Four years ago, as New York City seemed in thrall to a leftward political shift, the Working Families Party endorsed a slate of three progressive contenders for mayor.
Disaster struck. None of the three candidates made it to the final round of the city’s nascent ranked-choice voting system, and Eric Adams, a moderate Democrat, went on to become mayor, after winning the Democratic primary by a margin of less than 8,000 votes.
Four years later, with another mayoral primary election looming, the Working Families Party is trying to prevent history from repeating itself. In the city’s second use of ranked-choice voting for a mayor’s race, they see an opportunity.
The group is weighing a number of strategies to encourage its supporters to unite behind a single candidate, including obligating campaigns that sought its endorsement to agree to cross-endorse the candidate that it ultimately ranks first.
By doing so, the party hopes to stunt the progress of former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a moderate who is the current front-runner, as well as that of Mr. Adams.
“We want to be able to have a slate that reaches into the mosaic of New York City,” the party’s co-chair, Ana María Archila, said in an interview. “Being able to have the maximum reach is important, and then we will continue to work with this group of candidates to see if we can all coalesce around one, or how far coalescing can happen.”
The party has not yet solidified its approach, Ms. Archila said, but will engage in aggressive organizing on behalf of its chosen candidate and may decide to suggest ranking several others beneath that candidate.
Its leaders will use a two-step endorsement process that they hope will foster more cooperation among the campaigns vying for its support.
In the coming days, the group will announce a slate of candidates it plans to back and will encourage its followers to rank those candidates among their top choices. After a campaign finance deadline on May 23, party leaders will choose a single candidate they feel has the strongest chance against Mr. Cuomo. They will then work to consolidate support around that candidate, Ms. Archila said.
The party’s efforts are taking shape much earlier in this primary campaign than in 2021, and mark a departure from its ranked-choice voting strategy that year. The candidates endorsed by the Working Families Party did not cross-endorse one another and were all eliminated before Kathryn Garcia’s narrow loss to Mr. Adams in the final round of voting.
The group’s leader pointed to Ms. Garcia’s cross-endorsement agreement with Andrew Yang as a driver of her momentum. Many of Mr. Yang’s votes flowed to Ms. Garcia after he was eliminated in the ranked-choice process, which allows voters to select up to five candidates in order of preference.
Party leaders say they now have a better understanding of the ranked-choice system and want a chance to have more influence within it.
The group has asked candidates seeking its endorsement to outline how the voting model might play into their campaign strategy, and has required them to commit to telling their supporters not to rank Mr. Adams and Mr. Cuomo. Candidates must also agree to “engage in a collaborative way” with their other opponents.
Six candidates are seeking the Working Families Party’s support: Adrienne Adams, the City Council speaker; Brad Lander, the city comptroller; Michael Blake, a former state assemblyman; State Senator Jessica Ramos; and Assemblymen Zellnor Myrie and Zohran Mamdani.
All have agreed to work collaboratively with one another and to encourage their supporters not to include Mr. Adams or Mr. Cuomo in their rankings; not all have committed to cross-endorsing the Working Families Party’s top choice.
The party’s efforts underscore the urgency with which some Democrats are organizing to offset Mr. Cuomo’s momentum. The former governor’s name recognition and rapid fund-raising have helped propel him to the top of the primary race; nearly all surveys show him ahead of the rest of the field by double digits.
“This silly group of paid protesters are the same out-of-touch, anti-Israel, pro defund-the-police fringe extremists who in 2018 supported a ‘Sex and the City’ actress to be governor,” said Rich Azzopardi, a spokesman for Mr. Cuomo. “The people of New York rejected their bizarre tactics then, and they will reject them again now.”
The push for voters to leave Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Adams off their ballots has been embraced by other progressives, including those who have embraced the motto “D.R.E.A.M.,” which stands for Don’t Rank Eric or Andrew for Mayor. The Working Families Party is not affiliated with that movement, but it is promoting a similar message while supporting other candidates as alternatives, Ms. Archila said.
Ultimately, whether a progressive candidate can defeat a well-known and well-funded candidate like Mr. Cuomo — particularly in an election that typically sees low turnout — will depend on whether the candidate can form meaningful cross-endorsement coalitions, and then inform voters how best to construct their ballots.
“They have to engage in a collaborative way,” Ms. Archila said. “And what that means is they have to recognize that they are not their main opposition.”
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