After a dominant showing on election night, Carl Wilson is poised to become the next representative of Manhattan’s 3rd City Council District, finishing 17 points ahead of runner-up Lindsey Boylan after the first round of voting.
Boylan conceded after first-round results showed Wilson with 43.08% of the vote to her 25.66%. District Leader Layla Law-Gisiko finished a strong third, at 20.05%, followed by CB 4 Chair Leslie Boghosian-Murphy with 10.72%. The final outcome will be determined through a ranked-choice tabulation on May 4.
More than 14,000 residents across the district—which includes the West Village, Chelsea, and Hell’s Kitchen—cast ballots in the April 28 election.
Wilson previously served as chief of staff to former City Councilmember Erik Bottcher, who resigned in February to replace Brad Hoylman-Sigal in the State Senate, setting the stage for April’s special election. His victory continues a tradition of the district being represented by a member of the LGBTQ+ community.
In June, there will be a primary to determine candidates for November’s general election where a councilperson will be elected for a full four year term.
Across the district’s 90 election districts, Wilson and Boylan placed first or second in most areas. However, Law-Gisiko outperformed both Wislon and Boylan by wide margins in districts that include the Fulton-Elliott NYCHA complex and the Penn South housing development.
“The tenants supported me because I am the only candidate who ran on public housing and with a clear anti-demolition, anti-privitization message,” Law-Gisiko told The Star-Revue. “I think it’s going to be very difficult for anyone who’s in office to ignore their voices now.”
Swept public housing districts
Law-Gisiko made opposition to the proposed demolition and redevelopment of the Fulton-Elliott Chelsea complex central to her campaign. On election day, she would win some of these districts with as much as 84% of the total vote, an outcome Law-Gisiko attributes to her singular focus on the desire of public housing tenants to preserve their homes.
“My message to the Mamdani administration and to the next City Councilmember is to come to the table and have a real, honest conversation about public housing,” Law-Gisiko said. “We have to see that there is a path where public housing remains public, rather than claiming that nothing can be done and giving it away to private developers.”
The race drew increased attention in its final weeks after Mayor Zohran Mamdani endorsed Boylan one day before early voting began, turning the contest into what many viewed as a proxy battle between Mamdani and City Council Speaker Julia Menin, who had endorsed Wilson months earlier.
The endorsement marked a gamble for the freshman mayor as he seeks to maintain the influence of his backing ahead of upcoming primaries, where he hopes to elect allies across city, state, and federal offices. His support in Manhattan is less widespread than in parts of Brooklyn and Queens along the East River—sometimes referred to as the “commie corridor”—where he defeated Andrew Cuomo in last year’s election and where many of the city’s socialist elected officials are based.
“A few years ago I met Lindsey Boylan when she was the first woman to stand up to Andrew Cuomo’s sexual harassment,” Mamdani said in a video message posted to Instagram urging supporters to turn out for Boylan.
PAC spending an issue
Wilson led the field in independent expenditures—campaign communications funded by third parties not coordinating with candidates. In the final two weeks alone, Westside Progress spent $147,532 backing his campaign, adding to $145,000 from Carpenters for Progress and $163,087 from United for NYC’s Future, groups associated with the carpenters and teachers unions, respectively.
By comparison, the only other independent expenditure came from the Working Families Party PAC, which spent $25,000 supporting Boylan.
“A tremendous amount of money flowed into the campaign of one of my opponents and that definitely influenced the results,” Law-Gisiko told The Star-Revue.
One of Wilson’s first major decisions as a City Council member will be whether to override the mayor’s veto of a bill mandating the NYPD to establish “buffer zones” between educational facilities and protesters, legislation championed by Menin. Wilson was the only candidate in the race who said he would vote to override the veto.
