One hot Election Day: Queens votes for mayor, city council under blistering heat

Queens voted on one hot Election Day on Tuesday. Eagle photo by Noah Powelson

By Ryan Schwach, Noah Powelson and Celia Bernhardt

Across New York City and Queens voters went to the polls as the temperature outside hit triple-digits.

Despite the dangerous, record breaking heat, thousands turned out to voting sites in every corner of the World’s Borough to vote in an equally hot mayoral race and a handful of notable local races.

Poll sites were slow in the morning, but gradually got busier through the early afternoon, with a lot of voters telling Eagle reporters they wanted to come out before the hottest hours of the day.

At the top of the ballot and in everyone’s mind was the mayor’s race, which was firmly between Queens-born former Governor Andrew Cuomo and Queens Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani.

More locally, Queens voters were tapped into the races for three open seats in the borough, all have seen a flood of money and endorsements, and all are almost entirely up for grabs.

As of 3 p.m., over 710,000 New Yorkers voted between Election Day and early voting. In Queens, 142,693 voted so far, along with 216,566 in Manhattan, 68,872 in the Bronx, 261,046 in Brooklyn and 21,681 in Staten Island.

Succeeding a speaker, and a mayoral bellwether

In Southeast Queens, a neighborhood that some see has a bellwether for the mayor’s race – five are in a race for an open council seat.

Tyrell Hankerson, Japneet Singh, Ruben Wills, Latoya LeGrand and Romeo Hitlall are all running for District 28, which is being vacated by City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, who is also running for mayor.

All the candidates the Eagle spoke to on Tuesday felt good about their chances, particularly the two who are arguably the front runners for the seat; Hankerson and Singh.

“I am optimistic,” said Hankerson, the district chief of staff for Adams who is running with his boss’ blessing. “I'm optimistic about my campaign, I'm optimistic about her campaign. You know the both of us, we put it all out there, and we're believers. We trust God.”

“I believe that folks have resonated with our message,” he added.

Around the corner at the same polling site in South Ozone Park, Singh was handing out flyers.

“People are tired of the same old politics,” he said.

Singh, who has run for office before, is running as an insurgent candidate and had criticized Hankerson for riding Adams’ "coattails" and taking money from special interests.

“The same old politician is kind of really fragmenting our communities,” Singh said.

Alternatively, Hankerson is running on his long record in Adams’ office and community work before that.

“I’m not a Johnny-come-lately,” he said.

At the Thurgood Marshall Magnet School of Media and Communications in the shadow of Rochdale Village, voters seemed split between the two candidates.

“I think it was a tough choice for city council between Ty Hankerson and Japneet Singh, who's been campaigning really heavily around the neighborhood,” said local Sharon E., who wouldn’t say who she voted for. “Ty Hankerson is from Rochdale, and he's done a lot, but it was a really tough choice.”

Sharon said she saw Singh campaigning a lot, but also knew about Hankerson’s history in the area.

She said she votes every year, and was concerned – with the local race and mayor’s race in mind – with affordability, housing and crime.

“I wanted someone who was going to be fiscally balanced while at the same time tackling some of those issues that are near and dear to me,” she said about the mayor’s race.

Singh got a vote from Mia Amie, a native New Yorker who also voted for Mamdani.

“I have lived here in New York my entire life…so candidates who have been very vocal about making New York affordable for actual New Yorkers, they've been at the top of my mind,” she said

Amie said that her vote was heavily motivated by where the candidates got their campaign funding.

City Council District 28 candidate Japneet Singh campaigns in South Ozone Park Eagle photo by Ryan Schwach

“It makes me think about who their loyalty will be to primarily when they're in office,” she said.

The weather wasn’t much of a factor for her, though.

“There's still a somewhat decent breeze,” she said. “I can't say what it's going to look like in an hour, but I got in and out pretty early.”

She also voted Kevin Parker for comptroller, and Jumaane Williams for public advocate.

