Dis­trict 3 Sends a Mes­sage to Mam­dani

Originally posted at: https://www.magzter.com/stories/news/Newsweek-US/DISTRICT-3-SENDS-A-MESSAGE-TO-MAMDANI?

Newsweek US, May 22, 2026

City Coun­cil Dis­trict 3 cov­ers Man­hat­tan’s West Side, takes in the site of the 1969 Stone­wall riots and has been rep­res­en­ted by an openly gay coun­cil mem­ber since 1991. So when New York City Mayor Zohran Mam­dani endorsed a straight can­did­ate for the seat, the res­ult was per­haps pre­dict­able. The endorse­ment wasn’t.

In his first real test of polit­ical endorse­ment power since tak­ing office, Mam­dani backed Lind­sey Boylan in a high-pro­file spe­cial elec­tion for the dis­trict. Boylan, a mem­ber of the Demo­cratic Social­ists of Amer­ica and the first woman to pub­licly accuse former Gov­ernor Andrew

Cuomo of sexual har­ass­ment, was trounced. Carl Wilson, endorsed by Coun­cil Speaker Julie Menin, took roughly 43 per­cent of first-choice votes to Boylan’s 26 per­cent. That is a sig­ni­fic­ant mar­gin in any race. In this one, it was a rebuke.

Wilson will be the fifth openly gay coun­cil mem­ber to hold the seat. Boylan would have been the first straight per­son to do so.

Mam­dani’s LGBTQ+ cre­den­tials are not in dis­pute. What is, is his polit­ical antenna. Endors­ing a straight can­did­ate for a seat that has been a sym­bol of LGBTQ+ polit­ical power for more than 30 years struck many voters—and act­iv­ists—as a major mis­step.

“The mayor under­es­tim­ated gay power,” vet­eran gay rights act­iv­ist Allen Roskoff told City & State. Accord­ing to the news organ­iz­a­tion, Mam­dani’s decision was made on the advice of his close polit­ical adviser Mor­ris Katz. Four people with know­ledge of the mayor’s strategy spoke to the out­let; one described being “thor­oughly baffled” by the move.

The res­ult was widely read as a proxy battle between Mam­dani and Menin, who have clashed over the city’s budget. A Demo­cratic primary is sched­uled for the per­man­ent seat on June 23, so a rematch looms. Wilson now enters as the incum­bent and the clear favor­ite. But for Mam­dani, the cal­cu­la­tion has changed: Back Boylan again and risk a second pub­lic defeat, or quietly step away and con­cede that Dis­trict 3 plays for another team and was never his to call.