{"id":32249,"date":"2025-11-07T19:05:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T19:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/32249\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T19:05:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T19:05:13","slug":"brooklyn-voters-propelled-mamdani-to-victory-embraced-progressive-dems-in-city-council-brooklyn-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/32249\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn voters propelled Mamdani to victory, embraced progressive Dems in City Council \u2022 Brooklyn Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Late on Tuesday night, newly-minted mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani celebrated his win at the Brooklyn Paramount.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

The venue was appropriate: Mamdani won more than 50% of the vote citywide but received the most support in Brooklyn, home to New York City\u2019s largest population of registered Democrats.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to unofficial Board of Elections results<\/a>, the Democratic Socialist won his highest share of votes and the highest number of votes in Brooklyn, scoring 57% of ballots for a total of 374,094 votes. Former governor Andrew Cuomo trailed with 37%.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"brooklynMore than 2 million New Yorkers took part in Tuesday\u2019s election. Photo by Erica Price<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s next-highest vote share was in Manhattan, where he took 53% of ballots, or 274,802 votes \u2014 100,000 fewer votes than he earned in Brooklyn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNew York, tonight, you have delivered a mandate for change,\u201d the mayor-elect said in his victory speech<\/a>. \u201cA mandate for a new kind of politics. A mandate for a city you can afford. And a mandate for a government that delivers exactly that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Voters tossed out primary trends\u00a0<\/p>\n

The results were not totally unexpected. Brooklyn was also Mamdani\u2019s strongest voter base in the Democratic primary, though he outperformed himself in the general and picked up support in neighborhoods Cuomo had won<\/a> in the primary just five months earlier.\u00a0<\/p>\n

James Christopher, a political consultant and former spokesperson for the Brooklyn Democratic Party who consulted for Cuomo ahead of the primary, said voters who flipped from Cuomo to Mamdani may have been hewing to party lines. After he lost the Democratic primary, Cuomo opted to run as an independent<\/a>, and appeared on the ballot on the \u201cFight and Deliver\u201d line\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t put myself in everybody\u2019s head, but I would say there are a lot of people I\u2019ve spoken to who want to vote for the Democratic Party,\u201d he said. \u201cEven though Cuomo, he does have Democratic values \u2014 he didn\u2019t just become a Republican or something \u2014 there are a lot of people I spoke to that say they want to support the Democratic nominee.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Brooklyn Democratic Party may also have influenced voters, he said. Party Chair Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn, who also represents AD42, initially endorsed Cuomo<\/a> but embraced Mamdani<\/a> almost immediately after the primary.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Others, though, thought the borough\u2019s support of Mamdani in the primary influenced the party\u2019s endorsement, not the other way around.\u00a0\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Citywide, Mamdani earned more support from Black voters, according to the New York Times, a reversal from the primary.\u00a0
\n\"brooklynMamdani and Cuomo both picked up votes in Brooklyn in the general, though Mamdani gained more steam. Photo by Erica Price\n<\/p>\n

In Brooklyn\u2019s Assembly District 58, which includes Flatbush and Canarsie and where 78% of residents are Black, Mamdani won 62% of the vote on Tuesday. He lost that district to Cuomo in June. He also flipped AD60 and gained significant support in AD42, which he won by a slim margin in the primary.<\/p>\n

But Cuomo won two right-leaning Assembly districts, AD46 and AD49, which Mamdani had taken in the primary. Those districts include neighborhoods like Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Sea Gate, Coney Island, Bensonhurst and parts of Sunset Park.\u00a0<\/p>\n

No matter which way they flipped, those districts had one thing in common: much higher voter turnout in the general than in the primary.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

Cuomo also swept in Brooklyn\u2019s Orthodox Jewish<\/a> communities, as he did in the primary. Per the New York Times<\/a>, of all New York City neighborhoods, Cuomo performed best in Manhattan Beach, Borough Park and Midwood.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"cuomoFormer governor Andrew Cuomo won in more conservative areas of southern Brooklyn and was popular in the borough\u2019s Orthodox Jewish voters. Photo by Lloyd Mitchell<\/p>\n

There are \u201ca lot of shades of blue on the spectrum,\u201d Christopher said, and many Democratic voters there prefer a candidate who is \u201cself-admittedly more conservative.\u201d Borough Park and Midwood overlap with Council District 44, where right-leaning Democrat Simcha Felder was re-elected after running on both the Democratic and Conservative party lines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the same night, though, some of the same neighborhoods that flipped for Cuomo \u2014 Bay Ridge, Dyker Heights, Coney Island and Sea Gate \u2014 elected a progressive Democrat<\/a>, Kayla Santosuosso, to the City Council.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In what was expected to be a much tighter race in a famously \u201cpurple\u201d area of Brooklyn, Santosuosso defeated Republican George Sarantopoulos by nearly 7,000 votes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Though Santosuosso did not endorse Mamdani, their campaign platforms were fairly similar, and she served as chief counsel for outgoing Council Member Justin Brannan, who did endorse him<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Kayla Santosuosso (cemter) won an easy victory over Republican George Sarantopoulos on Tuesday. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

