Follow along with our up-to-date 2021 Vital Voters’ Guide.
With Mayor Bill de Blasio stepping down in November 2021 due to term limits, the race for the next mayor of New York City is on, and the playing field is packed.
The next New York City mayor will have their work cut out for them as they’ll be expected to lead the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic while tackling centuries of racial inequity in policing, education and health care.
As the 2021 June mayoral primaries inch closer, here are some of the candidates that are in the running to become the next New York City mayor:
Andrew Yang, Democrat
Current job title: Entrepreneur
Key issues: Education: On his campaign website, Andrew Yang wrote that if elected mayor, his plan would be to open schools and create bridge programming for students who need it. He wants to subsidize broadband and other tech solutions, scale up 3-K across the city and streamline regulatory approval for day care businesses. The Yang administration also says it plans to build and maintain a reliable and comprehensive transit network both above and below ground. Yang writes online that his plans are to launch the largest basic income program in history, invest in a human-centered economy and return to fact-based governance, while creating an accessible health care system in the city.
Eric Adams, Democrat
Current job title: Brooklyn Borough President
Key issues: On his campaign website, Eric Adams wrote that if elected mayor, his plan is to implement an aggressive affordable housing plan. Adams says that he will desegregate New York schools, institute a year-round school year, significantly expand school and instruction options, prioritize universal access to both online and in-person classes, feed kids only healthy food in schools and focus on the holistic growth of every student. He also proposed instituting a color-coded vaccination program to ensure New York reaches herd immunity and to vaccinate the most vulnerable New Yorkers as quickly as possible while expanding access to telehealth. Adams wants to build out a robust rapid-testing program and set up COVID-19 care centers in NYCHA complexes and in vacant storefronts in lower-income communities.
Scott Stringer, Democrat
Current job title: City Comptroller
Key issues: Stringer said that if elected mayor, he plans to strengthen the public health infrastructure to get New Yorkers vaccinated and safely to the other side of the pandemic and then overhaul the system to prepare for the next crisis. He said he’ll bring the economy back with a focus on supporting small businesses, putting New Yorkers back to work and training them for the jobs of tomorrow.
Maya Wiley, Democrat
Current job title: SVP of social justice and professor of urban policy at the New School
Key issues: Maya Wiley’s mayoral team wrote that if elected mayor, her plan will be to direct federal stimulus money and funds from new progressive revenue sources, which might include a pied-à-terre tax, a vacancy tax, a mansion tax and a stock transfer tax to address this problem holistically. The administration said it would partner with allies in Albany to ensure that New York City receives a proportionate share of the funds generated from these new revenue streams to adequately respond to the housing crisis.
Shaun Donovan, Democrat
Current job title: Director of the Office of Management and Budget
Key issues: Donovan writes that if elected mayor, his plan is to focus on repairing the systemic damage from COVID-19, while tackling pre-existing inequities to better serve all New York City students. He also plans to expand housing choice for all New Yorkers and work toward having more equitable and affordable housing across all five boroughs. Donovan wants to launch a true Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) for a faster and smarter bus network that reflects today’s of passenger needs.
Kathryn Garcia, Democrat
Current job title: Former Commissioner of the NYC Sanitation Department
Key issues: On her campaign website, Kathryn Garcia wrote that if elected mayor, she plans to ensure New York City’s public spaces serve the public first. She wants to take a bold approach to sidewalk and curbside use to improve quality of life, speed up buses and expand and better maintain our protected bike lane network. Garcia also wrote that she plans to focus the city’s housing agenda on outcomes. She wants to focus on reducing the number of people who are sleeping on the street, who are rent-burdened and who are residing in the city’s shelters.
Ray McGuire, Democrat
Current job title: Vice-chair of Citigroup
Key issues: Ray McGuire’s team writes that if elected mayor, he plans to bring back more than 50,000 jobs, at least half of which will be in small businesses. He plans on doing this by providing immediate financial support for struggling local businesses and streamlining permits, inspections and approvals to help businesses open or re-open quickly. McGuire’s plan also includes getting kids and teachers back in school quickly and safely. He wants to invest in social and emotional supports as well as mental health resources for students and families.
Dianne Morales, Democrat
Current job title: Executive Director and CEO of Phipps Neighborhoods
Key issues: As a Bed-Stuy native, single mother and proud daughter of Puerto Rican parents, Dianne Morales writes that she understands public housing and public schools. On her campaign website, Morales said that if elected mayor, her plan is to advocate for basic income relief for every household. She wants to launch NYC5000, a culturally-relevant health navigation strategy to connect uninsured, housing insecure and other vulnerable populations to COVID-19 education, testing and vaccines. She wants to advance a small-business recovery strategy, including grant support for entrepreneurs impacted by COVID-19. Part of Morales’ plan is to defund and decrease the NYPD’s power by removing them from schools and traffic enforcement and ensuring the next budget sees them defunded by at least $3 billion.
