Everything You Need To Know About LIC's City Council Race

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — City Council members are your most local representative in New York City government, so you want to make sure the person you vote for holds your opinions and values.

But with 16 candidates vying for Long Island City's District 26 City Council seat it can be hard to keep track of where every candidate stands on the issues you care about — not to mention that this year you get to vote for up to five people with ranked-choice voting.

In order to help you make sense of the primary — which is on June 22, with early voting starting as early as June 12 — Patch has compiled everything you need to know about Long Island City's District 26 City Council race, including candidate profiles, candidates' answers to your most pressing questions, and an overview of where things stand in the race. Read on for more information.

Candidate profiles

15 Democrats are running to replace term-limited City Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer, who is running for Queens Borough President after representing the district for three terms. One Republican is also vying for his seat in District 26. Here's a profile of each candidate, click on their name to see their answers to our questions.

Democrats (in alphabetical order)

• Julia Forman
• Glennis Gomez
• Denise Keehan-Smith
• Badrun Khan
• Hailie Kim
• Jesse Laymon
• Sultan Maruf
• Brent O'Leary
• Steven Raga
• Ebony Young

Note: Amit Singh Bagga, Jonathan Bailey, Lorenzo Brea, Emily Sharpe, and Julie Won did not respond to the Patch survey. Marvin Jeffcoat, the sole Republican in the race, also did not respond.

Where the candidates stand on your issues

Patch asked the District 26 City Council candidates to respond to the issues on Long Island City residents' minds, including mall business recovery, rising rents and affordable housing, and hate crime response. Read more here.

Where things stand in Long Island City's City Council race

Polling is not available for city council races so Patch analyzed fundraising and endorsements in order to provide some clues as to how each campaign is faring. Read more here.

Ranked-choice voting

Unsure about ranked-choice voting? Never fear, Patch is here to clear up any confusion. Read more here.