Kristina Naplatarski, a political strategist and former District Leader, said she believed the dichotomy indicated that voters were choosing to support the values of individual candidates over their party.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think voters are really starting to split from a traditional playbook of \u2018I vote Democrat down the line, I vote Republican down the line,\u2019\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some locals had lawn signs for Santosuosso and for Republican mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa, Naplatarski said, despite their differences.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAt least in this race, [voters] seemed to be more discerning about looking at the candidate themselves,\u201d she said. \u201cI think also candidates who really were speaking to bread and butter issues \u2026 seems to be a theme that is sort of transcending party lines now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Centering affordability in his campaign was Mamdani\u2019s biggest asset, Naplatarski said.\n<\/p>\n

Sarantopoulos, who lost to Santosuosso in CD47, seemed to agree. At his Election Night event, the candidate told Brooklyn Paper that residents had voiced concerns about public safety, quality of life \u2014 and affordability.<\/p>\n

\u201cAffordability, I believe that\u2019s something us Republicans need to work on,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I believe that\u2019s why mayor-elect Mamdani, it sounds like, did well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"sarantopoulosRepublican District 47 candidate George Sarantopoulos (left) with mayoral candidate Curtis Sliwa on Election Day. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

While Mamdani struggled in Santosuosso\u2019s new district, he performed extremely well in areas that re-elected progressive Democrats, like Park Slope, Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Clinton Hill, Fort Greene and Prospect Heights.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In those same neighborhoods, incumbent Democrats soared to re-election in the City Council. Alexa Avil\u00e9s easily defeated a Republican in District 38; Shahana Hanif, facing three challengers in District 39, still earned 85% of the vote. In deep-blue northern Brooklyn, incumbent Democrats Lincoln Restler and Jennifer Guti\u00e9rrez both ran uncontested and still picked up more than 40,000 votes each.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In District 35, which includes Clinton Hill, Fort Greene, Prospect Heights \u2014 neighborhoods where Mamdani won big \u2014 incumbent Crystal Hudson faced two challengers and won 92% of the vote for a total of more than 53,000 votes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"mamdaniMamdani (bottom left) poses with Crystal Hudson (right) and Working Families Party voters in Clinton Hill, where he won big, on Election Day. REUTERS\/Kylie Cooper<\/p>\n

Naplatarski said support for a candidate like Mamdani has been building in those neighborhoods for a long time. In 2020, she unseated<\/a> a longtime District Leader in AD50 as part of a wider wave of victory for younger, more progressive candidates.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The same year, progressive Assembly Member Emily Gallagher was elected in AD50, and Hudson won her first victory in CD35. The following year, Brooklynites elected Restler, Hanif, Avil\u00e9s and Guti\u00e9rrez to their first terms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those pols, she said, like Mamdani, have a \u201cgrassroots energy.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing this not only in Brooklyn but across the city, really, this demand for electeds who seem like they are really from the community rather than part of a political establishment, and just a demand for new leadership,\u201d Naplatarski said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"hanifCouncil Member Shahana Hanif and Comptroller Brad Lander encouraged Brooklynites to vote on the Working Families Party line on Tuesday. Photo by Gabriele Holtermannr<\/p>\n

Mamdani\u2019s support in Brooklyn was also boosted by the Working Families Party. He ran on both the Democratic and WFP lines, and earned more than 72,000 WFP votes in Brooklyn \u2014 more than in any other borough.\u00a0<\/p>\n

WFP\u2019s \u201cstronghold\u201d in New York City Assembly District 52, Naplatarski said, which includes parts of Downtown Brooklyn, Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, Gowanus and Park Slope and is represented by Democrat Jo Anne Simon.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom what I know, that\u2019s pretty on trend with the norm in terms of WFP vote coming out of Brooklyn,\u201d she said.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

What comes next?<\/p>\n

Though Mamdani won\u2019t take office until January, he started laying the groundwork for his administration just hours after the election. On Wednesday, he announced his all-women transition team<\/a>, which includes former deputy mayor Maria Torres-Springer and former Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan as well as longtime nonprofit leader Grace Bonilla and former New York City Budget Director Melanie Hartzog.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"MamdaniOn Wedesday, Mamdani announced a transition team stacked with highly-experienced women.REUTERS\/Kylie Cooper<\/p>\n

Choosing a team of \u201cseasoned veterans\u201d could ease the concerns of some Mamdani skeptics in Brooklyn, Christopher said. Many Cuomo voters were drawn by the former governor\u2019s decades of experience, he said, and turned off by Mamdani\u2019s relatively short political career.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like it indicates that he\u2019s open to listening to others,\u201d Christopher said. \u201cSometimes you have mayors, governors who say \u2018My way or the highway.\u2019 But it seems like he kind of understands he hasn\u2019t been in this big of a role and he is open to working with people and listening to people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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