Fernando Mateo, Republican
Current job title: President of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers and spokesperson for the United Bodegas of America
Key issues: On his campaign website, Fernando Mateo wrote that if elected mayor, he plans to ensure public safety for all by taking guns off the streets of New York City. In 1998, Mateo became president of the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers. He secured a $5 million grant for installing bullet-proof partitions in taxis.
Isaac Wright, Democrat
Current job title: Lawyer
Key issues: Isaac Wright said that if elected mayor, he wants to focus on developing a joint revenue and cost-sharing partnership with NY state that leaves the day-to-day operation of all NYC public transportation to the people of NYC. For Wright, new projects, maintenance priority and prices should be controlled and set by the city to best serve NYC residents. This includes the creation of a comprehensive subsidized public transport program that ensures everyone has equal access to basic transportation.
Paperboy Prince, Democrat
Current job title: Rapper
Key issues: On his campaign website, Paperboy Prince wrote that if elected mayor, he’ll strive to have the federal government pay for the costs of individuals’ health care, if people desire. He wants to fight for universal and affordable access to health care.
Art Chang, Democrat
Current job title: Managing Director
Key issues: On his campaign website, Chang wrote that if elected mayor, his plan is to make each location a center for community care by establishing 8 a.m. – 6 p.m. child care, including during summers. Chang also has plans to build more housing and lower the costs for everyone by increasing the city’s portfolio of developable land, collecting and publishing data to demonstrate performance on all issues related to housing and facilitating the conversion of underutilized office space in commercial buildings to residential and other uses, including for the arts.
Stephen Bishop Seely, (?)
Key issues: On his campaign website, Bishop wrote that if elected mayor, he will take on the establishment and the city will prosper from his courage. He wants to unite NYC communities and the NYPD through a pilot program, Adopt-a-Cop. He also wants to raise the minimum wage so New Yorkers can live in New York. His plan also includes creating large incentives for mom & pop businesses and start ups and entice larger businesses to do their business in NYC.
Aaron Foldenauer, Democrat
Current job title: Volunteer Lawyer for the Underprivileged
Key issues: On his campaign website, Foldenauer wrote that if elected mayor, he will reopen schools five days a week. He plans to encourage outdoor learning when possible and turn vacant office spaces into classrooms to facilitate social distancing. He said that he will fight to expand charter schools and give them more physical space to provide adequate education to more children. Foldenauer wants to eliminate military-style ranks in the NYPD by eliminating the military-style currently given to officers, which will go a long way towards ending the militarized mentality that pervades the police.
Joycelyn Taylor, Democrat
Current job title: CEO of TaylorMade Contracting LLC
Key issues: On her campaign website, Taylor wrote that if elected mayor, she plans to build upon the NYC care program to provide no-cost health insurance to any New Yorker that needs it, including undocumented immigrants. She wants to expand NYC Care to include dental, vision and mental health, home health aides and reproductive health services at no cost. This also includes transgender-related health care such as hormone therapy and surgeries. Her plan also includes making COVID-19 testing permanently free and accessible. As mayor, Taylor wants to also reallocate funds into education and youth services, homelessness, mental health and health care. She wishes to end all broken window theory and quality-of-life policing.
Stacey Prussman, Libertarian
Current job title: Stand-up comedian, radio host
Key issues: Stacy Prussman said that if elected mayor, she will direct the NYC Department of Health to develop a new separate grading scale for establishments serving food and drink specific to airborne communicable diseases, such as COVID-19. Prussman wants to promote public safety by supporting police efforts in their efforts to combat violent crime and protect potentially vulnerable communities by instituting comprehensive police reform. She also is looking to expand the rent to own program to include all interested NYCHA residents.
Curtis Sliwa, Republican
Current job title: Founder and CEO of the Guardian Angels and radio-talk-show host
Key issues: More information on this candidate’s campaign focus is to come.
Ahsan Syed: (?)
Key issues: More information on this candidate’s campaign focus is to come.
Vitaly Filipchenko, Independent
Current job title: Small business owner
Key issues: Filipchenko wrote that if elected mayor, he would focus on cleaning up the streets and reimagining shared roadways. He wants to fight wage, gender, and racial discrimination in the workplace and support small businesses with rent law changes. Filipchenko also says that he wants to root out fraud and wasteful spending in city agencies and build back a greener, fairer city for low and middle-class income families. He wrote that he does not want to defund the police — but retrain and demilitarize.
