Welcome to the Thursday, June 26, 2025, Brew.
By: Lara Bonatesta
Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day:
- Miami, Florida City Commission to decide on proposal to move from odd to even-year elections
- A look at the June 24 New York City election results
- Check out the 200th episode of On the Ballot featuring Ballotpedia’s CEO and founder Leslie Graves
Miami, Florida City Commission to decide on proposal to move from odd to even-year elections
On June 17, the Miami, Florida City Commission voted 3-2 in favor of proposed legislation that would move the city’s elections from odd to even years. The Commission must approve the legislation a second time for it to take effect, and a vote is scheduled for Thursday, June 26.
If approved, the legislation would postpone Miami’s elections scheduled for November 2025 to November 2026 and give the current mayor and city commissioners an extra year in office.
In the June 17 vote, Commissioners Damian Pardo, Ralph Rosado, and Christine King voted in favor of the legislation. Commissioners Miguel Angel Gabela and Joe Carollo voted against it.
During the same meeting, the Commission also approved a proposed amendment to establish term limits for mayor and city commissioner. That proposal, which would require voter approval, must also be approved a second time before it is put on the ballot.
Pardo, who sponsored both pieces of legislation, said, “Moving the election to 2026 would save the City of Miami over $1 million and prevent legal challenges potentially arising from having a term-limited candidate win a seat at the same time as the lifetime term limit ballot initiative passes.”
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez (R), who has veto power, supports the election date legislation.
Gabela, who voted no, said, “My main problem with this is the voter. … It’s not right that the voter didn’t give us, we’re doing it to ourselves… I think we should have put it out for referendum and let the voters have decided.” On June 5, Gabela requested an advisory opinion from Florida’s attorney general, James Uthmeier (R).
In the June 11 advisory opinion, Uthmeier wrote, “If the City of Miami is to amend its charter, either to move the date of municipal elections or to change the terms of office for elected officials, then the change may only proceed by a vote of the electors…” In a June 12 post on X, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said he agreed with Uthmeier.
Two other cities in Miami-Dade County, Florida, North Miami and Coral Gables, have moved their elections from odd to even years. In Dec. 2022, the North Miami Council voted to move the May 2023 election to November 2024. In May 2025, the Coral Gables City Commission voted to move their elections from April of odd years to November of even years.
Context
The election date change would make Miami the 40th of the 100 most populous U.S. cities to hold even-year elections. Miami is currently one of 38 of the 100 largest cities that hold odd-year elections.
Currently, 39 of the top 100 cities hold elections in even-numbered years, 38 hold elections in odd-numbered years, and 23 hold elections in both even and odd years. For example, Indianapolis, Indiana, holds general elections for mayor and city council in odd years, but holds elections for coroner, surveyor, treasurer, and superior court judges in even years.
The change would also make Miami the 50th of the top 100 cities to hold mayoral elections in even years. Miami is currently one of 51 top 100 cities that hold odd-year mayoral elections.
Overall, cities with odd-year mayoral elections tend to have strong mayor systems. Of these 51 cities, 35 have a strong mayor system, 14 have a council-manager system, and two have a hybrid system.
Cities with even-year mayoral elections tend to have council-manager systems. Of these 49 cities, 32 have a council-manager system, 12 have a strong mayor system, and five have a hybrid system.
Miami currently has a hybrid system, click here to learn more about each type of government.
Twenty-seven of the 100 most populous U.S. cities will hold mayoral elections in 2025. Twenty-three cities will also hold elections for other municipal government roles, such as city council, sheriff, treasurer, or judicial positions.
Ballotpedia provides in-depth coverage of America’s 100 largest cities based on official census data. Our coverage scope for local elections continues to grow, and you can use Ballotpedia’s sample ballot tool to see what local elections we are covering in your area.
A look at the June 24 New York City election results
As part of our ongoing coverage of local elections in the nation’s largest cities, here’s a look at some of the results from New York City’s June 24 Democratic mayoral primary.
