Welcome to Midterm Season
What’s on the ballot, Talk with the Mayor recap, and a note about soft power
CALENDAR
Election dates and deadlines! While you’re here, check your voter registration HERE.
Election Calendar
06/08 Change of Address Deadline (June Primary)
06/13 Last Day to REGISTER TO VOTE
06/13 Last Day to REQUEST a Mail Ballot online or by mail
06/13-06/21 Early Voting
06/22 Mail Ballot Request Deadline - In Person
06/23 Mail Ballot Postmark Deadline - In Person (aka Deadline to MAIL your ballot!)
06/23 Election Day
Our voter guide will drop ahead of the early voting window.
Actions & Community Events
5/31 Deadline to submit feedback for a Billie Holiday sculpture. Learn more about the artists who have pitched ideas (HERE) and submit your preference (HERE) by May 31st.
06/02, 7-9 pm | Queens Link Town Hall in Forest Hills Queens.
Midterms Season
It’s May, 2026, and proud to say that we are reporting live from Mamdanistan. And we’ve heard from many who worked on the mayoral campaign (in any capacity) last year to elect Zohran Mamdani, they’re tapped out, tired, exhausted, but it’s Midterms season! The show must go on.
A short refresher, the Midterms refer to the election cycle at the midpoint of the current presidential term. It’s usually when state seats like Governor and branches of the state legislature are on the ballot (state senators, state assembly), federal seats with two-year terms such as the House of Representatives (Congress), local seats like district leader and country committee in NYC, unless you’re in New Hampshire and Vermont, where Governors run every two years (yikes!).
This Midterm cycle in New York is a mixed bag. The governor and lieutenant governor seats won’t be on the ballot since there isn’t a democratic challenger once Antonio Delgado dropped out after Mamdani endorsed Hochul earlier this year. Many of us thought the Mamdani endorsement quietly meant some commitments of support from Governor Hochul to the City in the form of taxing the rich or free buses for all, in addition to the universal 2-K that was quickly announced only days after Mamdani was sworn in. And while those campaign promises may take a bit longer to bake, Mamdani did recently announce a balanced budget (for now) after inheriting a $12 Billion deficit (an Eric Adams legacy), including some state kickbacks in addition to the pied-à-terre tax, so perhaps some promises were made. The reality is,
There are some fierce races on the ballot this June and the collateral is beginning to flood into the mailbox. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be reviewing some competitive races (there are a handful!), sharing some interviews with candidates we’re excited about and diving back into what’s on the ballot.
What’s on the ballot (and what you WON’T be voting on in June)
Congress - House of Representatives
State Comptroller
State Senate
State Assembly
District Leader
County Committee
Civil Court Judges
Delegate to Judicial Convention
Alternate Delegate to the Judicial Convention
These seats won’t be on the Primary ballot because there isn’t a Democratic challenger, but look out for them in November:
Governor and Lieutenant Governor
State Attorney General
Now is a GREAT time to check on your voter registration.
Allow us to Reintroduce Ourselves
We’re so stoked by the momentum that last year’s mayoral race brought to the table, and with that, came a lot of new follows to our account, so if you’re new here, let us reintroduce Soft Power Vote.
SPV has produced voter guides and digital content for each election cycle since 2020. We research what’s on the ballot, share election dates/deadlines, and centralize all this info so you hopefully feel more empowered to show up on Election Day. Use this resource as a TOOL to supplement your own research journey and cross reference with other resources to come up with your own conclusions.
We’ll drop a voter guide before early voting in TWO versions:
the IG version AND a deeply researched spreadsheet, where we share hot takes, candidate info, background reading 🔜 and always linked in bio.
Candidates working towards a more equitable city will be marked with the SPV logo on both versions of the guide (our “endorsement”); but we research every race, district, and borough on the guide to raise visibility for districts that may not get as much airtime.
To us, an equitable city includes things like: keeping ICE out of our city, taxing the rich, universal healthcare, justice for queer&trans NYers, expanding transit and bike access, funding the arts, actually affordable housing, & then some. We list all of these values in the Soft Power Vote Criteria on every spreadsheet guide; keep an eye out!
This is a safe space! No hateration will be tolerated in the comments or DMs so please keep it classy—we do this work for $freeeee.99.
