Primary Election!

Last week primary elections for local positions took place in cities throughout New York State. Turnout for these tends to be low because they’re off-year, and people underestimate the impact of local leaders on our lives. Last Tuesday’s weather — the temperature in New York City hit 99 degrees in Central Park and 101 in my neighborhood — threatened to depress turnout further. My Election Day polling place is across the street, whereas my early voting poll was about a mile away, so I decided to show up on Election Day despite the weather. So did many other people. The officials at the polls said primary turnout this year was almost double what it was in 2021, and the turnout for early voting was even higher this year. Much of the enthusiasm was on the part of young voters and first-time voters in the Democratic primary, motivated by their support for the charismatic 33-year-old democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani. Mamdani defied the pre-election polls that had him either losing to former governor Andrew Cuomo or squeaking out a narrow victory following ranked-choice voting. In fact, he won the first-round polls by more than 7 points and will probably win by an even larger margin once ranked-choice votes are counted next week.

In addition to the mayoral race, there were many other local races on the ballot — other citywide offices like Public Advocate and Comptroller, district attorneys and borough presidents for each of the five boroughs, and city council. Alvin Bragg, who I supported when he first ran in 2021 and continue to support, easily won reelection. I suspect people are grateful for his obtaining 34 felony convictions against Trump in a business fraud case, even though it didn’t keep the felon out of the White House. My daughter was on a trial jury, an assault case prosecuted by Bragg’s office, and she was impressed by the professionalism of the prosecution. Despite his many detractors, who blame Bragg for the city’s crime rate, crime in Manhattan has actually decreased over the past four years. (Folks, DA Bragg is not letting criminals out of prisons right and left, no matter what Fox News in your town says!)

One of the great things about local elections is that voters get to meet the candidates themselves. One of the reasons Mamdani did so well is that since October he has campaigned throughout the city, listening to residents and their concerns. (Affordability is definitely number one!) In my walks through my neighborhood, I had the pleasure of meeting two city council candidates personally. Anthony Weiner stood on the corner of Avenue B and East 13th Street on the second day of early voting, trying for his redemption arc. (He’s still looking for redemption, having convinced only 10 percent of the people of the East Village and Gramercy that he deserves another chance.) Andrea Gordillo shook hands with voters on the corner of East 10th Street and Broadway in her first try at public office. She agreed to have her picture taken and is still waiting for the results of ranked choice voting to see if she will be our next councilperson. Sarah Batchu’s campaign set up a tent to keep out the relentless sun. I thought the dark top would make it unbearably hot underneath, but the tent had a coating to reflect the sun. The campaign worker talked about her high school friendship with Batchu in upper Manhattan, and I enjoyed hearing stories about these young women growing up. Someone else showed me an interview a magazine did in 2002 with New York City schoolchildren, about what they wanted for the holidays. One of the kids interviewed back then was Zohran Mamdani, age 11, who said a soccer video game, a Sim City video game, and books. Books! Having been a teacher in New York City, I imagined these aspiring public servants as children and teens in my class.

All in all, the primary election was for me an enjoyable community experience where I met neighbors and learned more about the place where I live. In the past, I’ve worked for campaigns and appreciated all the people I met there. That’s one of the great things about free and fair elections. They’re a way of getting out of the house and getting to know like-minded people. And getting to know people who don’t always agree with you and listening to their concerns and opinions as well. We don’t do enough of this. Arguing online allows us to say things to people we wouldn’t necessarily say to their face, and it doesn’t give anyone the opportunity to respond because people generally post and run. In person, it’s a lot harder to just walk away, and it feels more like making a statement if someone does.

I don’t know how much longer we’re going to have free and fair elections at any level. In countries that have lost that right essential to democracy, such as Türkiye and Russia, local elections remained free and accessible long after the national results were preordained. Putin suspended the right to elect governors directly in 2004 and has often cancelled local elections or overturned results since then. This past spring, Erdogan arrested the mayor of Istanbul, an outspoken opposition leader who was planning to run against him in next year’s national elections. But Republican calls to denaturalize and deport Mamdani, who was born in Uganda and became a U.S. citizen in 2018, do not bode well for the preservation of democracy and must be resisted by all candidates and at all costs. This story has not ended. We New Yorkers, as well as democracy-loving people throughout the country, play a big role in how it turns out and whether free elections in the future can help to revive the civic engagement that our nation sorely needs.