The Democratic Party primary for the 2025 New York City mayoral election took place on June 24, 2025. Voters ranked up to five candidates using ranked-choice voting. The early voting period began on June 14. Incumbent mayor Eric Adams did not run in the primary, instead choosing to compete for re-election as an independent in the general contest.
First-choice results on election night showed State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani had a large lead ahead of former governor Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo conceded the race to Mamdani in what was considered to be a major upset victory. In July, ranked-choice results showed Mamdani to be the clear winner with 56.4% of the vote, making him the official Democratic nominee in the November 4, 2025 general election, with Cuomo securing the remaining 43.6% of the vote. The primary was the largest in New York City's history, almost reaching the same turnout as the 2021 mayoral general election.
In 2019, New York City voters passed Ballot Question #1 to amend the City Charter to allow for voters the choice of ranking up to five candidates in primary and special elections for mayor, public advocate, comptroller, borough president, and city council, starting in January 2021. This primary was the second time ranked-choice voting was used in the New York City mayoral primary, following its use during the 2021 New York City Democratic mayoral primary.
In the previous primary on June 22, 2021, then Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams was narrowly selected as the nominee with 50.4% of the runoff vote over second-placed former New York City Department of Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia, who won 49.6%. Adams then won the general election for the mayoralty on November 2, 2021 with 66.9% of the vote versus Curtis Sliwa, the Republican challenger. City-wide elections in New York City are solidly Democratic, meaning the nominee chosen is likely to win the general election.
The candidates in this section have held elected office or have received substantial media coverage.
Early in the campaign, incumbent mayor Eric Adams was criticized for his handling of policing, the city budget, and the influx of migrants. By September 2024, Comptroller Brad Lander, former Comptroller Scott Stringer, state Senator Zellnor Myrie, and state Senator Jessica Ramos had announced campaigns for mayor. Adams increasingly faced calls to resign after being indicted on September 25, which resulted in multiple city officials resigning. Following the scandal, multiple more candidates announced their campaigns to challenge Adams, including investor Whitney Tilson, former state Assemblymember Michael Blake, and state Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani.
In March 2025, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who had resigned several years earlier amid a sexual harassment scandal, and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams announced their campaigns. The progressive "Don't Rank Eric or Andrew for Mayor (DREAM) for NYC" campaignâÂÂlater renamed "Don't Rank Evil Andrew for Mayor"âÂÂurged voters not to rank Eric Adams or Andrew Cuomo on their ballots. In April, Eric Adams withdrew from the Democratic primary race and announced that he would continue to seek re-election as an independent candidate. That same month, criminal charges against Eric Adams were dismissed at the request of the Department of Justice, which argued that the case distracted him from enforcing President Trump's immigration program.
Mamdani's campaign focused on affordability, proposing a rent freeze, increased public housing construction, free buses, universal childcare, and tax increases for those earning above $1 million annually. Cuomo's campaign focused on crime, supporting an increase in police and building housing. Lander's campaign supported building housing, services to immigrants, and investment in education. Adrienne Adams' campaign supported closing Rikers Island and investment in housing and education. Stringer's campaign supported recruiting more police and ethics reform. Myrie's campaign supported building more housing. Blake's campaign supported tax incentives for businesses and funding mental services. Ramos's campaign supported improving mental health services. Tilson's campaign largely focused on education.
Throughout the race, Cuomo consistently led in polls, with Mamdani emerging in second place. In May, in response to a request from Republican members of Congress, the Justice Department opened an investigation into Cuomo's testimony before Congress regarding the COVID-19 pandemic in New York. The polling margin between Cuomo and Mamdani began to shrink in June, though most polls continued to show a Cuomo lead. Cuomo created the "Fight and Deliver" party, which he planned to run on regardless of the outcome of the primary. The Working Families Party said it was very unlikely to endorse Cuomo if he won.
