New Majority NYC drops slate of City Council 2025 endorsements
Elsie Encarnacion, Kayla Santosuosso, Virginia Maloney and Andrea Gordillo are among a slate of New York City Council candidates getting an early endorsement in their respective upcoming Democratic primaries from the New Majority NYC – an influential organization dedicated to building Democratic women’s political power in the city.
The New Majority NYC, formerly known as 21 in ‘21, has played an instrumental role in bolstering the number of women represented in the City Council since the organization was founded in 2017. Progress has been sweeping, with voters electing 31 women to the 51-member body in 2021, well surpassing the organization’s initial goal. Now with ten competitive open City Council seats – three of which were held by term-limited women – and over a dozen women incumbents facing strong challenges, the New Majority NYC is rolling out endorsements for 34 women, hoping to protect and sustain the hard-won progress. Most of those endorsements were made specifically for the first-choice slot through ranked-choice voting, but a handful were for other rankings.
“We’re deeply concerned that we are going backwards in our goal. We have 31 women in the council. We don’t feel that we’ll have 31 women next year,” said Ebonie Simpson, executive director of The New Majority NYC. “We do hope we can maintain the majority, but we’re unclear if that will happen either.” The first round of endorsements were shared exclusively with City & State.
While the City Council primary election isn’t until June 24 and the general election not until Nov. 4, the New Majority NYC generally releases its endorsements relatively early in the cycle. That’s to give the organization more time to support candidates through the petitioning process so they can secure their spot on the ballot and to help them build ground support through canvassing, fundraising and collaborating with other organizations to help them be as “visible and known as possible,” according to Simpson. Newer candidates will also be matched with mentors to lend them further guidance and support. Endorsement decisions were made based on campaign professionalism, candidate viability (particularly through the lens of fundraising), their understanding of local, district and city-wide policy, and their alignment with the New Majority NYC’s values. The organization did not endorse any of the four Republican women incumbents in the council.
https://www.cityandstateny.com/politics/2025/02/new-majority-nyc-drops-slate-city-council-2025-endorsements/403055/?oref=csny-category-lander-river