Got yourself a dreaded case of the Mondays? Start your week off right by catching up on last week's episode of the Hell Gate Podcast. Listen here, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Join us tomorrow, Tuesday, June 23, from 8 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. for another round of Hell Gate's primary election coverage. Watch the livestream on our YouTube channel. Once again, we'll provide a compelling mix of expert analysis and field reporting on all of the most competitive and consequential races, with just the right amount of chaos that comes from doing it live.
And this time around, we'll be coming to you from our brand new home at Studio H, the Ruth Ann Harnisch studio.
Watch it at home or out on the town with friends—we'll be announcing a number of watch parties in bars around the city! (Know a bar that wants to hold a watch party? Hit us up at info@hellgatenyc.com.)
Since Zohran Mamdani's insurgent campaign for mayor, a battle for the soul of the left in New York City has begun to play out. Who is the standard-bearer for progressive politics—is it the Democratic Socialists of America, who have been on a tear of knocking out powerful incumbents and last year, captured City Hall? Or is it the Working Families Party, which represents the interests of a coalition of left-leaning NGOs?
While the groups are working together on several races in this primary election, they're also now bitterly opposed in one of its most high-profile contests—New York's 7th Congressional District, where the Working Families Party is backing Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, and NYC-DSA is behind Assemblymember Claire Valdez. Whoever prevails could indicate the contours of power among the New York left—and whose endorsement and ground game will mean more to a candidate in the future.
But if there's a real battle going on, you wouldn't know it from speaking to Working Families Party Director Jasmine Gripper, who's steering the organization through an election solo for the first time (her former co-director, Ana María Archila, left for a position in the Mamdani administration earlier this year).
According to Gripper, the battle being waged in NY-7 is the sign of a healthy left, which is only bringing more people into organizing and politics.
"Left-versus-left fighting is not ideal. It's not where we want to be. But a strong DSA is good for WFP. A strong WFP is good for DSA. It makes the left ecosystem better and stronger when we are all doing the work," Gripper told Hell Gate on Sunday night, just after early voting ended.
And how did early voting go, especially when compared to last year's blowout mayoral election? After a sluggish start (perhaps the Knicks had something to do with that), early voters began turning out over the weekend, but early voting numbers were less than half of what they were during last year's mayoral primary. Then again, the early-voting turnout this year completely blew the 2024 cycle out of the water: In June 2024, 46,241 New Yorkers voted early in primaries for Congress and the state legislature. This year, 172,743 New Yorkers voted early.
(Still, the comparatively low turnout had DSA leadership freaking out last week.)
With an increasing number of people engaged and voting, particularly in the less high-stakes but still competitive (finally) races for the state legislature and Congress, what does New York City's electorate look like now? We chatted with Gripper about all of that and more.