Eric Mann is in conversation with James Burke about lessons learned from the Just-Concluded New York City Mayor and City Council Elections:

- On June 22nd, New Yorkers voted across the state in primary races

New York City the largest city council in the U.S. (51 council members) voted to elected a new Mayor, new council members, borough presidents, District Attorney, and Comptroller

- DSA and progressive/left groups worked from Buffalo to Brooklyn to elect socialist candidates aligned with Defund the Police, Green New Deal, and other key issues like social housing and funding for mass transportation

- New York City voters experimented with Ranked Choice Voting which for the first time allowed voters to choose up to 5 candidates on their ballots

- AOC and her affiliated PAC made key endorsements but failed to win the Mayor's race in which Eric Adams and former NYPD officer won on a campaign built on public safety

- Progressive organizations put forward various slates of City Council endorsements, often overlapping in their endorsements. In some cases, as with the Working Families Party and the Democratic Socialists, an endorsement comes with different types of institutional support, from strategy consulting to volunteers to fundraising assistance.

- The New York City Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), meanwhile, supported only six candidates in separate Council districts, concentrating resources on those who explicitly identify as socialists and noting that “12% of the City Council could be socialist.”

Despite progressives losing the NYC Mayor's race in Buffalo, India Walton is on the path to becoming the mayor of Buffalo, New York – the first socialist mayor elected to a US city since 1960, when mayor Frank Zeidler of Milwaukee, Wisconsin left office.

James Burke, a long-time organizer in Harlem who worked on city council races will offer his insights into the role of progressives trying to impact the electoral arena and answer Eric’s and your questions.