With Mayor Mike Spano giving no clear indication whether he will seek an unprecedented fifth term, two City Council leaders are already positioning themselves to run. The recent Democratic primaries may offer clues as to how next year’s mayoral campaign will play out.
The mayoral election is more than 15 months away, but two Democrats—City Council President Lakisha Collins-Bellamy and Majority Leader John Rubbo—are already acting like candidates.
Their early maneuvering may be an indication that Spano will not ask the Council — over which he exercises considerable influence — to once again set aside the city’s term-limit law to allow him to run for a fifth term.
Asked about the mayor’s intentions, Communications Director Christina Gilmartin offered no definitive answer.
“Nothing to report at this time,” she wrote. “The mayor is exploring all his options.”
Collins-Bellamy said she is giving the race “serious thought” and holding conversations with community leaders and supporters. Rubbo said that “because there has been no discussion on the Council about extending term limits, I have formed an exploratory committee.” He wants to keep his options open.
Neither has formally declared. At this early stage, that is not surprising. But all indications are that both are preparing for the possibility of a wide-open race.
The early favorites if Spano steps aside
If Spano does not run, Collins-Bellamy and Rubbo would begin as the most obvious contenders.
Both are long-serving members of the City Council and strong supporters of Mayor Spano. If either wins the party’s nomination, they will be the odds-on favorite to become the next mayor. Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in Yonkers by roughly three to one, making the Democratic nominee the presumptive favorite in November. Moreover, during the 15 years that Mayor Spano has been in office, candidates with the support of the Democratic Party’s political machine have almost always been elected.
But the results of this year’s Democratic primaries suggest the long-standing conventional wisdom may not be as reliable as it once was.
Many Yonkers Democratic primary voters did not automatically vote for the Party endorsed candidate. The electorate may be growing restless and may be open to a change of direction in city hall. This shift has one further implication: there is still time for a lesser-known candidate to enter the mayoral contest and capture voters’ attention.
Do the 2026 primaries reveal an appetite for change?
Three competitive Democratic primaries were held this year: two for the Westchester County Legislature and one for the New York State Assembly.
In each race, a woman of color challenged a candidate selected and endorsed by the Yonkers Democratic Party organization.
Primaries are usually quiet affairs. They take place in late June, when many voters are paying little attention, and turnout is typically low. Party endorsements often prove decisive because endorsed candidates receive fundraising support, organizational assistance and help turning out reliable voters.
This year, however, the endorsed candidates did not perform as strongly as expected.
Kisha Skipper defeats Anthony Nicodemo
The biggest surprise came in the Democratic primary for the 15th District of the Westchester County Legislature.
Insurgent candidate Kisha Skipper defeated party-endorsed candidate Anthony Nicodemo, 53 percent to 47 percent, in a race with approximately 2,500 votes cast.
Skipper attributed her victory to months of persistent campaigning and daily door-to-door outreach. She will now face Republican County Legislator James Nolan in November, this time with the support of the Yonkers Democratic Party.
However, Anthony Nicodemo—while taking nothing away from Kisha Skipper and her hard-fought victory—believes that he didn’t receive the full support of some Yonkers Democratic Party activists and voters. He suspects some of them are actually supporters of Republican incumbent James Nolan. He noted that even though he and Frank Jereis were both endorsed by the Democratic Party, in some election districts where their races overlapped, Nicodemo unexpectedly received fewer votes than Jereis. He thought that some members of the Democratic Party were being passive in their support of his campaign as compared to Jereis. He explained the discrepancy this way:
“The [Yonkers Democratic] Party is strong when the Party wants to be strong. Unfortunately, in my race, the Party didn’t want to be strong.”
He now wonders if Kisha will receive strong support from the party when she faces off against Nolan this November.
Leslye Oquendo-Thomas falls four votes short
In the race to succeed retiring County Legislator José Alvarado, party-endorsed candidate Wilson Terrero defeated Leslye Oquendo-Thomas by just four votes, 946 to 942.
Although Terrero secured the Democratic nomination, Oquendo-Thomas remains on the November ballot as the Working Families Party candidate.
In a spirited social-media video, she declared that the race was not over and promised an aggressive fall campaign. With no Republican candidate on the ballot, the contest will test whether Oquendo-Thomas can defeat the Democratic nominee while running solely on the Working Families Party line.
