LIC's District 26 City Council Race: Won Leads Early Results

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — Julie Won, a digital strategy consultant and Community Board 2 member, has taken an early lead as the first-choice, in-person votes roll in for Long Island City's crowded District 26 City Council race.

As of Wednesday morning, Won led the early results with 18.4 percent of the vote, trailed closely by Amit Singh Bagga at 17.6 percent. Over 96 percent of scanning machines had reported, and all other candidates in the crowded Democratic field had under 10 percent of the vote.

Wednesday's results include only the first-choice, in-person votes cast in District 26 amid the city's June 22 primary election. Final results will not be known until mid-July, when absentee ballots have been counted and voters' second through fifth choices have been factored into the ranked-choice calculation.

Throughout this primary election cycle, the race to represent District 26 remained one of the most crowded citywide.

16 people — 15 of whom were Democrats — ran to replace term-limited City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer, who himself ran in the Queens Borough President race.

Won and Bagga, the former deputy director of NYC Census 2020, led the district's fundraising and endorsement race for the weeks leading up to the election.

However Bagga outpaced Won when it came to funding from outside groups and endorsements from high-profile groups, like the Working Families Party.

The pair remained neck-and-neck as results rolled in on election night, with Won gaining a roughly 100-person lead on Bagga shortly after midnight on Wednesday.

Here's a Patch guide on everything you need to know about the District 26 race, including candidate's responses to our questions and readers' questions.