Council Countdown is a partnership among City Limits, City & State, Gotham Gazette and The Queens Daily Eagle offering coverage of the 2021 New York City Council races.
The winner of the primary will go on to compete on the ballot in November’s general election—which in a city that leans as heavily Democratic as New York means most seats will be filled by whoever wins in June.
The primary race in Queens will give the GOP a chance to reclaim the seat last held by the party in 2009.
Some 11 candidates are vying for the Democratic nomination for Brooklyn’s 40th Council District, comprising parts of Crown Heights, East Flatbush, Flatbush, Kensington, Midwood, Prospect Park, and Prospect Lefferts Gardens.
The list includes influential incumbents like Land Use Chair Rafael Salamanca and Manhattan Councilmember Carlina Rivera, as well as a few prominent figures trying to claim their first public office and a couple of relative unknowns, who have raised a ton of cash in a short amount of time.
The competition is especially hot, if civil, in Brooklyn’s 39th City Council District, one of the most politically-active areas in the city, with some of the highest voter turnout rates, and the home district of Mayor Bill de Blasio, who represented the district before being elected Public Advocate then mayor.
In central Queens’ City Council District 20, which spans Flushing, Murray Hill, and Queensboro Hill there is a crowded and competitive Democratic primary race. The candidates face an onslaught of contentious issues such as anti-Asian hate crime, rezoning of the Flushing waterfront, a busway in downtown Flushing’s Main Street, and small business struggles.
The longtime Council member from Harlem surprised observers by running for reelection.
10 candidates seek to fill Karen Koslowitz’s City Council seat in District 29 while opposing the construction of Kew Gardens jail.
Many running to represent the ethnically diverse district—which is home to the largest population of Dominicans than any other community in the United States—said in campaign materials that COVID-19 should be a key priority for the incoming Council member.
Francisco Moya’s most prominent primary challenger, mutual aid activist and social worker Ingrid Gómez, argues that much of the area’s suffering during the pandemic could have been prevented with different leadership.
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