The mayor’s meddling paid off.
Voters in New York’s primary elections favored a handful of progressive candidates across the city, delivering a resounding repeat victory to Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The results underscored his power less than a year into his term: Mamdani endorsed eight candidates and as of late Tuesday night, all appeared poised to win. Highlights included:
For Congress:
- Brad Lander in the 10th Congressional District (won)
- Claire Valdez in the 7th Congressional District (won)
- Darializa Avila Chevalier in the 13th Congressional District (won)
For the State Legislature:
- Samantha Kattan for Assembly District 37 in western Queens (won)
- Aber Kawas for State Senate District 12 in western Queens (won)
- Brian Romero for Assembly District 34 in western Queens (won)
- Illapa Sairitupac for Assembly District 65 in Lower Manhattan (leading)
- Eli Northrup for Assembly District 69 in Upper Manhattan (won)
The results embolden the mayor’s agenda, namely affordability and economic justice on issues such as universal childcare and lower food costs. They also offer lessons for the midterms ahead, even if you hear the notion pooh-poohed by scoffers insisting that New York politics are different.
Not so fast.
What happened this election season is (again) a wake-up call to Democrats, not just on the issues that served as litmus tests in some of these races — abolishing ICE, calling what’s happening in Gaza a genocide — but also on the power of personality, door-knocking and rousing rallies. Here are a half-dozen takeaways:
The Mamdani effect is real
Besides trying to reenergize the electorate that propelled him to office, the mayor also inspired a slate of copycat candidates, not all of whom he endorsed. They skateboarded through subways, staged rallies and turned to social media early and often.
Mamdani’s endorsements came with prime seating next to him at Knicks watch parties (winners love winners) along with an army of volunteers who knocked on doors and posted support on TikTok. This suggests that he has something larger than a single campaign in mind. Like Donald Trump, Mamdani is proving to have a loyal base. He knows the effect he’s having on voters – young, immigrant, progressive – and that the Democratic Party cannot ignore this. (All eyes are currently on Los Angeles and another progressive South Asian mayoral candidate: Nithya Raman.)
The racial dynamics in politics are being upended.
I’ve been covering New York City on and off for 30 years. Proudly Gen X, I admittedly come from a political generation that watched figures like Nydia Velázquez and Gregory Meeks (chair of the Queens Democrats and head of the Congressional Black Caucus Political Action Committee) also energize their party and rely on diverse voting blocs and coalitions. They put in their time to become part of a machine that, in turn, unlocked power for themselves and resources for their communities. The question now is whether they embrace Mamdani-style newcomers. Will they be ostracized for being too far left? Will their communities have to wait decades again to benefit?
Velázquez, who is retiring from the seat Valdez just won the Democratic nomination for, had endorsed Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, a choice that caused some tension and bruised feelings.
The system is still rotten. In some races, fragmentation adds another layer of worry, with multiple candidates from the same ethnic or community bloc running against one another — as in the contests involving Dominican-American candidates Adriano Espaillat and Darializa Avila Chevalier, and in the race in which Rep. Grace Meng faced challenger Chuck Park and prevailed — while splitting the vote. And as some political watchers note, if Democrats want to counter President Donald Trump’s policies, they cannot afford to exhaust themselves fighting one another.
We need more transparency on who is paying for what
The flows of money in campaigns are not easy to track, and they are shaping races in ways voters may not fully see. That includes money from AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying group; dark money, a “mystery donation” of $850,000 to a super PAC supporting state Senate candidate Jessica González-Rojas (she won against incumbent Jessica Ramos), and the growing reality of social media influencers and content creators shilling for candidates without clearly telling people whether they were paid. That matters.
Local issues do not neatly divide into left and right.
A state Senate seat in western Queens divided neighbors largely over the development of a casino at Citi Field, as well as Ramos’ endorsement of Andrew Cuomo in his bid for mayor. (She also ran for mayor herself – it’s no wonder this race has been especially dizzying for voters.)
Politics at the local level is often more layered than national labels suggest.
The Metropolitan Park casino would seem like an easy target for progressives. But unions have rallied behind it because their members stand to benefit, as do diverse communities and nonprofits receiving the promise of jobs, infrastructure and financial support from Metropolitan Park. Timing matters, too: Many of these organizations found themselves in dire fiscal positions after federal Covid relief dried up and under an Adams administration known for delayed payments and erratic support.
(Speaking of transparency: In 2024, Epicenter was paid to promote attendance at community forums about the Citi Field development across newsletters, websites and social media. Content related to such efforts was labeled “sponsored.”)
The new media landscape is a mixed bag
Thank God for the new world of the local press, including sites such as the newly named City Reporter (formerly The City), City & State and Hell Gate, and our many partners across the URL Media network. At Epicenter, we tried to do our part, partnering with TBN24, the Bangla language television station, and focusing on getting a half-hour in the studio with as many candidates as we could, starting with a simple but revealing question: What is your origin story? Our communities are at the margins of New York life, but more often now can also be the margin of victory – making them voters who matter.
Looking at the slate of winners, I am so glad we got more personal with lesser-known elected officials such as Valdez, who told us about her painting practice, and newcomer Kawas, who shared her family’s harrowing deportation journey.
There are also heroes of citizen reporting. This week, I interviewed Sumana Harihareswara, a tech consultant who runs the “Cogito, Ergo Sumana” blog. Her posts are shared frequently on neighborhood list-servs and platforms like Mastodon and Bluesky. She set up a table to converse with voters, began to offer advice and civic guidance, along with deeper information on judicial candidates, who tend to draw less coverage and remain hard to assess. Hers is a model built on persistence with public records as much as prior expertise: “One thing about doing a DIY effort,” she said, “is I found that if you consistently show up, no matter how ramshackle your operation is, other people may start treating you as someone whose advice they’re interested in.” That feels right in a moment when so much trust is fraying.
And maybe the reason it works is simple: not just a keyboard warrior, she actually talks to people. As Harihareswara says, “There is just no substitute for it.” Being in the neighborhood, connecting with people directly and offering something useful in real time remains one of the most credible forms of civic journalism and engagement we have. (Stay tuned for Thursday’s Civics newsletter where I’ll share a longer q-and-a on Harihareswara’s approach.)
The litmus tests may change, but they are not going away
Just days ago, the Knicks gave New York a glimpse of collective joy. Now the city faces a different task: reconciliation, and the harder work of sorting through the divisions the primaries laid bare. U.S. policy in Israel. The casino at Citi Field. Abolishing ICE versus immigration reform. Underneath it all, a familiar New York tension: the sense among some native New Yorkers that their voices are being overshadowed by transplants, even as this city is undeniably built on constant arrival and reinvention. These questions are not side issues. They are the campaign.
That might be the biggest lesson of all: New York politics remain a test of power, identity, money and belonging. The primaries may be over, but the arguments they exposed are only beginning. And not just in New York.
