Results: Public Advocate Special Election

NYC's New Public Advocate Is Jumaane Williams.

Former City Councilman Jumaane Williams defeated 16 candidates yesterday to become New York City’s fifth public advocate.

New Yorkers cast their ballots in a special election yesterday that was triggered in January when Letitia James left the office to become the state attorney general.  It was New York City's first city wide special election. 

According to Board of Elections, Democrat Jumaane Williams won with 33 percent of the vote.  He received 133,809 votes. 

Queens City Councilman Republican Eric Ulrich, came in second with 77,026 votes.  Former City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito came in 3rd with 44,158 votes and Bronx Assemblyman Michael Blake came in 5th with 33,198 votes. 

THE RESULTS*: 

Jumaane Williams (It's Time Let's Go): 33.3% 

Eric Ulrich (Common Sense): 19.2%

Melissa Mark-Viverito (Fix the MTA): 11%

Michael Blake (For The People): 8.3%

Ydanis Rodriguez (Unite Immigrants): 6.1%

Dawn Smalls (No More Delays): 4.1%

Rafael Espinal Jr. (Livable City): 3.2%

Daniel O'Donnell (Equality For All): 2.9%

Ron Kim (No Amazon): 2.8%

Daniel O'Donnell (Equality For All): 2.85%

Benjamin Yee (Community Strong): 2.6%

Nomiki Konst (Pay Folks More): 2.3%

Helal A. Sheikh (Friends of Helal): 1.3%

David Eisenbach (Stop REBNY): 0.8%

Manny Alicandro (Better Leaders): 0.7%

Anthony Tony Herbert (Residents First): 0.7%

Latrice Walker (Power Forward): 0.6%

Jared Rich (Jared Rich for NYC): 0.2%

*99 percent of the scanners reporting

THE JOB:

The Public Advocate's office is the second most powerful position in the city and is seen by many as a stepping stone to be Mayor.  

The office of New York City Public Advocate is a citywide elected position, along with mayor and comptroller,  in New York City.  They are first in line to succeed the mayor.  The office serves as a watchdog, for all New Yorkers.

The Public Advocate has also served as a “stepping stone” for politicians to be elected to higher posts.  For example, one-time Public Advocate Bill de Blasio was elected mayor in 2013 and his successor, Letitia James, won the office of NY State Attorney General last year.   

The position was created by the city’s 1989 Charter Revision Commission, watch to learn more about what the public advocate does and why the position was created.  

{% video_player "embed_player" overrideable=False, type='scriptV4', hide_playlist=True, viral_sharing=False, embed_button=False, width='1280', height='720', player_id='7768135410', style='' %}