The weather definitely wasn't stopping Sheldon Melville, a Cuomo voter who said he is rooting for whoever gets elected.

“Just keep hydrated, I come from a country where the heat is worse,” he said, speaking of his native Trinidad. “We have this 365 days a year.”

The Rochdale resident added that although he felt Cuomo has “faults,” he said the former governor will be someone who fights for locals.

Tucker James, an 82-year-old Rochdale resident who was shot three times after he parachuted into Vietnam, had some unique political takes as hot as the weather.

“If you are a successful politician, you have to be a crook,” he said, “You have to be a good liar.”

For him, that candidate was Cuomo.

“I think he's a crook, he did some things he shouldn't have done,” Tucker said. “I think he would probably do a better job in protecting New York from Trump than the others, because he was the governor.”

The weather wasn’t any cooler in South Ozone Park, where Singh along with Wills, who formerly represented the district, went back and forth with a poll worker over where they could stand.

The duo brought out a tape measure.

Alia Nasim, a voter at that site, didn’t need a tool to figure out who she was voting for.

“I just knew that I wanted to rank Zohran first,” she said. “I didn't want to rank Cuomo at all. I made sure everyone that was living with knew. I just want a better, more affordable New York.”

Voting with her mother, Nasim said she voted in all the local races, including Hankerson for the council.

“We're definitely getting priced out,” she said. “There's McMansions that are going up all the time. People are not able to afford homes in this neighborhood anymore.”

Jackson Heights and East Elmhurst are tuned into the mayor’s race

There is a tight council race in District 21 between Erycka Montoya, Shanel Thomas-Henry, Yanna Henriquez and David Aiken Jr., all vying to replace the term limited Fransico Moya.

But, voters were more hotly tuned into the mayoral contest.

At the Christopher A. Santora School in Jackson Heights, Ali Abidi said he voted Mamdani one, and Lander two.

"We do need a populist candidate that's left, progressive and that actually represents what the city needs and where it needs to go,” he said. "The 'cool factor' of New York is partly because it was actually progressive or a place where progressives came. I feel like that hasn't been true for a really long time."

Abidi said he felt "disillusioned" in recent years, and was kickstarted by Mamdani’s campaign.

He said affordability, child care, and a rent freeze are his priorities.

Abidi said he didn’t do much to check out the local races.

“I only had the bandwidth for one race,” he said, adding he left the comptroller and judge races blank.

Although he had similar worries about the Trump Administration, John Mulvey said Cuomo was more adept to handle it.

Former Governor Andrew Cuomo casts his vote in Manhattan. Andrew Cuomo/X

"As a Democrat, I think we need candidates who are able to withstand the federal government that we have now,” he said. “In the city, quality of life, crime, crime in the subways, people not paying to get on buses, petty crimes, people stealing from the small shops. I think we need a strong candidate that can address these issues."

Although, he admitted he isn’t really a fan of the former governor.

"For the mayor it was really difficult," he said. "I do not like Cuomo, personally I think he's a pig. But I think he's got the credentials, I think he's got the strong hand and he's definitely got the background to run this city."

He also said he didn’t pay much attention to the local race.

Over at another site in East Elmhurst, standing up to Trump was still a priority.

"My most important issue? Someone who's gonna sock it to the president," said retired social worker Ludy Herrera.

She said that Cuomo would do just that to his Queens-born kin, and cited his response to COVID.

"During the pandemic...Cuomo was the best thing that ever came up,” she said. “I used to watch him every single day to see what he had to say. And I firmly believe that he was helpful in getting us through the pandemic."

She bubbled in Eve Cho Guillergan for Civil Court, and Councilmember Justin Brannan for comptroller.

Some voters in East Elmhurst had some help with the downballot races.

Christian Santiago, an actor and restaurant server, used an Instagram cheat sheet that recommended local progressive candidates.

"It helps you rank based on what you believe in,” he said.

He didn’t say who he voted for, but Montoya is backed by the progressive Working Families Party.