Frank Jereis defeats Jeanette Garcia
The 90th Assembly District primary produced the clearest victory for the Democratic establishment.
Frank Jereis defeated progressive challenger Jeanette Garcia, 57 percent to 43 percent, in a race to succeed retiring Assemblyman Nader Sayegh. Approximately 5,000 votes were cast.
Still, the margin may not have been as decisive as party leaders had hoped.
Garcia initially jumped to an early lead as votes were counted, suggesting that she enjoyed strong support in parts of the city. Outspent and lacking establishment backing, she nevertheless ran an energetic social-media campaign focused on the concerns of working people.
In acknowledging her defeat, Garcia said that “the fight for the soul of the city is just getting started” and described the campaign as the beginning of a movement to give working people a stronger voice in Yonkers politics.
A fluke or a warning?
There are two ways to interpret the primary results.
The first is that they were anomalies with little broader meaning.
One low-turnout election does not establish a trend. There is not yet enough evidence to conclude that the Spano political organization — which has controlled the city’s Democratic Party for years and has also exercised influence across party lines — is losing its grip.
Party leaders can point to Jereis’ victory as evidence that endorsed candidates remain strong. The Assembly district covers much of Yonkers, and a clear majority of voters followed the party organization’s lead.
They can also argue that Terrero still won his primary, however narrowly, and that the party will rally behind him in November. Despite Nicodemo’s belief that the Democratic Party didn’t support him as strongly as it should have, his defeat could nonetheless be attributed to exceptionally low turnout and Skipper’s unusually strong field campaign.
There is, however, another interpretation.
The results may be an early indication that some Yonkers voters are less willing to accept the choices made by party leaders.
Skipper defeated the endorsed candidate outright. Oquendo-Thomas came close. Garcia established a base for future political activity.
Taken together, the results suggest that the Democratic organization’s endorsement, although still important, no longer guarantees victory.
The November races will be an important test
Oquendo-Thomas’ general election campaign may be particularly revealing.
Jennifer Cabrera, chair of the Working Families Party in Westchester and Putnam counties, said Oquendo-Thomas has “a real chance of winning” because she has spent years working directly with families in her district.
If she defeats Terrero while running only on the Working Families Party line, the result could raise serious questions about the Democratic Party establishment’s ability to maintain its hold on voters — especially Latino voters on the city’s west side.
The party also must demonstrate that it can unite behind Skipper and help her defeat Nolan, one of the last Republican elected officials in heavily Democratic Yonkers.
Anything less than a strong showing in those races could expose weaknesses that carry directly into the 2027 mayoral contest.
The Yonkers Democratic Party Chair Thomas Meier and members of the Yonkers Democratic Party’s Executive Committee, which made the 2026 primary endorsements, all did not respond to a request for comment. Only Anthony Nicodemo, speaking as a candidate and not as a Yonkers Democratic Party Committee member, agreed to talk on the record. Frank Jereis provided a written comment stating in part, that “County Legislator Districts 15 and 17 are not directly comparable to my race because they include different Assembly districts than my own.”
The stakes for 2027
Recent political history offers a warning against assuming that establishment candidates are unbeatable.
In 2025, Zohran Mamdani emerged from relative obscurity to defeat former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the establishment candidate attempting a political comeback. It would be naïve to assume that a comparable upset could never happen in Yonkers.
Lakisha Collins-Bellamy and John Rubbo may be the early favorites if Mike Spano steps aside. But after 16 years under the same mayor, voters may be looking for new leadership and a break from the policies and governing style of the Spano era.
It is not difficult to imagine a business, civic or community leader entering the race as an outsider candidate.
In a wide-open Democratic primary, the party organization may not be able to dictate the outcome. The candidate who combines a credible record, a strong message and an effective grassroots campaign could disrupt the expected choice of either Collins-Bellamy or Rubbo.
The 2027 mayoral race may not have officially begun. But it is clear that there is already a lot at stake for the Yonkers Democratic Party regarding its power to determine who will be the city’s next leader.
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Phil Zisman has been an inactive district leader in the Yonkers Democratic party for approximately 10 years.
Correction: The Ledger misspelled the name of Frank Jereis in the initial posting of this article. The Ledger regrets the error.
