Incumbents Coast to Victory in Upper Manhattan Primaries
Two City Council Members that represent northern Manhattan, Shaun Abreu and Carmen Delarosa, easily skated to an outright majority of the vote on June 24. Incumbents Yusef Salaam and Gale Brewer did not face challengers.
| 30 Jun 2025 | 09:16
Carmen De La Rosa, who currently represents City Council’s District 10, cruised to victory over a challenger in this month’s Democratic primary. (
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Shaun Abreu, the incumbent for Council District 7, also coasted to victory over challenger Edafe Okporo. (
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Two incumbent City Council Members representing parts of northwest Manhattan, District 7’s Shaun Abreu and District 10’s Carmen De La Rosa, easily defeated their opponents in the June 24 Democratic primary. Gale Brewer, who represents the Upper West Side and parts of Hell’s Kitchen, did not face a primary challenger, nor did incumbent Yusef Salaam.
Both Abreu and De La Rosa easily surpassed the 50 percent threshold, which means that they won outright in the first round of ranked-choice balloting, and won’t have to compete in a second round on July 1.
Abreu defeated his runner-up Edafe Okporo by 63 percent to 38 percent, with Tiffany Khan coming in third place at 12 percent. Abreu’s the heavy favorite going into November, where he’ll face Republican candidate Manual Williams. His district encompasses Morningside Heights, West Harlem, Manhattan Valley, Manhattanville, parts of Hamilton Heights, and parts of Washington Heights.
Meanwhile, De La Rosa defeated her opponent Francesca Castellanos by 87 percent to 12 percent. She’ll face the Republican candidate Louisa Flores in the fall. Her far-north district also includes parts of Washington Heights, as well as Inwood and Marble Hill.
Abreu’s expansive re-election platform included six planks: housing, education and youth, sanitation and sustainability, worker & consumer protections, quality of life, and health. Housing was his “number-one priority,” his campaign said, as he used to be a tenant’s rights attorney.
He touted co-leading the passage of a recent bill that banned automatic broker fees for renters, as well as casting the “decisive” vote on the “City of Yes” zoning overhaul–which passed by 4-3–as a member of the Council’s Zoning Committee. His reelection housing promises involve promoting community land trusts, as well as strengthening tenant protections further, such as by mandating access to air conditioning.
De La Rosa chairs the Council’s Committee on Civil Service and Labor, as well as co-chairs its Women’s Caucus, and has indicated that she will continue to advocate for worker’s rights in her second term. She’s introduced a few bills that have passed during her first term, including one waiving civil service examination fees for first-time applicants and high-school students, as well as one requiring city agencies to offer career counseling for municipal employees.
Other notable bills that De La Rosa has introduced–but which have yet to pass–include one that would implement a 311 complaint line for dog runs, as well as one that would establish a COVID-19 memorial task force.