NYC Democratic Mayoral Primary 2025

Following the surprising upset in the NYC Democratic mayoral primary in in June, I wanted to explore the voting data. I was curious to see how the mayoral primary votes would translate to U.S. House Districts, in particular since some Democrats were hesitant to support Zohran Mamdani, the nominee chosen by primary voters. In fact, some NYC-area Democrats were outright hostile to his nomination.

Prior to the election, Mamdani had been endorsed by Congress Members Nydia Velásquez and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Following his primary win, he has since been endorsed by two additional members of Congress representing NYC districts – Jerry Nadler and Adriano Espaillat.

I know that my own Congressional district, NY-10, which includes parts of Brooklyn and lower Manhattan, tends to be fairly progressive, so I was disappointed with my representative, Dan Goldman, when he released a lackluster non-endorsement after meeting with Mamdani. I looked to the data to find out, is Rep. Goldman out of touch with his own constituents? Are there any other House Democrats who should be paying attention to a leftward shift in their district?

Indeed, in Rep. Goldman’s district Mamdani received 46% of first round votes, higher than his citywide vote share of 43%. Additionally, fellow progressive Brad Lander performed better in Goldman’s district than any other with about 23% of first round votes. This is unsurprising given that Lander’s prior City Council seat has significant overlap with the Brooklyn portion of NY-10, however I was surprised that Lander’s support in first round votes seems not to have cut into Mamdani’s support in the district. Overall, this means that Mamdani + Lander received almost 70% of first round votes in Goldman’s district, significantly overshadowing Cuomo’s 23% of votes.

Mamdani also outperformed his citywide vote share in NY-08, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ district, with nearly 45% of primary voters ranking Mamdani first. The progressive vote share (Mamdani + Lander) in this district was nearly nearly 51%, about 12% higher than Cuomo’s share of 39% of votes.

I believe any Democratic member of Congress representing NYC should endorse the nominee that primary voters have chosen, but especially Goldman and Jeffries. I won’t hold my breath that either of them will. I will write to Congressman Goldman and let him know why I ranked Mamdani on my ballot. And if Brad Lander chooses to run for Congress in 2026, he has my support.

You can explore the data for yourself below.

Data Sources: Election Districts, Congressional Districts, Voting Data