Campaigns & Elections

2021 Manhattan district attorney primary election results

Tracking the returns in a high-profile race without ranked-choice voting.

Alvin Bragg Ron Adar/Shutterstock

| June 22, 2021

June 22, 2021

The race for Manhattan district attorney has been packed and heated. After Cy Vance announced that he would not be running for reelection this primary, nine Democrats jumped in the race for a chance to take over his office that contains over two dozen units and bureaus and dozens of assistant district attorneys on staff. Thus far, preliminary results indicate that Alvin Bragg, former state chief deputy attorney general, is in the lead, with Tali Farhadian Weinstein, former counsel to Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, trailing close behind.

The winner of the race will likely inherit a high-profile ongoing investigation into former President Donald Trump’s finances after the general election in November. Candidates have clashed over criminal justice reforms, such as how they plan to provide police oversight and tackle drug charges.

The Manhattan district attorney is the top prosecutor of New York county. District attorneys are expected to conduct all criminal prosecutions within their county. And unlike the other primary races, voters will be unable to rank district attorneys because they are technically state offices.

The Republican candidate, Thomas Kenniff, a criminal defense attorney and Iraq War veteran, is running unopposed, so we’ll be focusing our attention on the race’s Democratic candidates.

Official election results won’t be finalized for a few weeks, but voters’ first-choice selections should start to be released after polls close tonight. City & State will be updating this post as soon as election results come in.