Voting took place at more than 14,000 polling sites across the five boroughs Tuesday in the second and final round of primaries this year — with this election focused on Congressional and state Senate races. (Click here for the results.)
But as expected for a midsummer election, the turnout in the Aug. 23 primary is extremely light across the city. At the High School of Fashion Industries polling site in Chelsea, one poll worker put it bluntly about the slow trickle of voters there Tuesday morning: “It’s dead.” Less than 50 people had shown up at the site as of 10:40 a.m.
Chelsea is part of the 12th Congressional District, which has one of the two biggest races in the city Tuesday. Two 30-year-old incumbent Congress Members, Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney, are battling it out for the right to represent the all-Manhattan 12th District after the madcap redistricting process put them in the same area. But insurgent candidate Suraj Patel, who narrowly lost to Maloney in the 2020 Democratic primary, is looking to upset them both.
Outside the High School of Fashion Industries on W. 24th Street, one local who identified himself as Len said he was sticking with Nadler after years of being represented by him. He mentioned that crime and safety remained of great importance to him.
“I don’t know if that’s so much a New York issue alone,” Len said. “You look at the country at large, and particularly the urban areas, you’ve got problems and nobody’s solving it.”
Len also criticized the fact that there were two summer primaries this year, the result of a botched redistricting process: “I had to come out twice just to vote for two people? Give me a break!”
Another Chelsea resident, Sela Adegbile, said she chose Nadler based on his voting history, and that his views aligned with her own.
“I was looking at how he voted on war in the past,” Adegbile said. “That was a big difference between him and Maloney.”
Uptown and on the East Side at Robert F. Wagner Middle School on E. 75th Street, voters turned out in greater numbers.
One area voter said she didn’t want to have to choose between Nadler and Maloney, both of whom she liked, but she ended up going for neither and chose Patel because he was a fresh face and due to former Mayor Michael Bloomberg casting his ballot for the upstart candidate.
“It was a really hard choice, because I have always voted with Carolyn Maloney, I love what she’s done for us, but I also think it’s time for some new blood,” said Christine Harrington.
Harrington noted that the right to choose an abortion was top of mind for her.
“It’s clearly time for more changes, more aggressive changes, and some new blood might be more likely to be able to accomplish some of that,” she said.
Another East Sider agreed, saying she wanted politicians in Congress that were younger than Maloney or Nadler, who each have three decades in office under their belt.
“I’m more like a young millennial older Gen Z kind of vibe, so I feel like it’s time for us to get rid of the older members of Congress, it’s time to vote in someone new,” said Isabella Schliemann.
The other huge Congressional contest features a wide-open field of 13 candidates battling it out for the Democratic nomination for the 10th Congressional District in Lower Manhattan and north/central Brooklyn.
The five leading contenders for that seat, as noted in recent polls, include Trump impeachment lawyer Dan Goldman, Hudson Valley Congress Member Mondaire Jones, Assembly Member Yuh-Line Niou, City Council Member Carlina Rivera and former Congress Member Elizabeth Holtzman.
In Greenwich Village, which is part of the new 10th District, some voters were focused on recent contradictory statements highlighted on the campaign trail.
“It is hard to make a decision when there are so many candidates, but when someone acts or says something in private then turns around to say something completely contradictory in public, my decision has been made,” one voter told us.
Residents of NY-10 also emphasized the importance of neighborhood safety in their communities, with hopes that whoever is elected will address increasing violent crime seriously and protect their constituents.
“I think we all need someone who is going to take our complaints seriously, especially about the crime,” said voter Jorge H. to amNew York. “I get nervous when my kids want to go out even when it is only a little bit dark outside because I just don’t know ‘Will there be a shooting? Will they get robbed?’ I just don’t know.”
Another big Congressional race features the Democratic and Republican primaries for the 11th District covering all of Staten Island and a portion of southern Brooklyn.
Nicole Malliotakis, the city’s only incumbent Republican House member, is facing a challenge in her second term from John Matland. Meanwhile, three Democrats looking to unseat Malliotakis this November are squaring off for the party’s nomination, including former Congress Member Max Rose, whom Malliotakis defeated in 2020; Brittany Ramos DeBarros and Komi Agoda-Koussema.
Just four incumbent Democratic Congress members representing areas of New York City are not facing a primary challenge and are awaiting the November election: Gregory Meeks (5th District, Queens); Grace Meng (6th District, Queens), Yvette Clarke (9th District, Brooklyn) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (14th District, Bronx/Queens).
For more local coverage of the Aug. 23 primary, visit QNS, The Brooklyn Paper and the Bronx Times.
Stay with amNY.com for further coverage of the citywide Congressional primary and Manhattan’s state Senate races.
