City Council Winners: What We Know So Far

Many competitive races have been called as New York awaits a full ranked tally.

Originally published by THE CITY on June 24, 2025 at 10:47pm EDT

The preliminary results of the City Council races are in. Here’s what we know so far:

In a closely-watched race, Brooklyn Councilmember Shahana Hanif has held on to her seat with a commanding lead in the preliminary first-round vote tally. But many other close contests will likely head to the full ranked vote count to determine a winner.

All 51 council seats are up for grabs this year, but only 28 of those had June primary challengers. In the closest competitions, the biggest issues included changing neighborhood demographics, candidates’ views on key issues like housing and Israel’s war in Gaza and an influx of corporate spending.

More than ever before, outside special interest groups spent millions in an attempt to affect the outcomes of City Council races. The independent expenditure groups — the equivalent of local super PACs — spent close to $14 million on council races, campaign finance records show, compared to just half that in 2021.

“There has been nothing equivalent, it eclipses everything we’ve seen,” Susan Lerner, the head of the pro-democracy nonprofit Common Cause New York, told THE CITY, speaking of IE spending. In particular, Lerner emphasized that corporations aren’t usually involved in City Council races to such a degree.

“This is something from the last cycle or so, and has to do with outside spenders — money that comes into New York from other jurisdictions — with a particular agenda,” she said.

As previously reported by THE CITY, some of the biggest donors included rideshare and food delivery giants Uber and DoorDash. Uber’s IE group, called the Uber NYC PAC, spent over $2 million on City Council races alone. Airbnb, the travel rental giant, also spent big, dumping nearly $2 million into several City Council races.

On Tuesday night, the city Board of Elections released only preliminary first-choice-only votes. Those tallies in some cases clinched a win for some candidates, but some remain undeclared. Here’s which races are decided, which ones are still unknown, and how a few competitive races in each borough turned out:

What we know

In one of the closest watched races in the boroughs, Shahana Hanif, the incumbent in District 39 and first Muslim woman elected to the Council, handily holds on to her seat, with 69.9% of first-choice votes with 99% of scanners reporting.

The race has largely been defined by politics surrounding Israel's war in Gaza: Hanif’s challenger Maya Kornberg, a researcher at the Brennan Center for Justice who is Jewish, had the backing of the pro-Israel Solidarity PAC, and Hanif faced repeated accusations — which she has vehemently denied — of antisemitism for her vocal support of Palestinians. 

“Look, we won. We won and we won on people power, on a grassroots movement that stood up against corporate PACs, Uber, that stood up against billionaire James Dolan,” Hanif said at a crowded victory party at The Commissioner on Park Slope’s 5th Ave, speaking of the owner of Madison Square Garden. “We said no to Trump donors and proved that Brooklyn can never be bought.”

In Brooklyn’s District 38, which includes Sunset Park, Red Hook and sections of Dyker Heights and Bensonhurst, incumbent Councilmember Alexa Avilés has apparently defended her seat against moderate challenger Ling Ye, with 71.5% of first-choice votes.

Also in Brooklyn, District 47, home to Bay Ridge, Coney Island and parts of Bath Beach, former councilmember and current comptroller candidate Justin Brannan’s chief counsel Kayla Santosuosso has a compelling lead against Baruch College Student Fedir Usmanov with 79.3% of first-choice votes.

The district, like many others, has leaned redder in recent years. While Brannan, a Democrat, won back his seat in 2023, it was a close one. This race will be one to watch in the general election in November, as well.

In another southern Brooklyn district, home to Sheepshead Bay, Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach, two Republicans faced off: Incumbent Inna Vernikov, a lawyer who made news in October 2023 for bringing a gun to a protest, was challenged by Ari Kagan, a former councilmember who worked as a journalist before his political career. Kagan was trailing Vernikov in fundraising — currently, Vernikov is in the lead. 

Up in The Bronx, the District 14 incumbent Pierina Sanchez won her district handily in 2023 and is looking as if she’ll do the same in Tuesday’s vote count, currently at 66.5%. Her challengers were former Councilmember for her district, Fernando Cabrera, and former law intern Bryan Hodge Vasquez.

Overall, big spenders like Airbnb, Uber and Doordash saw solid victories: Many recipients of Airbnb’s dollars like Bronx candidates Justin E. Sanchez, Elsie Encarnación and Eric Dinowitz, and Queens' Shekar Krishnan are likely winners of their respective races. Uber’s PAC spending paid off for candidates like Mercedes Narcisse in Brooklyn, and Carmen De La Rosa and Julie Menin of Manhattan. A notable exception is Kornberg, Hanif’s opponent, who was supported by multiple special interest groups: Uber’s PAC, a pro-Israel group and a pro-development group. 

What’s still undecided

As of Tuesday night, several key races are still undecided, meaning no candidate has definitively received a majority of first-choice preliminary votes. 

To know who wins these races, New Yorkers will have to wait until next Tuesday, July 1 for the ranked choice tabulation. On July 1, the Board of Elections will release the “rounds” of vote transfers and eliminations. And official, certified results won’t come until three weeks after the election. 

Here are the races we’re still watching, by borough:

Brooklyn

In competitive Brooklyn districts, many incumbents managed to fight off challengers, maintaining strong leads in early Board of Elections reporting. 

