Voter turnout in New York City's current congressional Democratic primaries has been significantly lower than in the previous year, failing to replicate the surge seen in the 2025 mayoral elections. Democratic Socialists of America and liberal insiders had hoped to achieve similar results to 2025, when Mayor Zohran Mamdani's campaign leveraged strong youth turnout to unseat established political figures.
As of Tuesday afternoon, over 367,000 votes had been cast in the primaries, representing just over 10% of the city's 3.5 million registered Democrats. This contrasts sharply with the more than 1 million Democrats who voted in last year's mayoral primary, which saw Mamdani defeat ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The current turnout, however, does exceed the 146,314 Democrats who voted in the 2022 gubernatorial primary.
Manhattan and Brooklyn are experiencing the highest turnout, hosting four of the most closely contested House races. These include the primary in the 13th House District, where Mamdani is campaigning for insurgent candidate Darializa Avila Chevalier against Rep. Adriano Espaillat; the race to replace Rep. Jerrold Nadler in the 12th District; the 10th District primary between former city Comptroller Brad Lander and Rep. Dan Goldman; and the 7th District race to succeed Rep. Nydia Velazquez.
Mamdani has also endorsed Lander and DSA Assemblywoman Claire Valdez in their respective races. He has remained neutral in the contest for Nadler's seat, which features candidates such as Assembly members Micah Lasher and Alex Bores, Jack Schlossberg, George Conway, and Nina Schwalbe.
Political experts suggest that lower turnout in congressional primaries compared to marquee mayoral or presidential elections is typical. "Competitive mayoral elections almost always have higher turnout than congressional elections," said Jerry Skurnik, a political consultant with Engage Voters US. He noted that the current primaries are motivated by only three hotly contested and expensive Congressional races.
Furthermore, there appears to be a notable decrease in participation among voters under 30. These younger voters were instrumental in Mamdani's mayoral victory last year but are not showing the same engagement in the current House races. John Mollenkopf, director of urban research at the CUNY Graduate Center, stated, "I am pretty sure that the lower age brackets have returned to the norm, which is that they have relatively low turnout."
Mollenkopf also observed a diminished level of field operations compared to the 2025 mayoral primary, noting, "I haven’t seen the high level of field operations this time around."
A statewide Democratic primary for comptroller, featuring incumbent Tom DiNapoli against challengers Drew Warshaw and Raj Goyle, provides an additional incentive for Democrats to vote in this year's primaries.