Primary night saw several losses for left-wing Democrats.
Jumaane Williams, the Working Families Party-backed candidate for governor, got three times fewer votes than Gov. Kathy Hochul.
His running mate, Ana María Archila, despite campaigning with gusto, got about half the votes of the incumbent lieutenant governor, Antonio Delgado.
What You Need To Know
- At top of ballot, Working Families-backed Jumaane Williams and Ana María Archila lost to establishment incumbents
- The Assembly challengers endorsed by the Working Families Party and New York City Democratic Socialists of America mostly loss
- But incumbent Assembly members endorsed by WFP and DSA were re-elected
They did far better than moderates Tom Suozzi and Diana Reyna.
“I want you to look at the dollar per vote that myself and Ana María got,” Williams said on primary night.
“I do think we have a depressed electorate,” left-leaning Democratic strategist Camille Rivera said.
“I do think that progressives do have to do better with their messaging with how we communicate to our Black and Brown communities. But the effect of money in politics is real,” she added.
It may also have something to do with a political climate where voters are rejecting perceived extremes and gravitating toward the familiar.
Though many progressives focused on housing and affordability, which rank high among New Yorkers’ concerns, left-leaning challengers lost down-ballot, too.
“Nine working-class candidates of color: teachers, renters, parents who know what it’s like to struggle to make ends meet,” a Working Families Party advertisement touted on social media.
Of the State Assembly challengers that the party put on its statewide “We Can’t Wait” slate, only Juan Ardila in Queens and Sarahana Shrestha in the Hudson Valley clinched wins — leading to a net gain for the influential third party.
“In really tough headwinds, in a year of redistricting, big money being spent by Pharma and real estate PACs, we were able to gain two working-class candidates who are going to be going to the Assembly,” WFP state director Sochie Nnaemeka said. She spotlighted several incumbents “who also fought off hard races from the right. Ron Kim in Queens, Phara Souffant Forrest in Brooklyn, Amanda Septimo in the Bronx,” she said.
There was some crossover in the Working Families Party and NYC-DSA slates.
Among the five Democratic Socialists of America-backed challengers for Assembly seats — all additionally endorsed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — only Shrestha won her primary.
The NYC-DSA also played up incumbent wins, including Assembly members Emily Gallagher and Marcela Mitaynes, who prevailed in what NYC-DSA co-chair Sumathy Kumar called “the face of tremendous real estate spending and right-wing fear mongering.”