For left-leaning Democrats in New York City, stopping former Gov. Andrew Cuomo from becoming mayor could rely on a perennial challenge: corralling its different factions behind one strategy.
As they face a polarizing front-runner with wide name recognition, progressive mayoral candidates will likely need to take advantage of the city’s relatively new ranked-choice voting system by urging voters not just to support them, but also their competitors. The system allows voters to choose up to five candidates, and in order for a person’s vote to be maximally effective, they have to fill out the whole slate.
“This year is not about crawling into our corners — it’s about leveraging ranked choice voting to consolidate the power of our collective vote,” wrote Ana María Archila and Jasmine Gripper, co-directors of the Working Families Party, in a memo to members this month. The party, a progressive complement to traditional Democrats and a longtime enemy of Cuomo, is stressing the importance of ranked-choice coalitions – making its endorsements in the primary conditional on a commitment to the strategy.
So far, four candidates – Brad Lander, Zohran Mamdani, Zellnor Myrie and Michael Blake – have expressed a willingness to support a united ranked-choice strategy. But it can be difficult to sell candidates on a tactic that runs against conventional political instincts.
“To say somebody is going to be just as good as me, or somebody else is a good alternative to me, it’s not really in candidates’ natures to say that sort of thing,” said John Mollenkopf, a political science professor and elections expert at CUNY’s Graduate School.
Mamdani, an assemblymember from Queens who was the first candidate to openly welcome the idea of a cross-endorsement, could become a key test of whether progressives can set aside their differences and unite. Mamdani, who is the closest to striking distance from Cuomo, is also the furthest left candidate, leaving his fellow progressives to wonder if aligning with him would risk alienating their more moderate supporters.
“I would say half of our campaign’s coalition is talking about who their top five should be every day, and I love that,” he said during a Working Families Party endorsement interview that was open to the press earlier this month. “We want to do the work of instructing New Yorkers that they have five options.”
Two more candidates, Jessica Ramos and Adrienne Adams, have publicly suggested they have limits on which and how many competitors they would be willing to endorse. During her own Working Families Party endorsement interview, Ramos said she would “encourage people to vote for people that I would vote for.”
But the Queens state senator, who has struggled with fundraising, then bluntly added: “I do not want a rich man as my mayor.”
Cuomo, who operated a legal consulting firm after stepping down from office, is a multimillionaire, according to recent disclosures. But some interpreted Ramos’ remarks as a jab at Mamdani, a democratic socialist who has broken out in polls and fundraising with the help of social media and a message rooted in affordability. His mother, Mira Nair, is an acclaimed Hollywood filmmaker, while his father, Mahmood Mamdani, is a well-known professor of government at Columbia University.
Ramos’ spokesperson declined to clarify the remark, and Mamdani’s campaign declined to respond to Ramos’ comments. Instead, both reiterated their commitments to reserving their criticism for Cuomo and the incumbent mayor, Eric Adams – a strategy known as DREAM, which stands for “Don’t rank Eric or Andrew for mayor.”
All of the candidates seeking the Working Families Party endorsement have signed on to the message.
Ranked-choice can put candidates with high name recognition at an even greater advantage, because voters might simply fill in a name they know as they move down the ballot. And through the rounds of tabulation and elimination, candidates ranked in the lower slots can come out on top.
That’s made the willingness to work collaboratively a key requirement for the Working Families Party as its members decide which mayoral candidates they will endorse in the coming days. Rather than selecting one candidate, the party is expected to announce a slate of endorsed candidates, and issue rankings sometime in late April or May.
In an interview, Archila said the party had closely studied the 2021 race and imparted its lessons to each of the campaigns seeking its endorsement. Kathryn Garcia had come within 8,000 votes of beating Adams after a late-stage alliance with Andrew Yang. According to the party’s analysis, Garcia benefited from around 130,000 second-place votes from those who supported Maya Wiley, a progressive candidate who came in third. But almost 50,000 votes from those who ranked Wiley first went to Eric Adams, which ultimately gave him the victory.
Overall, less than 50% of Democratic primary voters ranked five candidates.
“What we saw when we looked at 2021 is that the political ecosystem mostly played as if the old rules were still in effect,” Archila said. “We will make sure that we guide voters on who not to rank so that we prevent the unintentional thing that happened in 2021.”
Before the 2021 election, the party urged voters to rank then-city Comptroller Scott Stringer first, but pulled its endorsement after a woman accused him of sexual misconduct. Stringer is running for mayor again, but is not seeking the party’s endorsement for 2025.
But even as candidates say they will embrace the party’s picks, they face a prisoner’s dilemma in coalescing because those who want to win still need to compete for first-choice votes.
Mamdani, who would be the city’s first Muslim mayor if he is elected, could divide some Democrats with his outspoken criticism of Israel over its war in Gaza. Mamdani has faced accusations of antisemitism for his stance. He has said he is merely opposing a genocide.
Nevertheless, Mamdani’s momentum has introduced an unexpected possibility that a democratic socialist could forge a path to City Hall. His campaign expects to max out on fundraising, and is now focused on building a volunteer operation.
On a Saturday evening during Ramadan, he joined worshipers at a mosque in the East New York, Brooklyn, as they broke their fast with a communal meal and prayers. He urged the crowd of Muslim New Yorkers to vote.
“We have an opportunity to show that Muslims not just belong in New York City, but that we also belong in City Hall,” Mamdani said. Of the roughly 1 million Muslims who live in the five boroughs, more than 350,000 are registered to vote and only 12% cast a ballot in the last mayoral election, according to the NY Muslim Action Network.
Adam Zaman, one of the mosque attendees, said he planned to rank Mamdani first.
He cited Mamdani’s policy ideas, like creating city-owned grocery stores, and his viral videos, including one where he confronted Trump administration “border czar” Tom Homan over the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent resident and pro-Palestinian activist the federal government is attempting to deport under a rarely used law that gives the secretary of state broad authority to remove foreigners.
Zaman said he has seen fewer customers at the chai cafes where he spends time, which he saw as a reflection that members of the community are afraid of federal immigration agents.
“I think Zohran [Mamdani] just being a voice for us is really important to help protect us,” he said.
The next day in Bushwick, Mamdani raced around a block, attempting to engage voters by asking them to sign his petition to get on the ballot.
Among the few who stopped was Joshua Beittenmiiller, a 26-year-old Trader Joe’s employee. He also brought up the video with Homan.
“I think the passion is what I really respect,” he said.
Madeline Pellot, 64, also offered to sign Mamdani’s petition, even though she said she had never heard of the candidate. She said safety was her top priority, and was noncommittal about whom she planned to vote for – though she suggested she no longer supported Adams, whom she backed in 2021.
“We need some changes,” Pellot said, adding, “Let’s see how it goes.”
