex offender is running for City Council. Weiner for his part hasn’t shied away from his past. He’s talked openly about what he did wrong, sat for hard-hitting interviews, and even recently circulated a mailer featuring an elephant accompanied by this: “since I am asking you for your vote again, I want to address the elephant in the room … I accepted responsibility, I did my time (literally) and paid my debt to society in full.”

Ruben Wills, Queens City Council candidate 

Former role: New York City Council member repping the same district 

Last time he held office: 2017

What went wrong: He was convicted of corruption and expelled from the City Council. (He was later exonerated).

What he’s running for now: City Council in Queens District 28

Ruben Wills is running for his old seat in Southeast Queens, seeking redemption after he was convicted of corruption in 2017 for using public funds to pay for personal expenses and serving eight months in prison only for his conviction to be reversed on appeal in 2021. This fall, Wills sued then-state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman for malicious prosecution, alleging that the former attorney general sent him to prison because he had a grudge against his old boss, former state Sen. Shirley Huntley, Politico New York reported. 

Wills tried to run for the District 28 seat in 2021 against City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, but lost handily. Things won’t be easy this time either. The district’s lines have shifted a lot since Wills’ tenure in the City Council and the Democratic primary for the open seat is considered to be one of the city’s most competitive. He is among a handful of other candidates vying for the seat, including Adams’ chief of staff and longtime staffer Tyrell “Ty” Hankerson who leads in fundraising and has garnered many of the major local endorsements.

Ari Kagan, Brooklyn City Council candidate 

Former role: New York City Council member repping the neighboring 47th Council District 

Last time he held office: 2024

What went wrong: Redistricting pitted him and fellow incumbent City Council Member Justin Brannan against each other, and Kagan switched parties and lost. 

What he’s running for now: City Council in Brooklyn District 48

Ari Kagan has had a rough couple of years. His longshot challenge against Republican City Council Member Inna Vernikov in Southern Brooklyn’s City Council District 48 is unlikely to be any exception. A former Democratic City Council member, Kagan became a Republican in 2022 and lost to City Council Member Justin Brannan in the newly redrawn Council District 47. Redistricting the year prior combined parts of Brannan’s and Kagan’s districts, pitting the two incumbents against each other in what would become one of the city’s nastiest, most competitive primaries of the election cycle. 

Kagan, who currently works for state Sen. Steve Chan, officially announced he’d be challenging Vernikov in late March – a fairly late start to be taking on the incumbent Republican. While he’d initially been considering the run as Vernikov seemed poised to run for state Senate, Kagan ultimately opted to go forward with his comeback attempt despite her decision to move forward with seeking reelection. While it seems likely Vernikov will hold onto the seat, the two have traded a series of blows with Kagan charging that the council member has been absent from the district and she in turn pointing to the fact that he only recently joined the Republican Party.