However, in District 41, incumbent Darlene Mealy is still fighting to maintain her seat and at 43.2%, has not gained a majority of first-choice votes. Challenger Lawman Lynch, an activist born in Jamaica, is in a fairly distant second.

On the Republican side in the Bay Ridge district, Brooklyn GOP Chair and former NYPD officer Richie Barsamian challenged incumbent George Sarantopoulos, and the two are neck-in-neck, with Sarantopoulos with a one point lead.

The Bronx

District 8, which covers parts of the South Bronx in addition to Randall’s Island and East Harlem in Manhattan, was a crowded race as multiple candidates vied for a wide-open seat vacated by a term-limited incumbent. One candidate, Wilfredo Lopez, got a boost from a Wall Street mogul who poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into a special interest group backing his campaign.

But according to early numbers, that funding may not put him over the top. In the preliminary vote tally, Elsie Encarnacion, chief of staff to the district’s current Councilmember Diana Ayala, is in the lead with just over 28% of the first round votes. 

Encarnacion was also the beneficiary of special interest groups, with a PAC affiliated with Airbnb spending $100,000 on her campaign.

A purple district in the northwest Bronx, District 13, is currently represented by Republican Kristy Marmorato — who narrowly won the seat in 2023 with just 56 votes. A bevvy of Democrats lined up to challenge her in November, and former executive vice president of buildings worker union 32BJ Shirley Aldebol is currently emerging as the narrow winner with just under 30% of the vote. In second place with about 21% of the first-place votes is Jacqueline Torres, a veteran and human resources worker.

Manhattan

In Lower Manhattan, Christopher Marte is in the lead at 49.2% of the vote — but has not yet surpassed the 50% needed to be declared the winner. The District 1 race saw housing advocates and PACs trying to unseat Marte. One of his challengers, lawyer Jess Coleman, announced his run after Marte voted in opposition to City of Yes, the rezoning changes backed by Mayor Eric Adams meant to spur more housing development across the boroughs. Marte is also coming off of a major political win this week: a deal with the Adams administration to stop development on the Elizabeth Street Garden.

On the Upper East Side, there’s a dead heat to fill the seat of District 13 Councilmember Keith Powers, who is  term-limited and running for Manhattan Borough President. Who will win the district (Stuyvesant Town, Midtown East and the Upper East Side) is an open question and will head to the full ranked tally. Virginia Maloney, daughter of former U.S. representative Carolyn Maloney, is eking out a very narrow lead over Vanessa Aronson, a nonprofit strategist and former Lexington Democratic Club president.

In District 2, home to Greenwich Village, the Lower East Side, the East Village, Midtown South, Gramercy and Murray Hill, ten candidates competed for an open seat. Currently in the lead is Harvey Epstein, who currently represents the area as a member of the state Assembly. In a decently distant second is first-time candidate Sarah Batchu, who worked in Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office — but with five candidates, ranked choice voting could have a more pronounced effect on this race and it’s too close to call.

Among other competitors was disgraced former Congressman and mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner, who attempted a political comeback after 18 months in prison for sexting a minor, as well as Andrea Gordillo, who worked in local nonprofits and serves as chair on Community Board 3.

Queens

In Southeast Queens District 28, a district currently represented by City Council Speaker and mayoral candidate Adrienne Adams, a five-candidate race resulted in Tyrell “Ty” Hankerson leading the pack at 34.8% — but not within spitting distance of the 50% needed to call the race in his favor.

The district is home to both a historic Black community and a growing South Asian and Indo-Caribbean enclave — groups who are all reflected in the candidate choices. Hankerson was looking to take over for his boss, and earned major union endorsements as well as Adams’. Latoya LeGrand, a community organizer, is also in the running, as well as former Councilmember Ruben Wills. Japneet Singh, an immigrant from Punjab, is in second place.

District 21, which covers East Elmhurst and Corona, saw a race between four candidates and no incumbent — three considered frontrunners based on their endorsements from key Queens political players. 

But so far, it’s an incredibly close race between all four, with nearly all ballots reported. Shanel Thomas-Henry is in the lead with 30.9% of first-choice votes, but close on her heels are all of the other three candidates: Erycka Montoya with 25.3%, Yanna Henriquez with 23% and David Aiken with 20%.

The district has drifted rightward, and includes the controversial Roosevelt Avenue corridor, where enforcement on street vending and sex work have been hot-button issues.

In District 30, which spans Maspeth, Glendale, Middle Village and Ridgewood, term-limited Councilmember Bob Holden, a moderate Democrat, has endorsed two of his staffers for primaries in opposing races: Phil Wong on the Democratic line, and Alicia Vaichunas on the Republican line. 

It’s currently a dead heat between Wong at 36.1%, political strategist for the United Federation of Teachers Dermot Smyth at 30.7%, and Paul Pogozelski, a local civic leader at 31.9%.

Staten Island

There are two City Council primary races in Staten Island, but they were not as competitive as some of the other districts elsewhere in the city. On the North Shore, incumbent Kamillah Hanks appeared to win reelection with nearly 60% of the first-round, preliminary vote tally. 

For Republicans, in District 51, Frank Morano trounced Griffin T. Fossella, coming in with over 80% of first-choice votes.

Additional reporting by Claudia Irizarry Aponte.