The first debate was held on June 4, where Cuomo was pressed on his sexual harassment allegations and the frontrunners shared their stances on Israel. The second and final debate was held on June 12, where Cuomo was again criticized for his record, with increased attention to his administration's nursing home scandal, and Mamdani was criticized for inexperience and his identity as a socialist.
Prominent endorsements for Mamdani included the Working Families Party, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Senator Bernie Sanders. Cuomo received endorsements from former mayor Michael Bloomberg, who also donated millions of dollars to his super PAC, Representative Jim Clyburn, and former President Bill Clinton. On June 6, Ramos endorsed Cuomo while remaining on the primary ballot. During the second debate, Tilson endorsed Cuomo second. Mamdani and Lander cross-endorsed each other for second place, and Mamdani and Blake cross-endorsed each other a few days later. On June 16, The New York Times editorial board advised voters not to rank Mamdani while criticizing Cuomo.
On June 18, Mamdani was criticized for appearing to defend the phrase "globalize the intifada" by describing it as "a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights", also denouncing antisemitism and saying the city should increase anti-hate crime funding. On June 19, Lander was briefly detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement while escorting an immigrant out of a court hearing in Manhattan.
On June 20, Mamdani walked the length of Manhattan for seven hours, meeting supporters along the way. At the same time at Astor Place, Mamdani campaign volunteers organized a free merchandise screen printing event for supporters. Mamdani's campaign merchandise and materials used bright colors that stood out from the traditional red, white, and blue designs common in New York City political campaigns; this visual style was created by Philadelphia-based graphic designer Aneesh Bhoopathy and was inspired by the bold colors used by local businesses such as bodegas, taxis, and street vendors. By the end of the campaign, over 10,000 volunteers for Mamdani canvassed over 1 million doors in the city, largely coordinated with the New York City chapter of Democratic Socialists of America.
After losing the Democratic primary at the end of June to Mamdani, former New York governor Andrew Cuomo changed his campaign branding for an independent run in the general election. He introduced a new logo and a blue and orange color scheme.
Eric Adams vs. Brad Lander<br />
Eric Adams vs. Jumaane Williams<br />
Eric Adams vs. generic Democrat<br />
The first debate was sponsored by WNBC and held on June 4, 2025. The second debate was sponsored by NY1 and was held on June 12, 2025.
In addition to candidate's campaign accounts, super PACs are allowed to make independent expenditures supporting or opposing candidates so long as they do not officially coordinate with candidates. Unlike public matching fund-participating campaign accounts which have a $8 million spending cap, independent expenditure groups have no limit. At the time of the primary, Andrew Cuomo's PAC had amassed $25 million, which was the most money for any mayoral campaign in New York City's history.
384,251 people voted early in the primary, more than double the turnout of 2021. As of June 20, there were 45,597 scanned, valid mail-in ballots.
The New York City Board of Elections released unofficial results of the first-choice votes on election night. Unofficial results of all rankings were released a week later, taking into account mail-in ballots received after election night, cured ballots, and provisional ("affidavit") ballots.
On the night of the election, with about 90% of the votes counted, Mamdani led Cuomo by about seven percentage points, becoming the presumptive winner and prompting Cuomo to concede at around 11:15 p.m. that night. Lander gave his concession speech at Mamdani's watch party, with chants of "Brad" as he hugged Mamdani supporters. Afterward, Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez addressed the crowd, followed by Attorney General Letitia James, before Mamdani finally addressed supporters, claiming victory at 12:20a.m.
Mamdani drew support from the middle and upper-middle classes, and White, Hispanic, and Asian voters, while making inroads with young Black voters. Cuomo won in many majority Black precincts, and drew support from the lower and upper classes. Cuomo performed better in areas with lower density, while Mamdani performed better in areas with medium and higher density. Mamdani performed well with young voters "across all races and classes" and benefitted from an increase in youth turnout.
Mamdani's victory was announced by the Associated Press on July 1 after the Board of Elections released its ranked-choice ballot tabulation. The Board of Elections certified the results on July 22.
