New York’s presidential primary on Tuesday was about as low-stakes as an election can get. Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump had clinched their respective parties’ presidential nominations weeks ago, and their only opponents on the ballot have long since withdrawn from the race.
As a result, the turnout was anemic. Statewide, about 5.1% of New York’s registered Democrats (294,147 of 5,778,841 voters) and about 5.8% of New York’s registered Republicans (155,628 of 2,695,185 voters) bothered to cast a ballot in the primaries, according to preliminary results from the state Board of Elections.
Interestingly, based on unofficial results from the city’s Board of Elections, more than half of the statewide Democratic total seemed to come from New York City, as 157,204 Democrats across the five boroughs participated in the primary. By contrast, 26,604 New York City Republicans took part in the primary, making up about 17% of the statewide Republican turnout.
The results were nothing surprising; both the current president Biden and the former president Trump easily won the state’s primary. The only question was whether there would be a significant protest vote against either candidate — and based upon the unofficial numbers, Trump — who has been criminally indicted four times since last year, including in Manhattan for an alleged hush money scheme — suffered the bigger loss of voters in his former home state.
Statewide, Trump secured roughly 82% of the vote (127,628). Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who previously served in the Trump administration as Ambassador to the UN, got the bulk of the Trump protest vote with 20,115 (12.93%), while former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie garnered 6,295. Vivek Ramaswamy brought up the rear with 1,590 votes.
From a percentage point of view, the unofficial results in New York City seemed to indicate slightly more loyalty to Trump from Republicans across the five boroughs. In New York City, Trump received 86.3% of the vote (22,959), while Haley garnered 9.46% (2,517), followed by Christie with 3.17% (843) and Ramaswamy with 1.07% (285).
The New York primary continued a trend seen in Republican primaries across America in this election cycle, with anywhere from 15-20% of Republican voters in each state voting against Trump — even in contests that occurred weeks after the former president clinched the party’s nomination.
Biden, on the other hand, seemed to have far stronger party unity and minimal protest in New York based on Tuesday’s results.
More than 91% of Democrats statewide (269,058) voted for Biden in the primary. Author Marianne Williamson (14,445) beat out Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips (10,644) for the runner-up spot.
That result was consistent with the unofficial results from New York City. Across the five boroughs, Biden also won 91.53% of the vote (143,981); Williamson received 7,777 votes, and Phillips garnered just 5,536.
Looking ahead to November, chances are good that Biden will again win New York given that registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans statewide by a nearly 2:1 margin. No Republican presidential candidate, in fact, has won New York since President Ronald Reagan was re-elected in 1984.
Meanwhile, New York Democrats also elected slates of delegates from their respective Congressional districts to attend the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee this summer. No delegate slates were on the ballot in the Republican primary.
Some of the elected delegates are familiar faces, as the slates include prominent city and state elected officials — such as City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, a delegate candidate for the 5th District in Queens.
The winning slates were:
District 3 (Queens/Long Island): Delia Deriggi Whitton, Anthony Simon, Carol Gresser, James Scheuerman, Veronica Lurvey, Matthew Silverstein, Kimberly Keiserman.
District 5 (Queens): Adrienne Adams, David Weprin, Alicia Hyndman, Patrick Jenkins, Roslin Spigner, Preston Baker, Valerie West.
District 6 (Queens): Glenn Magpantay, Karen Koslowitz, Hersh Parekh, Sandra Mandell, John Y. Park.
District 7 (Brooklyn/Queens): Johanna Carmona, Darryl Towns, Chelsea Connor, Michael McGuire, Rosa Cruz, Johnathan Betancourt, Nijema Rivera.
District 8 (Brooklyn/Queens): Henry Butler, Nikki Lucas, Ademola Oyefeso, Darlene Mealy, Jabaran Akram, Roxanne Persaud, Yamil Speight-Miller.
District 9 (Brooklyn): Una Clarke, Zellnor Myrie, Jahmila Edwards, Brian-Christopher Cunningham, Rona Taylor, Edu Hermelyn, Sarana Purcell, Pinchas Ringel.
District 10 (Brooklyn/Manhattan): Karen Persichilli Keogh, Simcha Eichenstein, Grace Lee, Steven D. Cohn, Chung Seto, Robert Carroll, Jo Anne Simon, Jeffrey T. Lewis, Ilyssa Robin Meyer, Carlos Catzadilla.
District 11 (Brooklyn/Staten Island): Edwina Frances Martin, Michael Mulgrew, Nancy Myers, Charles Fall, Selina Grey.
District 12 (Manhattan): Keith Powers, Gale Brewer, Erik Bottcher, Linda B. Rosenthal, Anthony Simone, Carlina Rivera, Jonathan Henes, Sarah Min, Alex Bores, Anastasia Somoza, Robert Gottheim.
District 13 (Manhattan/Bronx): Elsie Encarnacion, Keith Wright, Diana Ayala, George Alvarez, Gloria Middleton, Manny De Los Santos, Pierina Sanchez, Monjur Choudhury.
District 14 (Queens/Bronx): Amanda Farias, Michael Benedetto, Anne Marie Anzalone, Antonio Alfonso Jr., Leah Richardson, Andres Vargas.
District 15 (Bronx): Yudelka Tapia, Kevin Riley, Virginia Krompinger, Rafael Salamanca Jr., Odetty Tineo.
District 16 (Bronx/Westchester): Shawyn Patterson-Howard, Jamaal T. Bailey, Suzanne Berger, George Latimer, Florence McCue, Jason Laidley, Edgar Santana III, Shannon Powell.
Don’t forget to keep June 25 open on your calendar; that is primary day for Congressional and statewide races around New York.
