CM Erik Bottcher Quits Race for Congress, Eyes State Senate Instead

Recently re-elected City Council Member Eric Bottcher announced he is dropping out of the crowded race to replace Jerry Nadler in the US Congress next year and is instead declaring he wants the New York State Senate seat being vacated by Brad Hoylman-Sigal.

Hoylman-Sigal will be sworn in as Manhattan borough president on Jan. 1, so his 47th District seat is vacant.

In a seven-week stretch in November and December 2025, Bottcher went from trouncing his independent opponent in the City Council race to immediately declaring he was running for Congress (“Erik Bottcher Wants Your Vote, Again,” quipped one headline) while raising a boatload of campaign funds, to now deciding he wants to run for the NYS Senate seat instead.

”This decision is rooted in where I believe I can do the most good immediately,” Bottcher said in a statement on Dec. 22. “The State Senate is where critical decisions are being made on housing affordability, addressing the mental health crisis, safeguarding our environment, and defending New York from the Trump agenda. At a moment when MAGA extremists are attacking our freedoms and undermining democracy, strong state leadership matters more than ever.”

Up until now, it was presumed that longtime Upper West Side state Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal was the front-runner, if she wanted the job. But jumping to the Senate side would also mean that she would be a freshman lawmaker in the senior chamber and would be giving up the privileges and committee assignments that went with her 20 years of seniority in the lower chamber.

Tony Simone, a NYS Assembly member from Chelsea, also expressed interest in the seat but had said he would not run if Rosenthal were a candidate.

The seat will be decided by a special election. There is no pre-election primary. Instead, the Democratic nominee, in a throwback to the days of Tammany Hall, is picked by West Side Democratic clubs.

The clubs that will decide the Democratic nominee include the Chelsea Reform Democrats, the Hell’s Kitchen Democrats, and the eponymously named West Side Democrats, which is the largest and the successor to three former clubs that merged.

Only a week ago, Manhattan Dems chair Kyle H. Ishmael was saying that the Senate seat appeared to be Rosenthal’s if she wanted it.

“It’s either Linda or Tony, all dependent on what Linda decides to do,” he said. “She doesn’t have to decide just yet—not until the seat is officially vacated and the Manhattan Democratic Party announces the meeting to select a nominee—so she is running out her decision-clock.”

He could not be reached for comment following the bombshell news that Bottcher has entered the race, presumably because Rosenthal signaled she is not interested in pursuing it. Rosenthal also could not be reached for comment by press time.

The race for Congress that Bottcher is now abandoning is crowded with big egos and sharp elbows. The seat—which covers a broad swath of Manhattan’s East and West side—became open when longtime incumbent Nadler said he would step down when his term expires at the end of 2026. That means a bruising primary battle in June, prior to the November 2026 general election.

Bottcher jumped out of the gate fast, raising $700,000 the first day he declared he wanted to run for Congress.. He has long presented himself as a proud, openly gay candidate and father who combines native Adirondack earthiness with Big Apple progressivism. Consequently, Bottcher was quick to get endorsements from several influential and well-heeled LBGTQ+ organizations.

At the same time, in a competitive field, Bottcher’s nomination was by no means guaranteed. Among the declared Democratic candidates in the race are President John F. Kennedy’s grandson, Jack Schlossberg (his mother is Caroline Kennedy); East Side Assembly Member Alex Bores; West Side Assembly Member Micah Lasher—the candidate that Nadler is expected to endorse; and Cameron Kasky, a 25-year-old anti-gun-violence advocate and a survivor of the February 2018 Marjory Stoneham Douglas High School mass shooting in Parkland, Fla.

The latest candidate to join the hunt is Trump antagonist George Conway, a co-founder of the Lincoln Project who was married to former Trump mouthpiece Kellyanne Conway.

As for Erik Bottcher, who told Straus News, “I’m running for re-election because I’ve delivered real results—and because there’s still so much more to do,” it appears he’s the front-runner for the Democratic nomination. One well connected Democratic leader said, “Folks are taking the holiday to make final decisions. Though it appears Linda will not run and it’s likely Tony wouldn’t challenge Erik.”

In de facto single-party Manhattan, this would make him the favorite in the special election, which is expected to be called in early February 2026.

Should Bottcher win, of course, there would be a new special election to fill the District 3 Council seat he doesn’t seem to really want later in the spring.