The Rally+Rise New York Primary Voter Guide

New York’s 2020 Primary is officially here—and for many districts in the state, this is the election that actually, really, truly matters: In places that traditionally vote blue, the Democratic nominee is gonna win in the general election...so who wins in the primary is where things get interesting.

And this year, there are loads of important races happening across the state:

150 State Assembly seats
63 State Senate seats
27 Congressional seats
A handful of super-local races (from a City Council seat to Queens Borough President)
Oh, and the President of the United States. (Yes, the Presidential primary is back on. Don’t get us started on that drama.)

In other words: dozens of opportunities to elect progressive, forward-thinking candidates who share in our anger, our frustration, our dreams, our goals...and can actually make a difference.

It’s going to take more than just voting to actually change things…but we need legislators on our side.

Here’s what you need to know:

When am I voting?

June 13-June 21 is the early voting period.
June 16 is the deadline to submit an absentee ballot application.
June 23 is election day and the deadline to postmark your absentee ballot.

Want to vote early?

Early voting runs from June 13-June 21
Your early voting location may be different than your election day voting location; you can look it up here.

Want to vote by mail?

All New Yorkers are eligible to vote by absentee ballot this election.
To do so you must first request an absentee ballot—the deadline to fill out or postmark an absentee ballot application is June 16.
Details on how to request an absentee ballot in NY are at your county’s board of elections website—details on that process are here.
If you live in NYC, you can fill out an absentee ballot application online.
Once you receive your absentee ballot, it must be postmarked by June 23 in order to be counted.

Want to vote on election day?

Poll sites will still be open on election day, despite COVID-19. (But: Wear. A. Mask.) You can find your poll location at your county’s board of elections website.
If you live in NYC, you can look up your poll location here.

Who am I voting for?

Want to know what your ballot looks like ahead of time?

You can check out an example (warning: it might not have every single super-local race) at whoseontheballot.org.

Wondering what some of these seats actually mean?

President: Yes, this is still on the ballot in New York. You’ll be voting for both the candidate and selecting eight delegates to the national convention. (And yes, you can pick multiple candidates’ delegates.)
Congressional Seat (aka House of Representatives): They’re working on laws at a federal level.
New York Senate Seat: They’re working on laws at the state level. (Think of them as New York’s very own Senate, passing bills that apply only to our state).
New York Assembly Seat: They’re working on laws at the state level. (Think of them as NY’s House of Representatives, passing bills that apply only to our state.)
District Leader (this may appear on your ballot as ‘Member of the State Committee’): They’re unpaid party officials who oversee the county committee in their Assembly district, meaning that they can endorse judicial candidates, vote on party leaders, and help set the party’s rules and platform. They guide the party on the local-level and hold them accountable—which sounds like NBD but honestly in New York our local political groups are suuuper out-of-touch and full of cronyism, so this can be an important position.
Delegate for Judicial Convention: This is the person who votes on which judicial candidates will be the party’s nominee in the general election in November. (Why do we have to vote on someone who will vote on someone? Good question. No idea. Local politics is weird.)
Depending on where you live, you may also be voting for Borough President (they allocate their borough’s budget, appoint members to community boards, and more), City Council (they control NYC’s budget and pass laws), District Attorney (the county’s chief prosecutor), Board of Education (control policies around the district’s public education), and more. It can sometimes be hard to find information on these candidates; do the same sort of Google deep dive you’d do on a new crush and figure out who they are, what they stand for, and how they’ll lead if elected. (Then share with all your neighbors, since they probably don’t know either.)

Want to know which candidates stand out to us?

Because of everything going on this year [gestures wildly around us], we are not making outright endorsements. However, we have compiled a list or endorsements from orgs whose opinion we respect (even if we don’t agree with them 100% of the time).

You’ll see that some candidates have an overwhelming number of endorsements; in other races, it’s pretty split. There are some races where you may want to vote tactically, rather than with your heart.

Ultimately, this is just a guide—but you should definitely do your own research. Why? First of all, you should know who your’e voting for. It’s also super important to understand this candidate’s position; that way, when they’re elected into office, you can hold them accountable to the promises they made. Besides, we can’t expect our electeds to stand up for us if we don’t engage in the process.

Note: The numbers you see below is the district number. Also, we didn’t gather information for every. single. race. If you don’t see your district listed, check out the Working Families Party endorsement list, which is a bit more complete (although, again, just one source—so do your own Googling as well). If you see a name below but don’t see this race listed on your ballot, that means the candidate is running unopposed.

