5 takeaways from NYC primaries: Most incumbents cruise, but Yusef Salaam steals the show

The story of New York City’s 2023 primary elections came down to two major surprises: One in Harlem, and another in Brooklyn.

Yusef Salaam, a member of the exonerated Central Park Five, is poised to cruise to an apparent victory in the 9th Council District in Harlem, warding off two sitting members of the state Assembly to complete his journey from wrongful conviction and imprisonment to an expected seat in elected office, preliminary results showed.

Incumbent Councilmember Charles Barron — who has alternated holding his Brooklyn Council seat with his wife Inez for two decades — didn’t fare as well. He appears headed for defeat.

Here are five takeaways from Tuesday’s primary elections:

(Most) incumbents cruise to victory

It was a good night to be an incumbent in New York City — with one notable exception.

Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark and Queens DA Melinda Katz are both poised to win big, easily fending off their Democratic primary challengers, preliminary results with the city’s Board of Elections showed. For Katz, that’s a big change from four years ago — when she defeated progressive Tiffany Cabán by 60 votes.

Cabán, meanwhile, is now a member of the City Council. She was one of 16 sitting members who actively ran in a primary on Tuesday. Of those, 15 appeared to be on track to win on Tuesday night — including Cabán.

Only one sitting councilmember appeared likely to lose: Charles Barron, whose Eastern Brooklyn district has been held by him or his wife, Inez Barron, for the last two decades.

Chris Banks, an anti-poverty activist who previously challenged Barron for state Assembly, led Barron 51%-40% with 99% of districts reporting, according to the city's elections board. Banks declared victory on Tuesday night.

Mayor Adams goes 0-for-1

New York City Mayor Eric Adams was not particularly active this primary cycle. In fact, he chose to endorse only a single candidate in a contested race: Inez Dickens, a sitting state assemblymember running in the 9th Council District primary against Salaam and fellow Assemblymember Al Taylor.

His endorsement didn’t seem to help.

Dickens, who previously served in the Council, is on track to lose the race handily, preliminary results showed. As of 11 p.m., Salaam — who wrongfully spent nearly seven years in prison for the 1989 rape of a white woman in Central Park — garnered 50% of the preliminary vote, outpacing Dickens by more than 25 percentage points.

Taylor had about 14% of the vote Tuesday night, while incumbent Councilmember Kirstin Richardson Jordan — who dropped out of the race but remained on the ballot — snagged about 9%, according to the city Board of Elections' preliminary results.

In endorsing Dickens, Adams spoke of the need for “experienced leadership.” But Harlem voters chose otherwise, opting for Salaam, who has never held elected office.

As he stood on the corner of West 137th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard as people voted Tuesday, Salaam said he understood why residents want change on the ballot.

“Folks have been so divested, there's been no investment, and the pain is apparent in how they're communicating with me,” he said. “They know that I'm not a seasoned politician.”

A handful of races will be decided by ranked choice voting

A small number of races are headed for a second ballot count under New York City’s ranked-choice voting system. Those possibly include Barron's race and Salaam's race, depending on the final vote count.

The Democratic primary in the 19th Council District in Queens — which includes the neighborhoods of Whitestone, College Point, Beechhurst and Clearview — is also headed for a second ballot. Preliminary results show former Councilmember Tony Avella received about 39% of the vote, while his closest challenger, Christopher S. Bae, clocked in with 37%. Paul Graziano took in about 24%.

In raw votes, the difference between Avella and Bae is just 124 votes with 689 outstanding absentee ballots as of Tuesday. The winner of that primary will face incumbent Republican Councilmember Vickie Paladino, who defeated Avella by a narrow margin in 2021.

"The results are in, and we are confident that we will prevail when the ranked-choice voting process is over,” Avella said in a statement.

In the Bronx, the Republican primary in the 13th Council District was too close to call. Kristy Marmorato led with 47%, while George Havranek had 44% and Hasime Samantha Zherka had 8%.

Council races with three or more candidates are subject to the ranked-choice voting system, in which voters rank the candidates by order of preference. For those races where a candidate didn’t top 50%, the last-place candidate is eliminated and that person’s votes redistributed to the voters’ second choice.

The first ranked-choice tally will take place on July 5, and will be repeated every Tuesday until a candidate secures more than 50% of the vote.

Turnout was low, as expected

What do you get when you combine an off-cycle primary election with no citywide races — and few boroughwide races — to carry the marquee?

A sleepy and sluggish turnout at the polls.

A total of 149,484 people cast an in-person vote in New York City by 6 p.m. on Tuesday — either on Primary Day or during early voting, according to the city's Board of Elections. Another 15,453 had their absentee ballots tallied by Tuesday.

That number will grow a bit with people who voted between 6 and 9 p.m., along with absentee ballots that were postmarked by Tuesday and will trickle in over the coming days. But in any event, the total turnout will be just a small fraction of the approximately 2.8 million voters who were eligible to cast a ballot.

All told, just 21 of the 51 Council districts had primaries this year, along with Democratic DA races in the Bronx and Queens. There were also some judicial races, nominating committee and party committee posts sprinkled across four of the five boroughs.

Under normal circumstances, there wouldn’t have been any Council races this year. But because of the once-a-decade redistricting process, two-year Council terms were up for grabs in 2021 and again this year. Regular four-year terms will return in 2025.

Staten Island stayed home (because there weren’t any races)

Not a single Staten Islander headed to the polls on Tuesday, but with good reason: There weren’t any primary races to decide.

None of Staten Island’s incumbent councilmembers — Republicans Joe Borelli and David Carr, and Democrat Kamillah Hanks — drew primary challenges this year. Nor did DA Michael McMahon, a Democrat.

So Staten Island voters got to stay home this primary season. And there won’t be much for them to vote on in November, either.

Of the three councilmembers, only Hanks, whose district includes the North Shore and a sliver of Brooklyn, has a challenger — Ruslan Shamal, a Republican. Borelli and Carr are running unopposed, as is McMahon in the DA election.

Additional reporting by Brittany Kriegstein.