He also said he voted for Mamdani.

Queens Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani campaigns on Election Day. Zohran Mamdani/X 

"I'm doing it for my future," he said. "The way the city has gotten corrupt over the years, I just want rent prices to get lower. My current situation right now is not really affected by that, but where I want to be in the future, the prices are really affected by who your mayor is.”

Battling on the corners, battling the heat in District 30

In District 30, teacher’s union operative Dermot Smyth, roller hockey league founder Paul Pogozelski and Bob Holden staffer Phil Wong are all running to replace the term-limited Holden.

Speaking with the Eagle, Smyth said he was confident about his chances.

“We’ve worked this area very hard,” Smyth said of Rego Park. “We’ve saturated the entire district. We’ve carved out a massive universe. We’ve mailed every week for the past 10 weeks.”

City Council District 30 candidate Dermot Smyth (left) campaigns with Queens Assemblymember Andrew Hevesi. Eagle photo by Celia Bernhardt

Wong also said he felt good on Election Day.

“It looks really good,” he said. “But we need everybody in Middle Village and Maspeth to come out to vote tonight.”

Pogozelski, who is running as more of an insurgent candidate, told the Eagle it was a “great day.”

“We are here battling it out corner by corner,” he said.

Meanwhile, voters in Ridgewood battled the heat.

Terry Leon, a 62-year-old voter, made it out to the polls to fill out what is expected to be a rare ballot – one that has Cuomo one, and Mamdani two.

“My family has always voted for Cuomo, and I think during the pandemic he handled it well,” she said. “He did what he could with the information he had during the time.”

Still, she added, she appreciated Mamdani as a fresh face in politics.

“I've seen a lot of his advertisements and campaigning, I feel that he's new leadership,” she said. “I feel that he does have a passion for New York. Cuomo…did lead in a good way, and [Mamdani], he's aspiring — I mean, he may need a chance as well.”

Ridgewood Voter James Santiago declined to share who exactly he voted for, but said he “went for younger and fresher ideas” when picking from candidates for both mayor and the council race.

“We live in a society where our cell phones update every week but yet our government and our way of believing how to treat others still seems the same,” he said. “It's never updated.”

Santiago said the biggest issue facing his family was the cost of rent, but that immigration policy and attitude towards diversity were also important to him. His 18-year-old daughter, he added, had a significant impact on his vote.

“Honestly, I haven't voted in quite some time,” he said. “But my daughter has been very much influential in getting [me] back on track. I was basically more liberal and democratic, but now I think it's time for us to be more progressive and open up our minds to other ways of handling government.”

Celia Madison, a Mamdani supporter who lived in Bushwick before Ridgewood, said she favored Pogozelski as a less financially-supported candidate.

“I had looked up some of the funding of the other candidates, and was very uncomfortable with some of those sources of funding,” Madison said of Wong and Smyth. “[I] picked the one that seemed like the most grassroots.”

Maspeth’s Frank Sansivieri School poll site saw lower turnout in the morning, with just 32 voters casting their ballots by 10 a.m. Poll workers said that although November’s general election certainly had more traffic, the site wasn’t extremely busy then, either.

One 70-year-old voter of the more conservative neighborhood said that she was ranking Cuomo first – but not enthusiastically.

“It’s simply a crapshoot. It’s all scary,” she said, describing the Mamdani as too radical for her to support. “I voted for Cuomo only because he’s the lesser of the two evils at this point.”

She was enthusiastic about Wong, though, citing his involvement in the local community and connection to Holden.

Signs for District 30 candidate Phil Wong in Maspeth. Eagle photo by Celia Bernhardt

“He’s been in the area the longest,” she said. “He went to this school …he has been working with people in the area to actually do the things that we need, and he’s been getting them done.”

Another Maspeth resident who declined to give his name also cast his vote for Cuomo, but chose Smyth in the downballot race.

“I went for Smyth because of my unions,” the former police officer said. “I was in the police union and I was in the labor union.”