Tali Farhadian Weinstein, left, and Alvin Bragg. Photo: Ryland West/ALM and Courtesy Photo.

In the Democratic primary for Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg maintained a lead of several thousand votes over Tali Farhadian Weinstein throughout election night, and he delivered an cautious but confident speech just before midnight. After reminding the crowd at his election night event that all votes need to be counted, an emotional Bragg thanked his supporters and addressed his plans for the office, noting that he would bring the experience of being a Black man who has been held at gunpoint by police to the role of DA. "We're going to demand and deliver on both safety and fairness for all of Manhattan," he said. Farhadian Weinstein spoke shortly after Bragg and urged voters to be patient, noting that the race is close and tens of thousands of absentee ballots have not yet been counted. Bragg had a lead of about 7,000 votes with nearly all in-person results counted, according to the New York City Board of Elections' unofficial report. Nearly 60,000 Democratic voters in Manhattan received absentee ballots, according to the BOE; the return rate in the 2020 general election was 73%. The ballots must be postmarked by June 22, but the last day for a valid ballot to reach the BOE is June 29, and counting is likely to continue into July. Bragg and Farhadian Weinstein consistently polled as the frontrunners in the race, and either would make history as DA: Bragg would be the first Black leader of the office, and Farhadian Weinstein would be the first woman. No one else in the crowded eight-person Democratic field appeared to have any chance at victory by Wednesday. The candidate in third place, civil rights attorney Tahanie Aboushi, had 11% of the vote while the frontrunners had more than 30% each. In a statement Wednesday, Aboushi congratulated Bragg, saying they shared a vision despite policy differences. "I know he's committed to reform, and I know he'll be a receptive partner to progressives," she said. Bragg most recently served as New York's chief deputy attorney general, and Farhadian Weinstein most recently served as general counsel to Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. Both have touted their experience handling complex white-collar cases, given that incumbent DA Cyrus Vance Jr. is expected to make a charging decision in his office's investigation of former President Donald Trump and his businesses before leaving office at the end of the year. If charges are brought, the next DA is expected to lead that case through its trial stage. Bragg lives in Harlem, where he grew up. On the campaign trail, he frequently discussed his experience as a Black man growing up in a heavily policed area of New York City and with a close family member, his brother-in-law, who served time in prison. When Farhadian Weinstein was a young child, she and her family moved from Iran to the United States, where they sought asylum. She has cited her family's journey and subsequent path to citizenship as a driving factor in her work in public service, writing in a 2019 New York Times opinion piece that she was "shown that the law could be enforced with goodness and humanity." Early in Farhadian Weinstein's career, she clerked for clerked for Judge Merrick Garland in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in the U.S. Supreme Court and worked as an associate at Debevoise & Plimpton. The pair divided the endorsements of New York City's editorial boards, with The New York Times endorsing Bragg and the New York Daily News and the New York Post endorsing Farhadian Weinstein. The winner of the Democratic primary is expected to face Republican Thomas Kenniff, an Iraq war veteran and founding partner of the criminal defense firm Raiser & Kenniff, in the general election in November, and will be the favorite to win in the heavily Democratic borough. READ MORE: |

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