Carl Wilson Declares Victory in City Council Special Election

By Arthur Schwartz

(L-R) Julie Menin, Erik Bottcher, Carl Wilson and Mark Levine celebrate the City Council election’s first count. Photo courtesy of Julie Menin.

Carl Wilson has declared victory in the closely watched special election for Manhattan’s District 3 City Council seat, which runs west of 6th Avenue, from Houston Street to 55th Street, defeating Lindsey Boylan, who was endorsed by Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Unofficial election night results from the city’s Board of Elections (BOE) showed Wilson with a commanding lead, securing nearly 43.08% of the vote with more than 6,129 ballots cast in his favor and 99% of scanners reporting. Boylan followed with 25.66% (3,650 votes).

For Wilson to reach the 50% threshold to officially win, the BOE will move to the ranked voting choice round, with tabulation expected to get underway after May 1.

“This is just the beginning. Winning an election is not the finish line, it is the starting point,” Wilson told supporters gathered in VERS bar in Hell’s Kitchen. “Now the real work begins, the work of showing up every single day, the work of listening, especially when it’s difficult, the work of building coalitions and delivering real results for our communities.”

Wilson will be sworn in to the City Council after the results are ratified, but will need to win the June 23 Democratic primary and the November general election in order to serve a full four-year term. Wilson was endorsed by all four of his immediate predecessors, including former Council speakers Christine Quinn and Corey Johnson, and several of the district’s political clubs.

A political action committee tied to Andrew Cuomo allies poured six-figure sums into ads attacking Boylan and supporting Wilson, her main opponent, New York Focus reported. Boylan was the first woman to accuse her then boss, Cuomo, of sexual harassment

That group, Westside Progress, reported spending $144,500 starting mid-April on ads, texts and phone calls supporting Wilson. This was more than Boylan spent on her own campaign. “Don’t rank socialist Lindsey Boylan,” read one of the online ads, an apparent nod to her status as a dues-paying member of the Democratic Socialists of America, which did not endorse her.

Approximately 15,000 voters in the 3rd Council District cast their ballots, about half the amount that cast their ballots in the June 2025 mayoral primary. Still, turnout was high for a special election, where the number of ballots cast generally hovers below 10,000.