By SAMUEL MORTEL
New York City has not had a single mayor– at least since consolidation in 1898– to come from Queens. For over 135 years, NYC has had mayors from other states and even other countries, but none from our largest borough. This doesn’t mean that Queensites don’t run for mayor. In fact, there are two Queens politicians that have thrown their hats in the ring for next year’s mayoral race, and they might have a real shot to make history.
Zohran Mamdani and Jessica Ramos are two progressive candidates based in Astoria and Jackson Heights, respectively. They’re both a part of a new breed of Democrat that has only risen in popularity in the past few years: staunchly progressive local politicians in their 30s and 40s, often finding themselves brushing against the ideals of the party establishment but still capturing a mostly young, racially diverse coalition of support. Ramos and Mamdani have not yet achieved the status of members of “The Squad” (a group of progressive Congress members including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, and Jamaal Bowman) but they’ve still been able to carve out names for themselves in their communities and are both aiming to take Mayor Eric Adams’ seat next year. However, recent New York voting trends may prove this difficult for both mayoral hopefuls.
Zohran Mamdani was born in Uganda but has lived in NYC since he was seven years old and has served two terms as the representative of the New York State Assembly’s 36th District. He first rose on the scene with his campaign for State Assembly in 2019 as a challenger to a four-term incumbent. He advocated for statewide rent control, fare-free transit, and single-payer healthcare — proposals that he still holds onto in his current mayoral campaign—and was able to achieve a narrow victory. Mamdani has used his platform to be somewhat of an activist in his community, taking part in one hunger strike which achieved more than $450 million in debt relief for taxi drivers, and another hunger strike for a ceasefire in Gaza. He also played a key role in winning over $100 million in the state budget for increased subway service and a successful fare-free bus pilot which went into effect on five bus routes from September of 2023 to August of this year. Mamdani has already received endorsements from organizations like the NYC Democratic Socialists of America, New York Communities For Change, and Jewish Voice For Peace.
Jessica Ramos was born and raised in Queens and now serves as a State Senator for District 13. Her star rose just a year prior to Mamdani’s. In 2018, she announced her candidacy for State Senate, also going against a four-term incumbent and running on proposals to decriminalize sex work and reform the criminal justice system. She was able to secure endorsements from then-mayor Bill de Blasio and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, pushing her across the finish line. In her tenure as chair of the Senate Labor Committee, Ramos was able to pass 19 bills, most of which expanded labor protections for immigrant workers. For next year’s election, Ramos has been endorsed by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. United Auto Workers Region 9A has endorsed both Ramos and Mamdani, along with fellow candidate and current NYC Comptroller Brad Lander. Mamdani and Ramos’ political leanings don’t seem out of place for a city that’s often thought of as one of the most progressive places in the country. However, recent elections show that this historically deep blue stronghold may be turning more purple, as Republicans have slowly gained vote share.
Although some skeptics question whether there is a “red shift,” Ben Max, executive editor at New York Law School’s Center for New York City and State Law, says numbers bear it out. “Elections come down to the vote, tally and the percentages of the turnout that each candidate wins. So while Democrats can rightly point to a big drop off in voter turnout, that is also reflective of the overall political atmosphere that shows Republican momentum, which also includes the fact that some voters did clearly move from Democratic support to Republican support.”
The 2024 presidential election saw an unexpected, substantial shift to the right in the majority of New York City. In Ramos’ own neighborhood of Jackson Heights, Donald Trump picked up 13% more of the vote than he did in 2020. Trump also improved his share of the vote in Mamdani’s district, which includes North Astoria, garnering 7% more of the vote than four years earlier. “The City’s” election map draws up over 200 individual neighborhoods across NYC, and Kamala Harris was only able to improve on Biden’s 2020 share of the vote in seven. This also tracks with the 2022 gubernatorial election. Governor Kathy Hochul did end up winning, but her Republican challenger, Lee Zeldin, still managed to capture 47% percent of the vote, a significantly higher percentage than any other Republican candidate in the last 20 years. In next year’s mayoral election, the Democratic party will have to decide the best way to navigate.
“The battle for supremacy within the Democratic Party is ongoing,” said Max, but it is still in the lead in New York city and state. “There are results in New York City and beyond that point to more centrism among voters, but when you are talking about a primary for a nominee of the party, that is going to be battled out among Democrats,” he said, “and therefore you have a number of more progressive candidates in the race, taking on a more centrist and moderate incumbent mayor so that makes a lot of sense that the field would shape up that way.”
Max noted that New York voters may not fit into neat categories, like “progressive,” or “moderate.” “We see a lot of candidates for mayor who are trying to offer a broad platform or vision that is not necessarily about being progressive or moderate but it’s about trying to speak to voters’ needs and wants,” he said.
For next year’s mayoral election, Max sees the possibility of not only a progressive, but also a Queens politician.
“Many political leaders wind up coming from Manhattan or Brooklyn and Queens, despite its size, doesn’t always have the same political heft as those two other boroughs,” said Max, “and it’s very interesting that you have two mayoral candidates in the Democratic primary from Queens. But the idea of a mayor from Queens is a very interesting one in part because of Queen’s size and importance and also because it is such an incredibly diverse borough in many ways and such a symbol of the broader city.”