Alvin Bragg Likely To Be Manhattan DA As Rival Weinstein Concedes

NEW YORK, NY — Alvin Bragg appears set to become the next district attorney of Manhattan after his closest rival, Tali Farhadian Weinstein, conceded the close Democratic primary race on Friday.

Bragg, a former state and federal prosecutor, would be the first Black person to serve as Manhattan's top prosecutor if he wins November's general election — a near certainty, given the borough's political leanings.

As of Friday, Bragg was leading Farhadian Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor and counsel to the Brooklyn district attorney, by about three percentage points — or more than 7,200 votes — after most in-person votes had been counted from June's primary. (The election was not ranked-choice, since it is a state office.)

Bragg's win represents a victory for the so-called "progressive prosecutor" movement — his platform included promises not to seek cash bail for most offenses and to never seek life sentences. (Others in the race were well to Bragg's left, however, like public defender Eliza Orlins and Assemblymember Dan Quart.)

We have now counted a majority of paper ballots, and though we fought a hard race, it has become clear that we cannot overcome the vote margin. When all votes are counted, we expect to come in second by a few percentage points. /2
— Tali Farhadian Weinstein 溫塔莉 (@TaliFarhadian) July 2, 2021

Farhadian Weinstein, meanwhile, ran a more centrist campaign, vowing to aggressively prosecute violent crimes. In the race's final weeks, she came under fire for spending millions of dollars of her own fortune to boost her candidacy. (She is married to Boaz Weinstein, a hedge-fund magnate.)

"We have now counted a majority of paper ballots, and though we fought a hard race, it has become clear that we cannot overcome the vote margin," she tweeted Friday afternoon.

Bragg, a native of Harlem, incorporated elements of his own life story into his campaign, like the six instances in which he had guns pointed at him as a child — three of which were by police officers, he said.

"This has been a long journey that started in Harlem. And today, that 15-year old boy who was stopped numerous times at gunpoint by the police is the Democratic nominee to be Manhattan District Attorney," Bragg said in a statement Friday afternoon.

Looming large in the DA's race were the ongoing investigations into former President Donald Trump, which Bragg would take over in January. That investigation, currently led by DA Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., just yielded a sweeping indictment of the Trump Organization and its CFO, Allen Weisselberg, on tax evasion charges.

Vance, who has served as district attorney since 2010, was eligible to run again but opted against it.

In a sign of how rarefied the office has been, Bragg would be the first Manhattan district attorney since 1974 not to be the son of a former cabinet secretary. (Both Vance and his predecessor, Robert Morgenthau, were the children of presidential cabinet members.)

"We are one step closer to making history and transforming the District Attorney’s office to deliver safety and justice for all," Bragg said Friday. "One that ends racial disparities and mass incarceration. One that delivers justice for sexual assault survivors and holds police accountable. One that prosecutes landlords who harass tenants, employers who cheat their workers, and stands up to hate crimes. And one that stops the flow of guns onto our streets."