It’s a battle for the soul of New York that’s created strange bedfellows, drawn national interest, and pitted rivals against each other to dramatic effect this weekend.
We don’t mean the NBA Finals or the FIFA World Cup. We’re talking, of course, of this summer’s Democratic primaries.
The Board of Elections reported that 31,419 voters across the five boroughs took to the polls on Saturday and Sunday, the first two days of early voting, to vote in partisan federal and state primaries.
Four Democratic U.S. House primary races have dominated, with Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America looking to defeat establishment candidates in three of them. Israel and the war in Gaza are potent factors in several contests, and the country’s progressive godfather, Sen. Bernie Sanders, has also weighed in.
The retirement of longtime Reps. Jerry Nadler and Nydia Velázquez, present a rare opportunity for a new generation of leadership, while two establishment incumbents, Reps. Adriano Espaillat and Dan Goldman, face spirited primary challengers backed by Mamdani.
Manhattan voters, where all three House seats have competitive primaries, accounted for more than a third of all ballots cast this weekend, according to the city Board of Elections.
At the Armory in Washington Heights, voters reported no wait times on Saturday morning. About a dozen Espaillat volunteers fanned out in the area surrounding the early voting site, outnumbering the two volunteers for his main challenger, Darializa Avila Chevalier.
Carolyn Rhodeveck braved the hot temperatures to cast her ballot for Avila Chevalier. “It’s time to change things up, and it’s exciting to see people try to challenge the status quo,” she said.
Melissa Strada, another voter, said she’d voted for Espaillat. “I think his opponent’s views on Israel are problematic,” she said of Avila Chevalier, an organizer of the 2024 antiwar encampments at Columbia University.
Early voting runs from June 13 to June 21 and Primary Day is June 23. Here’s everything you need to know:
NY-13: Upper Manhattan and The Bronx
Will Rep. Adriano Espaillat hold on to his seat for a sixth term in the House, or will the DSA and Mayor Mamdani pull off a major upset in Upper Manhattan?
A deluge of spending from outside groups suggests Espaillat is in the run of his political life, as he faces a red-hot challenge from Avila Chevalier.
An internal poll released on Thursday commissioned by the organization that recruited Avila Chevalier has her leading Espaillat 39-35, with 22% of voters undecided. Two other candidates on the ballot, Oscar Romero and Theo Chino, are polling in the single digits.
But Espaillat, a prolific fundraiser, has far more cash on hand than Avila Chevalier in the lead-up to primary day: $963,000 over her $230,000, according to filings reported Thursday by the Federal Election Commission.
Avila Chevalier launched her campaign in November, hitting Espaillat — the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus — as an ineffective leader for Manhattan’s poorest congressional district and beholden to donors with ties to the pro-Israel lobby and corporate real estate interests.
Espaillat and his supporters have sunk millions into a barrage of online and video ads seizing on Avila Chevalier’s controversial social media history to portray her as a left-wing extremist who would be disloyal to Democratic interests. On Saturday, he was formally endorsed by House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries at a campaign rally at the Edison Ballroom in Midtown Manhattan.
NY-10: Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn
Two-term Rep. Dan Goldman is defending his seat from former city Comptroller Brad Lander — and data suggest the district is ripe for an upset.
Goldman, who was first elected in 2022, has racked up a progressive voting record and has challenged the Trump administration’s arrests of immigrants in federal courts located within his left-leaning district.
But the race has been largely defined by the war in Gaza, which has left Goldman, a staunch Israel supporter, particularly vulnerable.
Lander, who represented parts of the Brooklyn portion of the district during two terms in the City Council, is running to Goldman’s left on Israel.
The most recent available polls have Lander leading Goldman by as much as 34 points. Goldman has appeared to take Lander’s challenge seriously, spending more than $2 million of his own personal fortune. He’s racked up establishment support, including from Gov. Kathy Hochul and some of the city’s largest unions, while Lander is endorsed by Mamdani and a coterie of progressive groups.
NY-12: Manhattan
Rep. Jerry Nadler’s retirement announcement in September 2025 after more than 30 years in Congress launched a clown car of candidates launching exploratory runs.
The field has narrowed, but eight candidates are on the ballot to represent one of the wealthiest congressional districts in the country, including Assemblymembers Alex Bores and Micah Lasher, lawyer and pundit George Conway, and Kennedy family scion Jack Schlossberg.
Lasher, who also worked in Michael Bloomberg’s administration and for Gov. Hochul, picked up their endorsements, along with Nadler’s and those of nearly 20 other current and former elected officials. He also has the backing of major unions, like 32BJ.
Bores received support from the United Federation of Teachers, the New York State Nurses Association, DC 37 and the unions representing firefighters.
Schlossberg has been boosted by Democratic power broker Nancy Pelosi — and his own social media presence.
Money has flowed through this race, with nearly $25 million spent so far. Days before early voting began, Bloomberg added another $5 million to a super PAC supporting Lasher, doubling his previous give.
All of the spending hasn’t seemed to sway the voters, though. In most of the 10 polls conducted in NY-12, the most of any congressional race, the veterans and the newcomers were all trumped by “undecided.”
NY-7: North Brooklyn and Western Queens
Rep. Nydia Velázquez, also known as “La Luchadora,” announced her retirement from Congress last year, after more than 30 years in office representing a district of deep significance to the city’s Puerto Rican diaspora.
It became clear she would anoint her successor, with eyes on Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who also served in the City Council.
The DSA threw in a candidate of their own, Claire Valdez, a newly-elected member of the assembly and a former union organizer.
City Councilmember Julie Won, who represents large swathes of the Queens part of the district, also joined the contest.
This race, like the one in upper Manhattan, has been boosted by Mamdani’s involvement. He praised Valdez as the first elected official to endorse his run for mayor, and has returned the favor by appearing in ads and events for her campaign. His involvement irked the outgoing Velázquez, who said the early-term mayor should stay out of politics.
“Honeymoons are short, and people need to pay attention to the work at hand,” she told the New York Times in January as she officially endorsed Reynoso. She warned the mayor that “primaries sometimes can be a distraction from the work that you need to do.”
The two polls in the race are split between Valdez and Reynoso. A recent poll found 43% of voters were undecided in a district that includes some of the city’s most left-leaning neighborhoods, but also the more moderate Woodhaven and Maspeth in Queens.
In a recent debate on NY1, the candidates sparred over U.S. support for Israel and the ongoing conflict in Gaza, as well as outside spending from a super PAC.
Won, who oversaw a major land use project in the Council, touted the new housing she helped approve.