Open DM Policy: We try to answer DMs when possible, but during election season it may get lost in the sauce. There are NO DUMB Qs! Please ask away. If we don’t know the answer, we’ll work on getting it for ya.
SPV is independently produced and was founded in 2020 by three New Yorkers who wanted more out of voting. It’s currently run by Melissa and Molly. We don’t work in politics; we’re regular folks trying to stay engaged (albeit, after six years we’ve learned some things).
Our interview with the Creative Independent is now live! Check it out HERE.
A Note About “Soft Power”
“Soft power, what is that?” Soft power refers to the influence of art and culture to further a given idea or mission. As scholar Toni Cade Bambara stated, the role of the artist is to “make the revolution irresistible,” and this is the angle of soft power we’re drawn to and inspired by. The influential power of the arts has also been leveraged by governments.
The official term, “soft power,” was coined by a political scientist in the 80s to describe a country’s ability to influence people through culture and politics—in contrast to hard power such as militia and brute force. Music, movies, celebrity, and diplomacy are all examples of soft power. Like most powerful things, its purpose and intent really depends on the author, and in urgent times like this, we need the arts to help us process the world around us, but be mindful of the source.
For a poignant example of soft power is energetically on display in the film Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat, outlining how the U.S. government (amongst others) employed jazz musicians and arts institutions as part of a plan to overthrow the republic of the Congo, ultimately leading the 1961 assassination of Congo’s leader Patrice Lumumba. WATCH THE TRAILER.
Talk with the People w/Mayor Mamdani
The Mayor launched his new direct-to-resident program Talk with the People on Twitch. It was streamed live on all social platforms, Instagram, Blue Sky, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube, but questions submitted on Twitch were answered live by the Mayor.
In the first five minutes, the Mayor shared three announcements from that week.
Creating 1,000 $50 tickets for the World Cub (currently, the cheapest seat for the June 13 game is around $1,900).
Extending 100k offers to Pre-K and 3-K across the five boroughs.
Snap benefits at risk beginning June 1. The group with the highest risk of losing benefits are men 18-64, especially those without a child in the household and without a medical exemption.
Afterwards, Mamdani invited Twitch streamer and Staten Island resident Moose, “chat what’s up!” he said immediately, and schooled the Mayor on Twitch culture, “that’s chat right there. When you’re taking to them, you gotta refer to them as chat, not ladies and gentleman. All that politics stuff aside, you gotta have that swag.” (GAG).
Moose set the tone for the Twitch format, taking questions from the audience, and the Twitch culture, “People like that ‘at home’ format!” The duo quickly rolled into a question about the budget submitted by user [redacted], some general interest Qs about the Mayor’s favorite tacos (Los Tacos #1, Taqueria Ramirez, lol), the Knicks, the Mayor’s love for Astoria and updates on the free bus program. Mamdani reminded viewers that he campaigned on fast and free buses, so they’re currently focussing on the FAST part (aka, what the city has some control over), while they work with Albany on the FREE part.
The episode clocked 113k views on Twitch, 13k on YouTube and likely thousands more across other social platforms. Interested to see who the other co-hosts/guests might bet.
The show was a nod to FDR’s fireside chats and Mayor La Guardia’s radio show, Talk to the People. This format was raw, but fun and free flowing, but the fact that the Mayor’s office chose Twitch as their primary location to host the program signals their continued efforts to engage with younger audiences—the average age of a Twitch user is 26 and 65% of users identify as male. For a more structured format, WNYC recently announced that Ask the Mayor will also return to Brian Lehrer on June 2 (yay!!!).
Cultural Work
Culture calendar and some sources of inspiration. Let us know if we should include something!
05/24 | The Loisaida Festival, Avenue C. More info here.
05/28 | Riders Alliance Comedy Show
05/30 | Bakesale for the Brooklyn Art Book Fair at Secret Riso Club. 12-5 pm.
06/04-06/28 | The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park is producing events in all five boroughs. Check out the schedule.
06/13-08/22 | Shea BK and Hell Gate summer music program is back at Rippers in the Rockaways.
06/13, 11 am-7 pm | The Schomburg Centennial, 135th St & Malcolm X Blvd. The full schedule will be released on May 29th.
WATCH | Kelela’s new music video for linknb
WATCH | Keep the Meter Running, the show by Kareem of Subway Takes is back with full episodes on YouTube.