Mamdani-backed insurgent, DSA newcomer massively underperforms in NYC council race
A City Council candidate handpicked by Mayor Zohran Mamdani massively underperformed in an attempt to nab a seat repping Manhattan’s Greenwich Village Tuesday — delivering a major blow to the fledgling mayor early in his term.
While the race has not yet been called, frontrunner Carl Wilson nabbed just over 43% of the vote as of Tuesday night. Because none of the candidates got over half the vote in the special election for the District 3 council seat, election officials will go through the ranked-choice process to determine the winner.
Mamdani-backed Lindsey Boylan walked away with just over 25% while Layla Law-Gisiko had around 20% with nearly all scanners reporting Tuesday night.
The seat was up for grabs after being vacated by Erik Bottcher, who was elected as a state senator for the borough’s 47th District.
The results appeared to be a decisive blow to Mamdani, who made desperate last-ditch attempts to fill the influential seat with Boylan – a former staffer of then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo who became the first of several women to accuse her ex-boss of sexual harassment.
The race could also signal that, despite his popularity, Mamdani’s influence may not translate to other races, potentially preventing his and his comrades’ goals of increasing the ranks of DSA members in office.
Wilson’s heavy lead is also a big win for Council Speaker Julie Menin, who campaigned hard to prevent the recently converted socialist Boylan who has been criticized as merely jumping on the lefty bandwagon after Mamdani’s stunning win last year.
Menin was quick to celebrate the results, calling the race a “resounding victory” for her choice candidate even before the other ranked-choice rounds were tallied up.
Boylan just recently joined the Democratic Socialists of America and won over support from another lefty group, the Working Families Party.
Mamdani had urged his supporters to back Boylan as the “progressive choice” and said the Wilson campaign was cashing checks from some of the same donors who bankrolled Cuomo’s failed mayoral campaign.
“She was the first to speak out against Andrew Cuomo,” Hizzoner wrote in a post to X. “Now some of his biggest donors are flooding Tuesday’s special election with money to stop her. That tells you everything about who the progressive choice is: Lindsey Boylan.”
He even went out to campaign for Boylan on Tuesday as people cast their ballots.
But it wasn’t enough to defeat Wilson — who was the establishment choice and already up to speed on the district’s political scene, having previously served as Bottcher’s chief of staff.
Wilson’s campaign platform emphasized access to housing, public safety, and LGBTQ+ and immigrant protections.
Wilson was the only openly gay candidate in the running for the district, which has been represented by a LGBTQ council member since 1991.
The soon-to-be lawmaker will likely be an important vote for Menin as she spars with Mamdani.
Menin and allies are currently mulling overriding the mayor’s veto on Eric Dinowitz’s (D-Manhattan) school buffer zone bill, allowing the NYPD to set up no-protest zones around schools and universities.
The speaker needs just four votes to override the mayor’s rejection.
