June 24 (UPI) -- The polls are closed in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary, with progressive state Rep. Zohran Mamdani leading in the first round of ranked-choice voting over former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who conceded "tonight is not our night."
With the first round of counting Tuesday night mostly complete, no candidate was on track to hit 50%, which means the race will turn to New York's ranked-choice voting. In the first round, Mamdani had 43.6% of the first-choice votes to Cuomo's 36.1%. Brad Lander received the third-most first-choice votes at 11.5%, according to the Board of Elections.
"Tonight was not our night; tonight was Assemblyman's Mamdani's night," Cuomo told his supporters, adding he still needed to "look at all the numbers as they come in."
"He deserved it. He won," Cuomo conceded.
Primary elections in New York City use ranked-choice voting, allowing voters to express their preferences beyond just a single choice in an effort to prevent runoff elections. The candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated first, until one candidate secures 50% of the votes. New York City's last mayoral primary took several weeks to be decided.
According to returns released by the Board of Elections, Tuesday's turnout was high with more than 930,000 New Yorkers casting a ballot as of 7:30 p.m. EDT. More than 384,000 cast their ballot during early voting last week, which is more than double the number of early votes during the 2021 primaries for mayor.
After the polls closed, Mamdani called Tuesday in a post on X, "the dawn of a new era in New York City. And we will win it together."
Temperatures reached into the triple digits Tuesday, hitting 102 degrees at John F. Kennedy International Airport, as voters in New York City braved the heat to cast their ballots. One polling site in Brooklyn had no air conditioning, leaving it up to poll workers to bring their own electric fans from home as New York's Board of Elections provided only paper fans.
"I went to the management office and they said they didn't convert it from heat to A/C. The air conditioning system wasn't converted," said a poll coordinator at the Taylor Wythe Community Center polling site. "It was supposed to be converted in April."
One voter criticized New York City's government for not doing better.
"Where are my tax dollars going?" said a woman, who did not want to give her name. "It's 2025, who lets people work in this heat with no A/C?"
The turnout and interest in the Democratic race for New York City's mayor hit new heights over the past few months with the two very different frontrunners.
Mamdani, 33, has been a New York State representative for the 36th district of Queens since 2021. During his run for mayor, Mamdani has called for free city buses, public child care, a rent freeze and affordable housing. He has received endorsements from progressive politicians, including Democrats Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, and he has been accused of being anti-Semitic while arguing he is only holding Israel accountable.
If elected, Mamdani would become New York City's first Muslim mayor. He has criticized a super PAC, backing Cuomo, for being Islamophobic for altering images of him in a campaign mailer.
"Fix the City" PAC defended the mailers.
"Every Fix the City ad and mailer presents Mr. Mamdani unaltered; the photos, policies and plans are his," said Liz Benjamin, a spokesperson for the PAC.
"When you strip away his Hollywood tinsel, what you realize is that Mr. Mamdani has repeatedly embraced the rhetoric of hate," Benjamin added. "It is far past time to disavow his own calls to 'globalize the intifada,' which many understood is an invitation to violence."
Cuomo, 67, resigned as governor of New York in 2021 after more than a dozen women accused him of sexual harassment. Last month, the Justice Department launched a criminal investigation into the former governor over accusations he lied to Congress about the number of nursing home deaths in the state during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Tuesday, Cuomo urged New Yorkers to vote early to beat the heat in a post on X.
"It's Election Day. Together, we will save our city," Cuomo wrote.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams was not on Tuesday's ballot since he is running for re-election as an Independent after dropping out of the Democratic primary in April.
"No such thing as a slow day in NYC! Temps hitting 100 degrees, so we're keeping everyone cool and healthy. Primary Day across the five boroughs," Adams wrote Tuesday in a post on X. "Drink your water and stay cool, everyone."
