Alexa Avilés: Campaigns and Elections
Alexa Avilés's campaigns have been anchored in Brooklyn's 38th City Council District and in the organized-left coalition that first helped elect her in 2021. The record below covers her open-seat win, redistricting-cycle reelection, the 2025 challenge from Ling Ye, and the November 2025 general election, using the campaign and election material that Passionfruit had duplicated into the Relationships tracker column.
2021 open-seat campaign
Avilés first ran for the 38th District seat in 2021, when term-limited Council Member Carlos Menchaca left office. Her campaign was backed by the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, the Working Families Party, the United Federation of Teachers, and Rep. Nydia Velázquez 1,2.
She won the ranked-choice Democratic primary and then defeated Conservative/Liberal candidate Erik Frankel in the November 2, 2021 general election, taking 80.4 percent of the vote according to Ballotpedia's election table 2. She took office on January 1, 2022.
Redistricting-cycle reelection in 2023
Avilés faced voters again in 2023 during New York City's redistricting-cycle council elections. Ballotpedia lists her as the Democratic and Working Families Party candidate and shows her defeating Republican/Conservative candidate Paul Rodriguez in the November 7, 2023 general election, 66.3 percent to 33.0 percent 2.
2025 primary against Ling Ye
Her most competitive race came in 2025, after redistricting added more moderate and conservative-leaning areas to District 38. Ling Ye, a former staffer for Carlos Menchaca and for Representatives Nydia Velázquez and Dan Goldman, challenged Avilés in the Democratic primary as a more pragmatic alternative 3,4,5.
The contest became a proxy fight over Avilés's democratic-socialist politics, Gaza ceasefire advocacy, public-safety positioning, and district service record. Pro-Israel and real-estate-aligned political committees supported Ye, while Avilés leaned on her DSA, Working Families, labor, and local progressive base 3,4,5.
Avilés won the June 24, 2025 Democratic primary in the first ranked-choice round, with Ballotpedia listing the result at 71.5 percent for Avilés and 28.0 percent for Ye 2.
2025 general election
After winning the Democratic primary, Avilés ran in the November 4, 2025 general election on the Democratic and Working Families Party lines. Ballotpedia lists her defeating Republican/Conservative candidate Luis Quero, 73.3 percent to 26.4 percent, with certified results sourced to the New York City Board of Elections 2.
That result gave Avilés a full post-redistricting council term; Ballotpedia lists her current term as ending on January 1, 2030 2.
Campaign coalition and fault lines
Across these races, Avilés's campaigns have depended on the same coalition that appears throughout her relationships map: NYC-DSA, the Working Families Party, labor, immigrant-rights organizers, and Brooklyn progressive groups 1,2,3.
The durable campaign fault line has been whether District 38 voters want an activist democratic-socialist council member or a more moderate district-service Democrat. The 2025 primary made that divide explicit, with Ye arguing that Avilés was too ideological and Avilés's supporters framing the race as a defense of organized-left representation in South Brooklyn 3,4,5.