Upper Manhattan City Council Race: Who Will Replace Mark Levine?

HARLEM, NY — For the first time in years, a large swath of Upper Manhattan will soon get new representation on the City Council, as two-term incumbent Mark Levine is barred from running again.

District 7 covers Morningside Heights, West Harlem, and parts of Washington Heights and the Upper West Side. Levine, who has represented the district since 2014, is term-limited from the council and running instead for Manhattan Borough President.

A whopping 14 candidates are running to replace him, and have raised more than $950,000 combined in public and private funds with months to go before the June 22 primary.

Levine, who chairs the council's health committee, has become a prominent critic of the city's response to the coronavirus. He is facing five other candidates in the race for borough president.

The candidates

Here is more information about each District 7 candidate, plus the amount of money their campaigns had raised as of Jan. 15:

Shaun Abreu

• Private money raised: $73,649
• Public matching funds: $160,301
• Abreu is a tenants' rights lawyer with the New York Legal Assistance Group and a former member of Community Board 9. He was a deputy campaign manager for Levine during his victorious run in 2013.

Marti Allen-Cummings

• Private money raised: $75,806
• Public matching funds: $160,444
• Allen-Cummings is a drag artist and activist who serves on Community Board 9. They are an advisor on the city's Nightlife Advisory Board and have volunteered for LGBTQ youth through the Ali Forney Center.

Dan Cohen

• Private money raised: $58,228
• Public matching funds: $160,444
• Cohen is vice president of the nonprofit Housing Partnership, which works to create and preserve affordable housing. He is a member of Community Board 9 and previously worked as an affordable housing consultant and a mortgage officer for an affordable housing lender.

Stacy Lynch

• Private money raised: $24,873
• An attorney and part of a prominent Harlem political family, Lynch was a deputy director of intergovernmental affairs under Mayor Bill de Blasio, helped form the city's Race and Equity Task Force during the pandemic, and created the civil rights group Daughters of the Movement.

Lena Melendez

• Private money raised: $7,096
• Melendez is a social worker and Uber driver who describes herself as a housing organizer and activist for small businesses.

Maria Ordoñez

• Private money raised: $32,465
• Public matching funds: $102,547
• A student at Columbia University, Ordoñez is a community organizer who was involved with a graduate student strike on campus, created a recycling initiative among tenants in her building and has worked on voter registration drives.

Corey Ortega

• Private money raised: $32,793
• Ortega is a community organizer and director of the City Council's Black, Latino/a and Asian Caucus. He is also a Democratic district leader and formerly worked as a tenants' rights advocate and director at the NYC Veterans Alliance.

Carmen Quiñones

• Private money raised: $3,330
• Quinones is a tenant leader at NYCHA's Douglass Houses.

Ray Sanchez

• Private money raised: $36,805
• Sanchez is CEO of the homeless services provider Aguila, and is a former policy manager for Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr. He is an attorney and has worked as a director at the PR firm Mercury.

Luis Tejada

• Private money raised: $23,284
• Tejada founded the Mirabal Sisters Cultural and Community Center, helped form the groups Northern Manhattan is Not for Sale and the Stabilizing NYC Coalition, and helped introduce interpretation and translation services to non-English speaking patients at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

Jeanette Toomer

• Private money raised: $416
• A former English teacher, Toomer has served on the executive committees of the National Council of Teachers of English and the Association of Black Educators. She is a former parent leader and president of a housing cooperative.

Three other candidates — Alberto Aguilar III, Miguel Estrella and Keith Harris — have raised little or no money and have no visible online campaign presence.

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