Perception is often not reality. In politics, narratives can dominate a race, but in the end, getting more votes than your opponent is the most tangible and real sign of success.
The perception leading into a loaded June 27 primary for the District 13 City Council seat was that incumbent Councilmember Marjorie Velázquez was perhaps vulnerable due to vocal backlash regarding her about-face over the controversial Bruckner rezoning project in October 2022.
But the reality was that Velázquez and Democratic voters were generally unaffected by the criticisms levied against her by the sea of City Council hopefuls in both the Democratic and Republican primaries.
On Tuesday, Velázquez secured the Democratic nomination overwhelmingly receiving 67% of the total vote, while none of her three challengers — who ran to the right of the incumbent — eclipsed 20%, according to unofficial numbers from the city Board of Elections.
Community Board 11 chair Bernadette Ferrera, a conservative Democrat who characterized Velázquez as a “woke progressive” throughout the campaign, ran a distant second with 19% of the vote, while former female district leader for the 80th Assembly District Irene Estrada and perennial candidate John Perez garnered 7% and 5% of the vote, respectively.
In front of roughly 50 or so supporters at her watch party at the Bronx Democrats Headquarters in Indian Village, Velázquez touted her campaign and the communities she represents from Throggs Neck to City Island as one that welcomes, and not limits, diversity.
“There are people out there that want to define this community and give a narrative, a false narrative, about what this community is about. “This (campaign) is about diversity,” she said. “It’s about believing that faith will always triumph over fear. They want to scare us out of being together by saying ‘hey, you’re not my kind’ and you can’t run (for office). But we’re better than that.”
District 13 — which encompasses the aforementioned neighborhoods of Throggs Neck and City Island, as well as Pelham Bay, Van Nest and Morris Park — had by far the borough’s most competitive slate of races.
While turnout was fairly poor throughout the borough and city — less than 5% of voters citywide participated in the early voting period this primary cycle — roughly 3,920 votes were cast in the District 13 Democratic primary.
For some voters like Morris Park resident Maria Aguiera, a trip to the ballot box in support of Velázquez was “important” in repudiating what, she believes, are challengers that didn’t represent the core values of the district.
“I didn’t like the rhetoric of the other candidates, to be frank,”Aguiera told the Bronx Times Tuesday morning. “This idea and concept that we are this. It’s a loud and vocal minority that needed to be shut down … I think (Velázquez) knows she has the genuine support of this district.”
While Velázquez will get the opportunity for a second term this November, her general election opponent may not be determined for a few days.
At one point, roughly six people threw their name into consideration for the Republican primary. However, only three candidates — retired telecom specialist George Havranek, radiologist Kristy Marmorato and business owner Samantha Zherka — made the June 27 ballot.
By the time Velázquez and her team declared victory minutes before the 10 p.m. hour, the Republican primary was in a dead-heat between Marmorato and Havranek, with the former ending the night with a narrow lead of 48% to 44%.
Due to ranked-choice voting, the Republican primary will head into round two to determine the nominee, without opponent Hasime “Samantha” Zherka, who only secured 8% of the vote.
After coming up short in a bid for the Democratic nomination in 2017, Velázquez won the District 13 seat in 2021, but her GOP opponent Aleksander Mici secured 45% of the vote, showing a competitive avenue for Republicans in the district.
A Bronx Times analysis of the voting data from Tuesday night’s Democratic primary totaled 2,594 votes for the incumbent. However, 1,326 Democratic voters did opt for an alternative candidate — and factoring in the 1,817 total votes cast in the razor-thin GOP primary — a possible pathway in November may exist for Republicans, if they can pick up the majority of those alternate-to-Velázquez votes.
Though 61.5% of active voters in District 13 were registered Democrats in 2021, the district voted 48.5% in favor of Republican Curtis Sliwa in the mayoral election the same year, a slight edge over Eric Adams’ 47.4%. Adams easily won the citywide race though, landing him in Gracie Mansion.
But Velázquez said she’s not focused on the rhetoric of her opponents within her party or whichever candidate will appear opposite of her on the Nov. 7 general election ballot.
“There are a lot of narratives out there that want to be divisive, that really just want to say because you’re ‘XYZ,’ we can’t mix, we can’t talk we can’t share a table,” she told the Bronx Times. “Guess what, we can, and we can move past that to really dig deep as to the resources, the community needs, the infrastructure … for the Bronx which has long been forgotten.”
One of the incumbent’s biggest backers, Carpenters for Progress, said it supported the Velázquez campaign from an “aggressive primary challenge” from the right, using their independent expenditures to highlight Ferrera’s past as a Republican through political ads.
— Christian Falcone and Emily Forgash contributed to this report
This article was updated on June 28 at 2:27 p.m.
