Candidates in four competitive congressional races are making their last-ditch pleas to New Yorkers, with election-day polls open until 9 p.m.
The last time voters saw as many contested primaries was in 2012, when redistricting cut the number of seats allotted to New York City and scrambled district lines. Mayor Zohran Mamdani was 20 years old then and not yet a U.S. citizen. Today’s results are largely seen as a test of the new mayor’s political strength and the ability of his progressive base to draw younger voters to the polls without him on the ballot.
During the pre-work rush hour, The City Reporter found polling sites across the city sparsely attended, although voting picked up as the day wore on. At one of the larger polling stations in NY-10 in Lower Manhattan — where millions have been spent in the race between Rep. Dan Goldman and challenger Brad Lander — a reporter counted about a dozen voters between 7:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m.
As of 6 p.m., the city Board of Elections reported that 420,527 voters had cast their ballots, including 172,743 people who voted early. As a point of comparison, about 352,000 voters total turned out citywide in the August 2022 primary, which had two closely contested congressional races.
The early-voter turnout represents 4% of registered voters, an analysis by The City Reporter found.
The wave of younger voters that helped lift Mamdani into office hadn’t yet come out in the same numbers in early voting, data shows. More than 11,500 ballots were cast by new, and generally younger, voters – just 6.7% of the total. Older New Yorkers came out in comparatively higher numbers.
More than half a dozen candidates for federal and state offices are hoping the Mamdani’s support can help them across the finish line.
They include:
- Political newcomer Darializa Avila Chevalier, who is hoping to upset incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat in NY-13 (Upper Manhattan and The Bronx)
- Assemblymember Claire Valdez, running against Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso in NY-7 (Queens and Brooklyn)
- Former Comptroller Lander, facing off against incumbent Rep. Goldman in NY-10 (Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn)
In NY-12, a rare open seat to replace Rep. Jerrold Nadler, who is retiring after 17 terms in Congress, drew a slew of candidates and tens of millions in campaign spending. Assemblymember Alex Bores, Assemblymember Micah Lasher, Kennedy scion Jack Schlossberg and political pundit and attorney George Conway have led the field in recent polls.
The 12th is also Mamdani’s new congressional district, following his relocation to Gracie Mansion. On Saturday morning, the mayor voted early at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but he kept his selection “between myself, the ballot and that incredible pen that the Board of Elections gives to every New Yorker,” he said. The enthusiasm he’s felt for other congressional races did not extend to his new home.
“I do wish that every New Yorker had the chance to vote for Darializa Avila Chevalier, for Claire Valdez and for Brad Lander – three congressional candidates I’m so excited to endorse,” he said.
Mamdani’s endorsement would have been poison anyway to one Manhattan voter, Jill, a teacher who spoke to The City Reporter outside a polling station at River School/PS 281 in Kips Bay.
Jill, who declined to give her last name, said she switched party affiliation from Republican to Democrat leading up to Mamdani’s election last year so that she can vote for more moderate candidates in competitive primaries.
She cast her ballot for Assemblymember Micah Lasher, she said, because he was “the candidate who’s the least extremist and who is not super progressive and left-wing.”
Nearly $25 million has been spent on the race so far, including from AI tech giants, some of whom ran negative ads against Bores, a vocal proponent of AI regulation. (Bores later drew support from another Silicon valley faction who boosted his campaign).
The ads swayed George Chew, a retired immigration judge who told the City Reporter after casting his ballot at PS 33 in Chelsea, that he was propelled to support Bores largely due to all the negative mailers he was getting about him.
“All the negative attention, because of all the negative stuff I voted for him,” he said, adding the amount of campaign ads had been, “Overwhelming, I’m hoping it stops.”
In Upper Manhattan, new Washington Heights resident Richard Vargas, 36, an office manager at a nonprofit, told The City Reporter that he was supporting Darializa Avila Chevalier, in part because of Mamdani’s endorsement.
“Mamdani has shown that you can really focus on the community,” he said. “Whenever I hear that he’s endorsing someone, like my ears perk up, because I know the kind of work that he’s done.”
Harlem-born Garnett Sample, 62, told The City Reporter outside of his polling station at PS 175 that he was supporting the incumbent Rep. Espaillat.
“It’s a lot of people that need health care, and the more socialists we put in power, they might be able to get it, but I’m gonna stick with what I know,” he said. “She [Avila Chevalier] might win and prove me wrong, but for right now I’m going with what I know.”
In Bushwick, Brooklyn, Taylor Noll, 28, and Jer Block, 22, told The City Reporter they had voted for Valdez over Reynoso. “We voted for Claire, she got that Zohran stamp of approval,” Noll said.
When asked about her platform, they admitted they were a bit fuzzy. “We’re going in a little blind today,” Noll said.
Polls close at 9 p.m., and you can find your poll site here (it’s often different from early-voting locations). Primaries are closed, meaning you must be a registered Democrat or Republican to vote in respective elections.
