Primary Winner Avilés Vows to Finish What She Started

City Council Member Alexa Avilés decisively won the Democratic primary for Council District 38, defeating moderate challenger Ling Ye with roughly 72% of the vote. Sunset Park’s progressive base turned out in force to keep Avilés in office.

While Ye identified herself as a progressive, her campaign was heavily backed by pro-Israel and developer PACs seeking to unseat Avilés. She criticized the councilmember for putting protest over practicality and for supporting efforts to defund the police.

Avilés, born in Puerto Rico and raised in East New York, leaned on strong support from immigrant communities and labor unions like 32BJ SEIU and 1199SEIU. She was also endorsed by the Working Families Party, Democratic Socialists of America, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Her grassroots campaign was powered by volunteers. Brandon Wu, a recent Georgetown University graduate and first-time canvasser, joined the effort in Sunset Park.

"I'm in it for the fight to build a better NYC,” Wu said. “I believe in building more affordability."

In an interview with the Sunset Post, Avilés outlined her priorities for the next term: "Over the next term, my focus will obviously be to see those projects that we started to completion. That requires pushing city agencies to stay on top of these things and move them."

She added: "If people believe that government can work for them then they want to participate. And for our communities, where the government hasn’t worked for them and many times worked against them, it’s important for me that they understand we can have one that works for us, can look like us, can be empathetic, and can do the right thing."

Avilés also emphasized her continued focus on affordability for New Yorkers, which she defines as "fighting for housing, universal childcare, making sure afterschool programs are there not just for folks that can afford them but for everyone." Other key areas include environmental justice and protecting immigrant New Yorkers.

She will face Luis Quero, the Republican and Conservative Party nominee, in the general election on November 4. Quero was unopposed in both party primaries, which were canceled.

Avilés’ team coordinated ground efforts in Sunset Park with Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign, which also succeeded in turning out young and immigrant voters.

In fact, Mamdani’s stunning upset in the citywide mayoral primary was another major win for New York’s left. The 33-year-old Assemblymember from Queens is poised to become the Democratic nominee after former Governor Andrew Cuomo—despite having vastly more funding and name recognition—conceded on election night.

Mamdani’s grassroots campaign deployed more than 50,000 volunteers and benefited from a ranked-choice alliance with Comptroller Brad Lander.

Both Mamdani and Avilés were part of a coordinated slate backed by the Working Families Party and local progressive organizers, and their shared victory was most evident in neighborhoods like Sunset Park where their canvassing teams worked side-by-side.

Mamdani is now the presumptive Democratic nominee and will face off in the general election against several candidates: incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, who is seeking reelection as an independent under either the "EndAntiSemitism" or "Safe&Affordable" party lines; Republican nominee and Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa; and possibly Cuomo, who is still considering a run on the "Fight and Deliver" independent line. Former federal prosecutor Jim Walden has also entered the race as a centrist on a separate independent line.

Unlike the ranked-choice primary, the general election will be decided by simple plurality, setting the stage for a potentially chaotic five-way contest for Gracie Mansion.

Elsewhere in Brooklyn, incumbent Borough President Antonio Reynoso held his seat against a challenge from Khari Edwards, while Public Advocate Jumaane Williams fended off Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar. In the race for city comptroller, Mark Levine defeated Brooklyn Councilmember Justin Brannan.

Tuesday’s results reaffirm Sunset Park’s position as a neighborhood where grassroots coalitions still shape the outcome of city politics.