New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani‘s endorsement of a straight candidate in a high-profile city council race to represent a district that has been held by a gay representative for decades backfired on Tuesday.
Carl Wilson’s victory means he will be the fifth openly gay member to represent the 3rd Council District, which covers parts of Manhattan’s West Side and is home to a large LGBTQ+ population.
Mamdani had endorsed Lindsay Boylan, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America and the first woman to publicly accuse former Governor Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment, accusations he has denied.
His backing of a straight candidate had sparked a debate about the importance of gay representation. The district, which includes where the 1969 Stonewall riots happened, was redrawn in 1991 as a “gay-winnable” seat and has been represented by an openly gay member since then.
“The mayor underestimated gay power,” Allen Roskoff, a veteran gay rights activist who was involved in the push to redraw the district in the 1990s, told City & State.
Wilson’s victory on Tuesday was seen by some as a test of the strength of an endorsement from Mamdani, who has governed with a star power unusual in modern politics since emerging from relative obscurity to win the mayoral election last year.
The race was also viewed as a proxy conflict between Mamdani and Council Speaker Julie Menin, who endorsed Wilson, as the pair have clashed over issues including the city’s budget.
Mamdani’s Pick Drew Ire
Boylan’s win would have made her the first straight person to represent a district with a large LGBTQ+ population and several sites important to the community. Mamdani’s choice had upset some of the city’s LGBTQ+ leaders and activists, who all backed Wilson.
Roskoff said the mayor was ignoring the significance of the seat. “That’s the only gay seat we have in Manhattan,” he told Gothamist earlier this month. “So in the borough where Stonewall happened and all the historic founding of the movement, we risk losing the seat and we risk having nobody at the table as part of the Manhattan delegation.”
Christine Quinn, a former City Council speaker and one of several gay politicians who has represented the district, rejected the idea that Mamdani was dismissing the LGBTQ+ community.
But Quinn said she disagreed with Mamdani’s endorsement of Boylan. “Anyone who thinks we’re in some kind of … era where representation and seats at the table don’t matter, they’re just wrong,” she told Gothamist.
Costas Panagopoulos, a professor of political science at Northeastern University, told Newsweek that the result “reflects the limits of political endorsements,” adding that they “can matter, but they are typically not the only thing that matters. Other factors, including district demographics and preferences, are often more influential than endorsements.”
Grant Davis Reeher, a professor of political science at Syracuse University, said one council race “can’t say that much about Mamdani’s political capital account this soon after taking office.”
He told Newsweek: “Identity is super important in that particular district, and there’s a tradition of representation that Boylan would be breaking. That’s more important than any sense of helping to further Mamdani’s agenda by adding one council member that he supports.”
Mamdani’s Budget Challenges
Mamdani is confronting a multi-billion budget deficit, and has warned New York City is facing a crisis of “historic magnitude.”
This week, Mamdani and Menin announced an agreement to lobby for a $1 billion tax rollback and more state aid, with the mayor arguing the city cannot balance its budget through cuts alone without slashing services.
The budget gap means Mamdani also faces challenges in funding his progressive agenda. He won office after a campaign centered on making New York City more affordable, with proposals including free child care, free buses and city-run grocery stores and a rent freeze for people living in rent stabilized apartments.
He’s notched a notable early win when he and Hochul unveiled a plan for free childcare for 2-year-olds in the city, but it remains to be seen if he can make headway on other parts of his agenda.
Still Counting, But Wilson On Track
The race cannot be officially be called until after a tally of ranked-choice preferences is counted since no candidate secured more than 50 percent of the vote, the New York City Board of Elections said on Tuesday night.
But preliminary results show Wilson with a strong lead over his nearest rival, with about 43 percent of first-choice votes and Boylan with about 26 percent. They were trailed by Layla Law-Gisiko with about roughly 20 percent of the vote and Leslie Boghosian Murphy with about 11 percent. The candidate in last place will be eliminated and their votes reallocated to the candidate that voters ranked second, and the process will continue until a candidate exceeds 50 percent of the vote.
Wilson declared victory on Tuesday night. “I stand here tonight deeply honored to be your next Council member for District 3,” he told supporters at his election night watch party in Hell’s Kitchen.
At around 10 p.m., Boylan told supporters she called Wilson “to congratulate him on winning this race,” The City reported.
Why Was The Special Election Held?
Mamdani called the special election in the Third District after former councilmember Erik Bottcher was elected to the state Senate seat last year, leaving his council seat vacant. The winner will complete Bottcher’s term which runs through December.
All four candidates have filed to run in a June primary that will determine who will win the Democratic nomination to run in November’s election. The winner of that race will hold the seat through 2029.
Who Else Has Mamdani Endorsed?
Shortly after winning the mayoral election last year, Mamdani endorsed former mayoral candidate Brad Lander’s primary challenge against U.S. Representative Dan Goldman. Goldman has the support of many moderate Democrats, including Governor Kathy Hochul, one of Mamdani’s biggest allies.
Mamdani has also backed state Assemblymember Claire Valdez, a fellow democratic socialist, to succeed retiring U.S. Representative Nydia Velázquez.
Velázquez has backed Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso to succeed her, putting her at odds with Mamdani after she supported him in the mayoral race.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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