CONGRESS
2 – Gordon (WFP)
3 - D’Arrigo (ESI, NYPAN, NIDC, IND)
5 – Chowdhury (NYPAN, NIDC)
6 – Meng (WFP) / Gagarin (NYPAN, NIDC)
7 – Velazquez (WFP, NKD, BR)
8 – Jeffries (WFP)
9 – Bunkeddeko (ESI, NYPAN, IND)
10 – Nadler (WFP)
12 – Ashcraft (NYPAN)
13 – Espaillat (WFP)
14 – Ocasio-Cortez (WFP, NYPAN, BR, NIDC)
15 – López (ESI, AOC, WFP, DSA, SM, TJV, NYPAN, BR)
16 – Bowman (ESI, AOC, WFP, SM, TJV, NYPAN, BR, NIDC)
17 – Jones (ESI, AOC, WFP, NYPAN, NIDC)
18 – Patrick-Maloney (WFP)
19 – Delgado (WFP)
20 – Tonko (WFP)
21 – Cobb (WFP)
22 – Brindisi (WFP)
23 – Mitrano (WFP)
24 – Balter (IND)
25 – Wilt (NYPAN)
26 – Higgins (WFP)
27 – McMurray (WFP, NYPAN)

STATE SENATE
1 – Cartright (TB, WFP)
4 – Pellegrino (WFP)
10 – Sanders Jr. (WFP)
11 – Liu (WFP)
12- Gianaris (AOC, WFP, SM, NYPAN, TP)
13 – Ramos (AOC, WFP, SM, TJV, TP, BR)
15 – Lopez (ESI)
18 – Salazar (TB, AOC, WFP, DSA, SM, TJV, TP, NKD, BR, NIDC)
20 – Myrie (WFP, TJV, BR)
22 – Gounardes (WFP)
23 – Stradford (WFP)
24 – Balter (Nat Indivis)
25 – Salmon (TB, TJV) // Brisport (AOC, WFP, DSA, SM, NYPAN, TP, NIDC)
27 – Hoylman (WFP, TP)
28 – Krueger (WFP)
29 – Serrano (WFP)
31 – Jackson (AOC, WFP, TJV, TP)
32 – Sepulveda (WFP)
33 – Rivera (AOC, WFP)
34 – Biaggi (AOC, WFP, TJV, TP, BR)
35 – Steward-Cousins (WFP)
36 – Bailey (AOC, WFP)
37 – Mayer (WFP)
38 – Reichlin-Melnick (TB) // Sweet (WFP)
53 – May (BR)
58 – Dank-Burke (NYPAN)
61 – Smith (TB, WFP)

STATE ASSEMBLY
2 – Schleisner (NYPAN)
15 – Sackman (NYPAN)
23 – Gowda (TB)
31 – Anderson (TB, NYPAN, TP)
34 – González-Rojas (TB, SM, TJV, BR)
35 – Aubry (TP)
36 – Simotas (TB) // Mamdani (DSA, TJV, NYPAN, NIDC)
37 – Brecker (ESI, TB) // Jobaida (AH)
39 – Cruz (TP)
40 – Kim (TJV, NYPAN, TP, NIDC)
43 – Richardson (ESI, TB, TP, NKD, BR, NIDC)
50 – Gallagher (TB, NKD, BR)
51 – Mitaynes (DSA, SM, TJV, TP, BR, NIDC)
56 – Cooney (TB)
57- Souffrant Forrest (TB, DSA, SM, TP, BR, NIDC)
61 - Aquino (AH, NKD)
65 – Niou (ESI, TB, AH, TJV, TP, BR, NIDC)
67 – Rosenthal (TJV)
73 – Quart (SM, TP, NIDC)
74 – Epstein (TJV)
84 – Septimo (AH, TJV, BR)
93 – Browde (TB)
121 – Mosher (TB)
149 – Bojak (TB)

DISTRICT LEADER (MAY APPEAR AS “MEMBER OF THE STATE COMMITTEE” ON YOUR BALLOT)
50 – Naplatarski (NKD, BR)
51 – Peña (NKD)
52 – Pierce (NKD, BR)
53 – Nemir-Olivares (NKD, BR)
57 – Boykin (NKD)
71 – Crawford (NIDC)

QUEENS BOROUGH PRESIDENT
Constantinides (SM, SP, Sierra Club)

CITY COUNCIL
37 – Nurse (AH, TJV)

KEY
AH = Amplify Her
AOC = Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
BR = The Broad Room
DSA = Democratic Socialists of America
ESI = Empire State Indivisible
IND = Indivisible
NKD = New Kings Democrats
NIDC = No IDC NY
NYPAN = New York Progressive Action Network
SM = Sunrise Movement
SP = Streets PAC
TB = True Blue NY
TJV = The Jewish Vote
TP = Tenants PAC
WFP = Working Families Party