(l-r) Nathalia Fernandez, Gustavo Rivera, Kristen Gonzalez

Last week’s primary elections for New York State Senate and U.S. House of Representatives seats included a number of competitive races, some of them in Latino-majority districts. As in any election, the implications of this primary are varied and significant.

Here are several key takeaways from State Senate races in the five boroughs.

Latino Turnout, Where Art Thou?
Voter turnout at

Oscar Garcia Rivera in 1937, the year he took office (photo: The Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College)

Tuesday, June 28, 2022, marked an important shift in Latino politics in New York, represented in part by Assemblymember Jose Rivera’s Democratic primary loss to George Alvarez. The significance of Rivera’s defeat goes beyond an election loss by someone who has been in office for four decades. Rivera represents the last of what can be deemed a third generation of Puerto Rican Latino elected officials, someone who was part of a generation that paved

Puerto Rican Day Parade (photo: Benjamin Kanter/Mayoral Photo Office)

Though the governor and lieutenant governor races are getting the most buzz this state election cycle, a number of state legislative races—both Assembly and State Senate— are also surprisingly competitive.

Five of those competitive races happen to be in Latino-majority or Latino-plurality Assembly districts of New York City: two in the Bronx, two in Queens, and one in Brooklyn.

These are the five to watch as the Assembly primaries are decided on Tuesday, June 28: 

The Bronx
Jose

(l-r) Ana Maria Archila, Antonio Delgado, Diana Reyna

Until results are officially released, who will win an election is uncertain. But right now, with less than a week until election night in this year’s statewide primaries, one thing is quite certain: the next Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor will have a Latino name. And yes, that even includes Antonio Delgado, whose racial and ethnic identity has been the subject of much debate.

The fact that Delgado, Ana Maria Archila,

Latino leaders at the Dominican Day parade (photo: William Alatriste/City Council)

Former New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and Lucia Gomez, the political director of the New York City Central Labor Council, joined host Eli Valentin on this episode of the Latino Vote podcast to share insights on the recently-completed 2022 redistricting process in New York and what it may mean for Latino political power.

At a celebration of Latino heritage (photo: John McCarten/City Council)

Bienvenidos to “Latino Vote ’22,” the latest series in Gotham Gazette on the Latino vote in New York.Last year’s columns on the ever-growing Latino vote looked at specific races and boroughs in New York City’s 2021 elections, as well as the impact of the Latino vote on the mayoral election.