Judging from Mayor Adams’ upbeat State of the City speech, he is hoping that New Yorkers will simply pretend the last three years of his chaotic management and never-ending corruption scandals never happened. But New Yorkers have said in poll after poll that they want a new mayor. The good news is that in less than six months there will be a mayoral primary election. There are several qualified candidates with a record of delivering for working families and the capacity to mount a serious challenge. If we learn the lessons of the 2021 mayoral election and harness a strategy appropriate for a ranked-choice election, we can replace Adams with someone who has the ability to unite people and the commitment to prioritize the needs of working families above the demands of their friends and donors. The 2021 election was the city’s first ranked-choice voting (RCV) election, and while voters adapted quickly, the political class mostly did not. An impressive 86% of voters ranked two or more candidates, and 75% of people ranked three or more. Meanwhile, candidates, organizations, and the press mostly failed to adapt — they used the same individual candidate horse-race philosophy, with little understanding of how RCV elections allow like-minded candidates to unite, rather than split, their constituencies. Unfortunately, in 2021 progressives were divided. Ultimately Adams won, but with an exceedingly narrow margin of 7,200 votes — and he’s far less popular now than he was then. The New York Working Families Party (NYWFP) analyzed the 2021 results carefully. Adams could have been defeated if other campaigns, and the political ecosystem as a whole, had deployed an effective ranked choice strategy. We can and must improve upon this outcome. In other countries where RCV is the norm, parties assemble slates of candidates to appeal to different constituencies and knit together a winning coalition. Building a strong RCV strategy speaks to the capacity of a new leader to work with others across lines of difference. In 2025, candidates who leverage RCV will rise to the top. NYWFP is bringing that kind of strategy to New York. We’re working to ensure alignment across the progressive ecosystem, engage working-class voters across the diverse mosaic of New York City, and leverage RCV with a clear goal in mind: electing a leader who will fight for working families. Over the next few weeks, we will identify and promote a slate of candidates whose campaigns best represent a commitment to working families, and who commit to maximizing the potential of RCV. Then, before people start voting, we will propose a ranking to guide New Yorkers as they go to the polls.. As the field of candidates continues to grow, the big question is whether disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo will enter the race. Simply put, New York City doesn’t need to replace one scandal-ridden politician with another. We can do better than to elect an ex-governor who, according to a U.S. Department of Justice investigation, subjected female employees to a sexually hostile environment; whose administration covered up a nursing home death crisis during the COVID pandemic, and forced the MTA to bail out upstate ski resorts even while its own infrastructure crumbled. The elections in November showed that people are fed up with the status quo of politicians that are disconnected from the pressures that working families face every day. No one embodies the status quo better than Cuomo, the son of a governor who grew up in the halls of power and spent 11 years as governor shaping his policies to please his billionaire donors. Let’s just move on. It’s a new day! We’re excited that a new generation of leaders is ready to take the helm. Anyone who aspires to lead NYC will have the challenge of regaining the trust of New Yorkers after years of the harmful leadership of Adams and Cuomo. This moment requires honest, courageous leaders determined to make NYC a bulwark against Donald Trump’s aggressions and committed to using their power to make the lives of working families easier and better. The NYWFP is ready to take on this challenge, and work with candidates prepared to do the same. New Yorkers, the power is in your hands. We don’t need to accept corruption and scandal. We must demand honest and effective leaders who don’t betray the voters’ trust. And more importantly, we deserve leaders ready to advance solutions that make New York City a place where working families can afford to live and thrive. Archila and Gripper are the co-directors of the New York Working Families Party.