Hoylman-Sigal Overpowers Powers in Boro Prez Dem Primary

West Side State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal is on track to win the Democratic primary for Manhattan borough president after handily outpolling East Side City Council Member Keith Powers on June 24.

Although the win won’t be official until second-choice votes are tallied by the Board of Elections on July 1, Hoylman-Sigal was pulling in 49 percent of the vote to Powers’s 38 percent.

It marks the second Manhattan primary in recent years in which a West Side candidate has handily defeated an East Side candidate. In August 2022, US Representative Jerry Nadler pulled a majority of the vote in a race against US Representative Carolyn Maloney after a controversial redistricting; Maloney earned only 25 percent when the two incumbents were forced to square off against each other.

The East/West divide was evident early on in this race as well, with Nadler endorsing Hoylman-Sigal and Maloney endorsing Powers. The influential Democratic clubs on the East and West sides lined up behind their local candidates.

Former Manhattan Borough Presidents Gale Brewer and Ruth Messinger, both West Siders, also sided with Hoylman-Sigal shortly after he announced he was running in December. Powers had announced his candidacy in August 2024, and built up a sizable war chest, as he was the only declared candidate until Hoylman-Sigal jumped into the race four months later.

Powers netted endorsements from Democratic US Representatives Adriano Espaillat and Nydia Velázquez, as well as big labor unions 32BJ SEIU and the United Federation of Teachers.

As of press time, with 91 percent of the votes in, Hoylman-Sigal was ahead of Powers by 11 points. In the waning days of the campaign, Powers and Calvin Sun—an ER doctor in his first foray into politics—announced cross-endorsement deals, urging their supporters to rank their rival second, in a bid to halt the momentum that was building for Hoylman-Sigal. In the end, Sun pulled in 12 percent of the vote.

The projected win by Hoylman-Sigal makes him the heavy favorite to win the general election in November.

Powers held his watch party at Shades of Green on East 15th Street, where he had celebrated his first Democratic primary victory when he ran for City Council eight years earlier. He knew early on that the race had not gone his way.

As supporters started to pile in around 9:30pm, he was asked how it looked. “Not good,” he replied. By 9:50pm, he was thanking supporters and all but conceding the race, saying that the race “is tough physically, it is tough emotionally. Sometimes you don’t feel like getting out of bed to gather petitions at 6am.” He credited his girlfriend, Layla Amjadi, for being a “rock” and thanked his chief of staff, Ben Jacobs, who had served with him for eight years on the Council.

Both Powers and Hoylman-Sigal placed building affordable housing as their No. 1 priority. Powers also pushed for childcare and public transportation improvements. Hoylman-Sigal similarly focused on public safety and transportation, followed by restoring integrity to City Hall and fighting President Trump on the local level.

Hoylman-Sigal is primed to make history as the first openly gay person to win a borough-wide role, as he acknowledged at a hearty primary-night watch party held at the Dakota Bar on West 72nd Street, which was attended by Straus News. He entered just before 10pm to raucous cheers—roughly an hour after polls closed, and about 10 minutes after Powers thanked supporters in his apparent losing effort. Hoylman-Sigal stepped up to a podium with his husband, David, and his two daughters, Sylvia and Lucy. “Love Wins” flags were stationed at a variety of tables.

“I am so, so grateful for everyone here tonight. What an evening, oh my god!” Hoylman-Sigal told the crowd. “The results aren’t fully in, but I have to say . . . I am feeling pretty good tonight. We showed that you can have integrity, and run a hard race, and fight to the bitter end . . . and that’s what we did.”

Hoylman-Sigal shouted out the late Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, two famed (and local) figures in the gay liberation movement of the 20th century, for “throwing that first rock at the Stonewall Inn and uniting our human rights movement.” He said that “his district, as everyone knows . . . runs from the gay bars to Zabar’s!”

Before Hoylman-Sigal showed up, a few supporters and volunteers spoke to Straus News about what drew them to him. Al Kurland, who lives in Inwood and works on bringing young people into the political process, said that he initially worked with Hoylman-Sigal on proposed legislation that would lower the voting age to 16.

When he studied Hoylman-Sigal’s record, Kurland said, he discovered that he was a “legislative maestro . . . the things he’s done in Albany, not just for young people, but for tenants and immigrant safety.”

Bob S. spoke to getting “hooked on Brad” over the pandemic, when he had to close his business “for sixth months because I didn’t want any people to come in and get the virus.” Soon enough, along with his employees, he was on unemployment—and yet he wasn’t receiving his benefit checks for some strange reason. Furthermore, his federal representatives hadn’t helped him. That changed, immediately, when he called Hoylman-Sigal’s office.

Upper West Side City Council Member Brewer was there as well, and said that she had endorsed Hoylman-Sigal “at the beginning.” Most important, she said, she hadn’t doubted his ability to pull ahead in the race for a second. After all, she said, “the West Side votes.”