Christopher Scott Krietchman, Independent
Current job title: Health & wellness entrepreneur
Key issues: On his campaign website, Krietchman wrote that if elected mayor, his plan is to take NYC “from cruel to kind” by implementing emotional & economic reform to create a healthy city. He wants to improve education by teaching wellness, financial, entrepreneurial, tech, creative & political literacy. He has plans to reduce class sizes to one teacher for every five students, which will require the launching of a retraining program that’ll create more jobs for tutors & teachers to work digitally. He also said that he wants to focus on economic innovation for all our communities by implementing programs focused on neighborhood innovation.
CANDIDATES WHO HAVE SUSPENDED THEIR CAMPAIGNS
Quanda Francis, Democrat — The Board of Elections no longer lists her as a candidate
Current job title: Accountant, Data Scientist, and the President of Sykes Capital Management
Key issues: Quanda Francis writes that if elected mayor, she plans to devise action plans that accelerate the return to pre-pandemic job market levels and pinpoint population segments that were unemployed, underemployed, and “discouraged” pre-pandemic to provide training, job/career preparation, and placement. Her plan consists of prioritizing digitalization and investing in building an efficient, secure, and transparent ecosystem in which a minimum of 75% of the city government’s services can be offered online.
Carlos Menchaca, Democrat — The Board of Elections no longer lists him as a candidate
Current job title: City Council member for Brooklyn’s 38th District
Key issues: Healthcare: On his campaign website, Carlos Menchaca wrote that if elected mayor, his plan is to build up New York’s public health infrastructure to meet the need for health and mental health services. During his first year as mayor if elected, he would propose that New York’s average hourly wage for a health care professional be increased by 25%, followed by further 25% increases over the next two years. Menchaca wants to fully fund public housing renewal and development, instead of turning to the private sector to increase housing supply for working families and the homeless.
Barbara Kavovit, Democrat — The Board of Elections no longer lists them as a candidate
Current job title: CEO and Founder of Evergreen Construction NYC
Key issues: Education: On her campaign website, Kavovit wrote that if elected mayor, she’ll focus on increasing experience requirements for school administrators, including a minimum of 10 years of teaching experience and ensure that teachers receive the support they deserve. She said that by investing in school technology, social services and after-school programs, every student can have a fair shot.
Guiddalia Emilien, Democrat — The Board of Elections no longer lists them as a candidate
Current job title: Real estate agent/ small-business owner
Key issues: Emilien wrote that if elected mayor, her mission will be to build more world-class schools where children from all zip codes and socioeconomic groups have the opportunity to compete and succeed. She wants to create an education system with a focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), critical thinking, entrepreneurship and the trades. Emilien also said that as mayor, she plans to to enact bold policies to confront the housing crisis head-on by creating a path to ownership for hard-working, middle to low-income New Yorkers. She wants to move past affordable rent and get people to affordable ownership.
Sara Tirschwell, Republican — The Board of Elections no longer lists her as a candidate
Current job title: Chief financial officer at Foundation House
Key issues: On her campaign website, Sara Tirschwell wrote that if elected mayor, her plan is to reform the real estate tax system to make it fair and easy to understand. She wants to advocate for amending or repealing the financial caps and other restrictions or limitations placed on building renovations and improvements and eliminate antiquated Department of Buildings rules pertaining to renovations. Tirschwell also is looking to institute collaborative accountability by expanding CORE facility inspections conducted by the SCOUT team to NYCHA developments, homeless shelters and other facilities currently not inspected by CORE.
Cleopatra Fitzgerald, Democrat — The Board of Elections no longer lists them as a candidate
Key issues: Fitzgerald writes that her campaign will focus on six key issues:
- Reducing corruption in every field
- Affordable Housing
- Reducing crimes throughout the boroughs
- Reducing forms of deficit.
- Increasing eco-friendly sectors
- Advantage plans for seniors, veterans, disabled, minorities and more.
Abbey Laurel-Smith, (?) — The Board of Elections no longer lists him as a candidate
Current job title: Painter, poet and defense industry operative
Key issues: On his campaign website, Laurel-Smith wrote that if elected mayor, he will avoid raising taxes on landlords, renters and business owners. He also said that he will float a public bond as a way to raise capital for the construction of a community “rail car” transportation system. This will be made to service areas where the subway and the buses left off in Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and all areas to the north of Central Park.
Garry Guerrier, Democrat — The Board of Elections no longer lists him as a candidate
Current job title: Registered nurse
Key issues: More information on this candidate’s campaign focus is to come.
Edward Cullen, Democrat — The Board of Elections no longer lists him as a candidate
Current job title: Deputy Campaign Manager for Karen Beltran
Key issues: More information on this candidate’s campaign focus is to come.
William Pepitone, Republican — The Board of Elections no longer lists him as a candidate
Current job title: Retired police officer
Key issues: William Pepitone wrote that if elected mayor, he will eliminate ineffective and inefficient political positions and invest those savings into classrooms and into computers, books and supplies. His plan also includes filling many office spaces that have been vacated, and bringing jobs in the food, garment and film industry back.
