Voter data shows lower turnout, but pockets of engagement boosted insurgent candidates

This year’s primary election didn’t energize the city’s young voters as much as last year's, but enough showed up to deliver some stinging defeats.

Less than half of the voters who turned out for last year's mayoral primary voted Tuesday. But key constituencies of young voters in liberal neighborhoods powered democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani's preferred congressional candidates to victory.

That’s not by accident, said John Mollenkopf, a political science professor at CUNY Graduate Center.

Mamdani and his DSA allies “have the most effective targeting, canvassing, get-out-the-vote effort that the city has seen in a long time,” Mollenkopf said.

He said lower turnout midterm elections generally don’t favor progressive candidates who rely on younger voters. “The DSA has managed to turn that around and activate a whole group of young, well-educated people who care about things like childcare,” he said.

A total of 531,000 New Yorkers voted in this year’s primary, according to data from the New York City Board of Elections. That’s a turnout rate of one in six registered Democratic voters, but roughly the same total number of voters as the June 2022 primary.

About 32% of ballots were cast early this year, compared to 34% last year.

Overall in the four most competitive congressional districts, turnout rates of voters younger than 34 were less than half of what they were in 2025.

But in New York’s 7th Congressional District, which spans parts of Brooklyn and Queens, younger voters carried Mamdani-backed union organizer Claire Valdez to victory. About 18% of voters in the district between the ages of 25 and 34 cast their ballots.

By contrast, turnout rates for voters over the age of 45 were under 14%. The district’s electorate skews younger with about 35% of voters being under the age of 35.

DSA leaders said Valdez’s election proved socialist policies were a lasting force in city politics.

“We have been confronted with the question ever since electing a democratic socialist mayor, whether this is a movement of leaders that builds from the bottom up and is trying to build a bench of democratic socialists, or whether this is a movement of a charismatic individual,” NYC-DSA co-chair Gustavo Gordillo said at Valdez’s victory party. “We're really demonstrating that we're not the man, we're the movement.”

Voters in the 50th Assembly District, which includes Greenpoint and Williamsburg in Brooklyn, showed up in the highest numbers in the race between Valdez and Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso. The votes were split fairly evenly between the two candidates, with Valdez leading in the district with 8,139 votes over Reynoso’s 8,026. A closer look at the data reveals that Reynoso had a stronger hold in the precincts in and around South Williamsburg, home to the Hasidic Satmar community.

Overall, 14% of the voters in the assembly district showed up at the polls or mailed in ballots, over 10 points lower than in 2025.

In New York’s 10th Congressional District, which spans Lower Manhattan and much of brownstone Brooklyn, older voters had higher turnout rates, but they are outnumbered by a younger electorate. While voters between the ages of 65 and 74 turned out at 25%, they represented just 11,000 votes compared to the 16,000 votes of 25- to 34-year-olds.

The 52nd Assembly District, which contains the gentrified liberal enclaves of Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens, had the most voters. Brad Lander, a former city comptroller and mayoral candidate, handily defeated incumbent Rep. Dan Goldman in every precinct in the assembly district. Overall, the turnout rate in the congressional district was 18%, about 14 points lower than in the 2025 primary.

In the end, Lander beat Goldman by more than 30 points.

In New York’s 12th and 13th Congressional Districts, older voters similarly had higher turnout rates. The turnout rates for voters older than 75 in these districts were less than 5 points lower than they were in 2025.

In the 12th Congressional District, where eight candidates were running to replace retiring Rep. Jerry Nadler, voters from the 67th Assembly District showed up in the highest numbers. The district includes the Upper West Side and Hells Kitchen.

Assemblymember Micah Lasher, who worked for Nadler and has deep ties to the neighborhood, won the district with 40% of the vote. Assemblymember Alex Bores of the Upper East Side, however, won most of Hell’s Kitchen.

“Those election districts along Riverside Park on the Upper West Side, those are crammed full of professors and intellectuals,” Mollenkopf said. “ Hell's Kitchen, Chelsea, Hudson Yards, that's Google land,” he said, full of young tech workers likely aware of Bores’ industry bona fides and the maelstrom of AI super PAC money surrounding him.

Overall, the turnout rate for the congressional district was 19%, about 13 points lower than 2025.

In the 13th Congressional District spanning Upper Manhattan and parts of the Bronx, voters in the 71st Assembly District had the highest showing. Neighborhoods like Harlem, Hamilton Heights and Washington Heights swung for community organizer Darializa Avila Chevalier, who won with 55% of the vote. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, however, won in pockets of Northeast Harlem.

In the congressional district overall, the turnout rate was 15%, about 7 points lower than it was in 2025. 32-year-old Avila Chevalier toppled the five-term incumbent by about 3.5 points.

“For too long, in Washington Heights, in Harlem, in Kingsbridge, people have counted us out, forgotten about us,” Avila Chevalier said in her election night victory speech. “I know that each of us are seeing what I'm seeing right now: a new dawn for this district.”