Carl Wilson declared victory in Tuesday’s closely watched special election for Manhattan’s District 3 City Council seat, defeating Lindsey Boylan, endorsed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani, in a race that became a test of Hizzoner’s political influence.
Unofficial election night results from the city’s Board of Elections showed Wilson with a commanding lead, securing nearly 43.08% of the vote with more than 6,129 ballots cast in his favor and 99 %% of scanners reporting. Boylan followed with 25.66% (3,650 votes).
For Wilson to reach the 50% threshold to officially win, the BOE will move to the ranked voting choice round, with tabulation expected to get underway next week.
“This is just the beginning. Winning an election is not the finish line, it is the starting point,” Wilson told supporters gathered in VERS bar in Hell’s Kitchen. “Now the real work begins, the work of showing up every single day, the work of listening, especially when it’s difficult, the work of building coalitions and delivering real results for our communities.”
Wilson, a longtime West Side organizer and former chief of staff to Erik Bottcher, will represent Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen and the West Village, filling the seat of his former boss.
Bottcher said Wilson’s campaign had proven “that when you put in the work, when you serve the people year after year, when you lead with integrity and heart, and when you organize block by block, people respond.”
The contest had become a proxy fight between Mamdani’s progressive coalition and a broader network of Manhattan elected officials, labor organizations and neighborhood leaders supporting Wilson, including Council Speaker Julie Menin. Mamdani endorsed Boylan as early voting got underway.
Wilson campaigned on affordability, transit, quality-of-life issues, the arts and LGBTQ representation. His campaign argued that District 3, home to Stonewall and some of the city’s best-known LGBTQ neighborhoods, should continue its decades-long history of LGBTQ representation on the Council.
Speaker Menin said she was “thrilled” with Tuesday’s outcome, saying she endorsed Wilson in January as she was “confident that this community would elect him.”
“Carl has been an artist. He was an actor. He waited tables in this community. He’s worked as a chief of staff [to Bottcher]. He knows this community up and down. He founded Hell’s Kitchen Democrats. I felt very confident that he was going to win this race, and I’ve worked really hard to elect him,” said Speaker Menin.
His victory could carry immediate consequences at City Hall. He has said he would support overriding Mamdani’s veto of a Council bill requiring the NYPD to establish protest buffer zones at educational facilities. Boylan said she would oppose an override.
The bill has become a flashpoint between free-speech advocates and supporters who say it is needed to protect students from harassment near schools and campuses.
Speaker Menin declined to comment on Carl upping the numbers for a possible veto at Tuesday’s night election party, adding that talks will soon get underway with other council members.
Wilson too brushed off the idea of being Menin’s candidate in a proxy war with Mamdani telling amNewYork, “I’m Carl Wilson’s candidate, and I am excited to get to work to represent the constituents of this district who I’ve had the pleasure of serving, and I can’t wait to build on that work.”
Wilson entered Election Day with a financial edge and additional outside support, including spending from Carpenters for Progress and United for NYC’s Future, committees affiliated with the carpenters and teachers unions.