Labor leader Shirley Aldebol has won the Democratic nomination for City Council District 13, defeating five other candidates after ranked-choice voting results were tabulated on Tuesday.
Aldebol, a vice president with the influential 32BJ SEIU union, emerged as the party’s nominee with 55.6% of the vote in the final round of ranked-choice tallies, besting runner-up Jacqueline J. Torres, who finished with 44.4%.
The win positions Aldebol to face Republican Council Member Kristy Marmorato in the November general election. Marmorato made history in 2023 when she became the first Republican to win a City Council seat in the Bronx in decades, unseating then-incumbent Democrat Marjorie Velázquez in a stunning upset.
“I’m excited,” Aldebol told the Bronx Times just minutes after the results were tabulated. “We ran a tough race and worked hard,” she said, noting that it was a challenge competing against five other candidates.
“We talked to voters, and we listened to them across the district,” she said. “But I feel we have a lot of work still to do, and it hasn’t ended today.”
Aldebol led the field of six candidates in both first-choice votes and campaign fundraising. Backed by the Bronx Democratic Party and organized labor, she secured 29.9% of first-choice votes, followed by Torres (20.8%), David A. Diaz (18.7%), John Perez (13.3%), Joel R. Rivera (10.5%), and Theona S. Reets-Dupont (6.1%).
Because no candidate received more than 50% of first-choice votes, the city’s ranked-choice system kicked in. Candidates were eliminated round by round, with their votes redistributed based on voter preferences, until Aldebol crossed the majority threshold.
District 13 includes key East Bronx neighborhoods such as Morris Park, Throggs Neck, Pelham Bay, Van Nest, and City Island. Although 62% of registered voters in the district are Democrats, Marmorato’s victory in 2023 underscored growing dissatisfaction with the status quo and concerns over development and public safety.
With Aldebol officially advancing to November, the race is now set between a labor-backed progressive and a Republican incumbent aiming to hold onto rare GOP ground in an overwhelmingly Democratic borough.
