![\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Layla-Law-Gisiko-Leslie-Boghosian-Split.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAs Mayor Zohran Mamdani expands his political influence, he’s now backing Lindsey Boylan in the New York City Council race.<\/p>\n
Boylan was the first to come forward in accusing former Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-New York) of sexual harassment. She’s running in District 3 — covering Chelsea, Hudson Yards — and Hell’s Kitchen.<\/p>\n
Friday’s endorsement puts the mayor at odds with Council Speaker Julie Menin. The Democrat has come out in support of Boylan\u2019s main competitor, Carl Wilson, in a race that is heating up.<\/p>\n
As early voting gets underway to fill the vacant seat, Boylan and Wilson are among those doing everything they can to turn out as many voters as possible.<\/p>\n
Both candidates hit the campaign trail Saturday, focusing on pocketbook issues that affect New Yorkers like affordability and housing.<\/p>\n
“At City Hall, I want to be a fighter, combat this affordability and housing crisis that\u2019s pushing our communities and city to the brink and pushing out folks that have built those communities,” Wilson told NBC New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are really crunched financially,” said Boylan. “So, talking about housing on the first front, we need to get a whole new generation of social housing, workforce housing.\u201d<\/p>\n
After securing support from big names like Speaker Menin and Erik Bottcher, who Wilson worked for in the City Council and whose vacated seat he\u2019s looking to fill, Wilson is part of a field that includes fellow Democrats Layla Law-Gisiko and Leslie Boghosian Murphy. Bottcher now serves in the New York State Senate.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Layla Law-Gisiko (left) and Leslie Boghosian Murphy (right) are among four candidates in the special election for New York City Council District 3<\/p>\n
Menin gave Wilson a glowing endorsement, writing in part, “his deep commitment to public service has given him a real understanding of how City Hall works and will allow him to be a strong advocate for his district — on affordability, housing, and public education.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Mamdani told supporters \u201cLindsey (is) who we need in public life,” saying he “incredibly excited” to support her.<\/p>\n
Boylan has firmly supported the mayor and is widely known for her sexual harrassment allegations against Cuomo, Mamdani\u2019s top rival in the 2025 campaign. Cuomo has denied the allegations. Cuomo resigned from office in 2021.<\/p>\n
The dueling endorsements are another layer of opposition between the mayor and council speaker who have found themselves at odds on a number issues this year.<\/p>\n
But Wilson and Boylan say they can work with both leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s unity on a lot of things people want to get done, and I\u2019m going to go into with that mindset,” said Boylan.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy priority is going to be for my constituents. So I\u2019m going to be willing to work with anybody. The speaker, the mayor, members on the council, to deliver results,” Wilson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Mayor Zohran Mamdani expands his political influence, he’s now backing Lindsey Boylan in the New York City…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[38490,9,56,63,65,64],"class_list":{"0":"post-202247","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-decision-2026","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-ny","11":"tag-nyc","12":"tag-nyc-headlines","13":"tag-nyc-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}