This is the second time New York City has held a mayoral primary using ranked-choice voting (RCV) and the third time the city has held primaries using RCV. In 2019, voters approved a charter amendment establishing RCV for primary and special elections.
In case you’re not familiar, here’s a quick recap of how ranked-choice voting works in New York City.
Voters were allowed to rank up to five candidates in order of preference. A candidate needed a majority of votes cast to win, and could win in the first round without having to go through additional rounds of voting. Votes for eliminated candidates were redistributed based on voters’ next preference on the ballot. Once every candidate a voter ranked was eliminated, their ballot was considered inactive.
Mayor
Thirteen candidates ran in the Democratic mayoral primary. The Republican primary was canceled after only one candidate–Curtis Sliwa– filed to run. Incumbent Eric Adams (D) is running for re-election as an independent.
As of 12:42 a.m. ET on June 25, with 93% of the vote counted, Zohran Mamdani has 43.5% of the vote to Andrew Cuomo’s 36.4%. Cuomo conceded on election night.
According to the NYC Board of Elections, unofficial election night results include first-choice votes. Preliminary ranked-choice voting results will be tabulated and released on Tuesday, July 1.
In the 2021 Democratic primary, Adams defeated second-place finisher Kathryn Garcia and 11 other candidates after eight rounds of ranked-choice voting. In the final round, Adams received 404,513 (50.4%) votes to Garcia’s 397,316 (49.6%), a margin of 7,197 votes. According to a New York Times analysis, there were 140,202 inactive ballots in the final round.
City Council
In addition to the mayor, all 51 New York City Council seats are also up for election this year. There were 28 contested Democratic primaries and three contested Republican primaries.
Thirty-seven Democratic incumbents and six Republican incumbents ran in the primaries. Of these, 18 incumbent Democrats and two incumbent Republicans were contested. There were seven open seats, meaning no incumbent ran for re-election.
Ten races, including two featuring incumbents – both Democrats –are still uncalled. All other incumbents won their primaries. The two uncalled races featuring incumbents are in Districts 1 and 41.
According to Bolts Magazine, “The New York City Council in recent years has been a progressive counterpoint to Mayor Eric Adams.” Eighteen members of the Council are members of the progressive caucus. Of these, 17 ran in the primaries, and 10 were contested. One race featuring a progressive caucus incumbent, Christopher Marte (D-1), is still uncalled. As of 12:13 a.m. on June 25, Marte led with 49.2% to second highest vote-getter Elizabeth Lewinsohn’s 24.3%.
Ballotpedia identified 13 Democratic battleground primaries based on media coverage. To learn more about those and the other city council primaries, click here.
New York City also held elections for comptroller, borough president, and public advocate on June 24. Click here to learn more.
New York City is the most populous city in the U.S. Of the top 100 most populous cities, 27 are holding mayoral elections in 2025. As of June 2025, 66 of the top 100 cities’ mayors are Democrats, 23 are Republicans, one is a Libertarian, two are independents, and five are nonpartisan. Three mayors’ partisan affiliations are unknown.
To see our full coverage of the New York City mayoral election, click here. To see our coverage of mayoral elections in 2025, click here.
Check out the 200th episode of On the Ballot featuring Ballotpedia’s CEO and founder Leslie Graves
In our 200th episode of On The Ballot, Ballotpedia CEO and founder Leslie Graves joins host Norm Leahy to discuss her weekly column in the Daily Brew.
Since its launch on April 4, Leslie’s column has covered a variety of topics ranging from the importance of local elections to how Ballotpedia uses technology to provide voters with accurate and comprehensive information. The aim of these columns is to give Brew readers a better sense of what Ballotpedia does, how we do it, and how it all comes together to reach our ultimate goal: providing comprehensive coverage of every election in the country by 2034.
Leslie’s column is published in the Brew every Friday. Click here to read her most recent column.
To see a full list of Leslie’s published columns, click here.
Subscribe to On the Ballot on YouTube or your preferred podcast app, or click here to listen.