A filing with the New York City Campaign Finance Board (CFB) indicates that Bronx Borough President Vanessa Gibson might have some competition at her podium next year.
Current Bronx Council Member Rafael Salamanca Jr. — who represents District 17 in the South Bronx — has joined the city Campaign Finance Program as a participant for the 2025 citywide elections in the race for Bronx borough president.
While being a participant in the program doesn’t mean a potential candidate has officially launched a campaign, it does “mean the candidate opened a campaign committee so they can raise and spend money,” according to CFB Press Secretary Tim Hunter.
Salamanca told the Bronx Times in a Feb. 6 statement that he still hasn’t officially decided whether or not to run for borough president.
“While I have yet to make any final decisions regarding the borough presidency, setting up an exploratory committee allows me to continue to have important conversations with my family, my team and the wonderful people who call the Bronx home, before I commit to anything,” he said. “When the time is appropriate, I will let Bronxites know what will be next in store for me after my term in the City Council ends.”
Michael Ivory, Borough President Gibson’s director of communications, confirmed with the Bronx Times on Feb. 6 that Gibson will be running for re-election in 2025. Gibson is listed as a participant in the Bronx borough president race alongside Salamanca and Bryan Hodge Vasquez — who according to LinkedIn and CFB is currently an intern at the New York City Council who ran an unsuccessful campaign for the seat in 2021.
Salamanca got his start in borough politics as the district manager for Bronx Community Board 2, where he stayed in the same position for nearly six years, according to his council biography. The Longwood progressive won the District 17 council seat in a 2016 special election following the resignation of Maria del Carmen Arroyo in 2015. He went on to secure his first full term in 2017 before winning reelection again in 2021 and again in 2023.
Salamanca also launched his first bid for Bronx borough president in 2021, but later dropped out to focus on his City Council reelection. According to reporting by Politico Playbook, challengers to incumbent borough presidents are rare, but Salamanca could have the profile to make next year’s race a close one.
Gibson made history in 2021 as the first woman and first Black person to hold the Bronx borough president title — the first non-Latinx person in office in 35 years. Her come up in politics included time as a state assembly member in 2009 and then as a City Council member starting in 2013.
Gibson is heading into 2025 with more than $176,000 already, according to CFB’s Campaign Finance Program.
Salamanca, on the other hand — who is term-limited out of his council seat at the end of next year — hasn’t raised any funds for 2025 as of Feb. 6, CFB records show.
While Bronxites will still have to wait to see if he launches a BP campaign, he told the Bronx Times his tenure on the council has been a fulfilling part of his political journey.
“Serving as a member of the New York City Council for the last eight years, representing the community I have called home my entire life and am now raising my family in, has been the greatest honor of my professional career,” Salamanca said.
Reach Camille Botello at cbotello@schnepsmedia.com. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
