Diverse Field of Candidates Vies to Replace Trailblazing Council Member in Queens

A crowded Democratic primary race is unfolding in Queens to select the successor for term-limited City Council Member Daniel Dromm, a trailblazing LGBTQ leader and powerful chair of the Council finance committee who has held the seat for nearly 12 years but is term-limited out of office. The primary race being voted on this month in the 25th City Council District, which spans Jackson Heights and Elmhurst, is all but certain to determine the next Council member who takes office in January given the district’s overwhelming Democratic tilt.

The district was one of the hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and became known as the “epicenter of the epicenter” as the virus took hold in the spring of 2020 and devastated the city.

Of the City Council district’s roughly 162,560 inhabitants, according to 2020 Census data 42% of residents were Hispanic, 34.5% Asian-American, 15.2% white, and 5.8% Black. About two-thirds of the district’s 56,945 local housing units were renter-occupied.