I’ve been kind of confused about this whole thing. In the US, are even mayoral elections Democrat VS Republican? What happens if more than two people want to run for mayor?
This was a primary election so both major parties were fielding several candidates. The reality is no Republican is getting elected in NYC as long as we have free and fair elections in the USA so the democratic primary winner is the most likely person to win in November when the general election is held.
You are not obligated to run under a party in US elections. It just makes it easier to win.
My concern is that Cuomo is planning to run as an independent and my pessimism is telling me that somehow he might win. I mean no one thought Trump would win in 2016 or again in 2024, but here we are.
But the part of me that wants something to hold on to is desperately optimistic that this might be the start of the change.
If Cuomo runs as independent, I don’t think he comes close to winning but he definitely splits the vote which could push this Republican. Does the NY Mayoral race also use rank choice? If it does then evething should still be fine.
It depends. Some cities do nonpartisan elections (usually with some form of “jungle primary”), some cities do partisan ones. For the ones with partisan elections, there are often more than two parties, but parties other than the Republicans and Democrats rarely have a shot at office.
NY has a unique system in that it has a lot of parties, but many of them just endorse a candidate from one of the big 2 parties rather than running their own. This is why Cuomo isn’t entirely out of this thing yet, unfortunately; he conceded the Democratic nomination, but he still has the nomination from the Fight and Deliver party (which he, himself, founded specifically for this election) and may choose to continue to run as their candidate instead of dropping out.
It depends on the city. Mine (Madison, WI) doesn’t officially list any party affiliation for mayor or city alders. We also use a runoff election system, so we’re not stuck on two parties for local things.
In practice, candidates are often backed and/or endorsed by some political parties. Common ones are Progressive Dane (county level party) or Working Families (which has national reach and is basically a socialist party working within the Democratic party). When they move up to state or federal seats, they usually join the Democrats while continuing to work with the Working Families party.
Yes, very much so. Each party has their candidate. Some states might let multiple members of the same party run, and there have certainly been instances where people have run unopposed for certain offices, but generally most elected positions in the US are partisan.
It has been a key Republican strategy for several decades now to control as many states governorship as they can manage because it allows them to do things like gerrymandering and to pass state policies that favor Republicans.
I’ve been kind of confused about this whole thing. In the US, are even mayoral elections Democrat VS Republican? What happens if more than two people want to run for mayor?
This was a primary election so both major parties were fielding several candidates. The reality is no Republican is getting elected in NYC as long as we have free and fair elections in the USA so the democratic primary winner is the most likely person to win in November when the general election is held.
You are not obligated to run under a party in US elections. It just makes it easier to win.
My concern is that Cuomo is planning to run as an independent and my pessimism is telling me that somehow he might win. I mean no one thought Trump would win in 2016 or again in 2024, but here we are.
But the part of me that wants something to hold on to is desperately optimistic that this might be the start of the change.
If Cuomo runs as independent, I don’t think he comes close to winning but he definitely splits the vote which could push this Republican. Does the NY Mayoral race also use rank choice? If it does then evething should still be fine.
The primaries did
It depends. Some cities do nonpartisan elections (usually with some form of “jungle primary”), some cities do partisan ones. For the ones with partisan elections, there are often more than two parties, but parties other than the Republicans and Democrats rarely have a shot at office.
NY has a unique system in that it has a lot of parties, but many of them just endorse a candidate from one of the big 2 parties rather than running their own. This is why Cuomo isn’t entirely out of this thing yet, unfortunately; he conceded the Democratic nomination, but he still has the nomination from the Fight and Deliver party (which he, himself, founded specifically for this election) and may choose to continue to run as their candidate instead of dropping out.
It depends on the city. Mine (Madison, WI) doesn’t officially list any party affiliation for mayor or city alders. We also use a runoff election system, so we’re not stuck on two parties for local things.
In practice, candidates are often backed and/or endorsed by some political parties. Common ones are Progressive Dane (county level party) or Working Families (which has national reach and is basically a socialist party working within the Democratic party). When they move up to state or federal seats, they usually join the Democrats while continuing to work with the Working Families party.
Yes, very much so. Each party has their candidate. Some states might let multiple members of the same party run, and there have certainly been instances where people have run unopposed for certain offices, but generally most elected positions in the US are partisan.
It has been a key Republican strategy for several decades now to control as many states governorship as they can manage because it allows them to do things like gerrymandering and to pass state policies that favor Republicans.
That’s sad to hear honestly. I thought city politics would be the one place Americans could escape the two party BS