Mamdani attained the plurality of first-choice votes in three boroughs â Brooklyn, Queens, and Manhattan â while Cuomo did so in Staten Island and claimed a majority in the Bronx. Mamdani recorded his best result in Brooklyn, outperforming Cuomo by 18% of the vote and enjoying strong turnout, and performed well in Queens, where he has represented the 36th district since 2021. Mamdani's margin of victory was narrowest in Manhattan, where neither he nor Cuomo passed the 40% threshold. Conversely, Cuomo did the best in the Bronx, beating Mamdani by almost 18% of the vote. Finally, he secured the traditionally conservative-leaning Staten Island, albeit by a margin of just some 8% of the vote.
Mamdani and Cuomo repeated their earlier performances, with Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan going to Mamdani and Cuomo winning in Staten Island and Bronx. First round by congressional district In the first round, Mamdani won 7 of 13 congressional districts which include parts of New York City, while Cuomo won six.
Final round by congressional district
In the final round, Mamdani won 9 of 13 congressional districts which include parts of New York City, while Cuomo won four.
Final round by city council district
In the final round, Mamdani won 25 of 51 city council districts, while Cuomo won 26.
Mamdani's win was widely viewed as an upset victory over Cuomo, and emblematic of a struggle between left-wing and centrist factions of the Democratic Party following Democratic losses in the 2024 federal elections. Jerry Nadler, a Democrat representing parts of Manhattan in the House of Representatives, described the result as a "seismic election for the Democratic Party that I can only compare to Barack Obama's in 2008", and endorsed Mamdani. President Donald Trump, originally a resident of Queens, called the result "a big moment in the History of our Country".
The New York Times reported that the night following the primary, independent mayoral candidate Eric Adams met with a loose consortium of hedge fund managers, landlords, and cryptocurrency moguls who were "aghast" at the result and seeking a strategy to oppose Mamdani in the general election. CNBC reported that figures on Wall Street were "alarmed" and "depressed", while CNN reported that some in the luxury real estate market felt wary and cautious due to Mamdani's housing and tax policies. Conversely, labor unions including SEIU 32BJ and the New York State Nurses Association endorsed Mamdani in the week following the primary.
Two days after the primary, sources close to Cuomo told CNN that he would remain in the race as an independent, which Cuomo confirmed several weeks later. Cuomo's brother Chris, whose efforts to defend Andrew against a sexual misconduct scandal led to his termination from CNN several years prior, gravely pronounced Mamdani an "open socialist" and declared the Democratic Party "dead". The prospect of New York electing a Muslim mayor triggered various commentators, mostly conservative, to engage in Islamophobic attacks on Mamdani, tying him to jihad, burqas, sharia, and the 9/11 attacks. Trump and other Republican officials threatened to arrest or deport Mamdani if he won the election.
Following the election, the term "Commie Corridor" was popularized by political analyst Michael Lange to describe the geography of Mamdani's leftist base. The region consists of neighborhoods in western Queens and northern Brooklyn, including Astoria, Long Island City, Sunnyside, Greenpoint, Williamsburg, East Williamsburg, Fort Greene, and Clinton Hill. Lange has stated that the election expanded the corridor to include Ridgewood, Woodhaven, Bushwick, Cypress Hills, and BedfordâÂÂStuyvesant. The gentrified neighborhoods are largely young, white and Latino, upper-middle class, college-educated renters. The corridor has a "bohemian culture similar to that of college towns". In these neighborhoods, Mamdani's margin over Andrew Cuomo reached as high as 52 points. Cynthia Nixon carried the area in the 2018 New York gubernatorial election. Mamdani notably performed well in areas outside the region, an improvement over past progressives.
Writer Michael Lind, in The Telegraph, framed Mamdani's win as a conflict between metropolitan professionals in the corridor and the metropolitan rich. He said that professionals, priced out of Manhattan, envied the rich and their servants. The Wall Street Journal said that Mamdani's base in the area were "downwardly mobile millennials" who felt they were worse-off than their parents. Mamdani performed best among both Gen Z and Millennial voters.