Early voting for the 2025 New York City Primary starts on June 14, and as voters prepare to head to the polls, one Brooklynite is hoping to unseat one of Brooklyn’s best-known City Council members.
In Council District 36, which includes most of Bedford-Stuyvesant and parts of Crown Heights, Reginald Swiney is challenging incumbent Chi Ossé in the Democratic primary. There will not be a Republican primary in the district.
Meet the candidates
Chi Ossé
Incumbent City Council Member
Ossé, a longtime community organizer, was elected to the City Council in 2021 at just 23 years old.
Since then, the social media-savvy pol has become known across the city. He serves as the co-chair of the Brooklyn Delegation, and sits on several Council committees and caucuses, including the Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries, and International Intergroup Relations and the Progressive Caucus.
In his first term, Ossé introduced and passed a bill that established a citywide program to prevent opioid overdoses in nightclubs and another that required the city to report on its rat mitigation activities in an effort to reduce the rat population in New York City.
Last year, he passed the popular and controversial FARE Act, which mandates that broker fees for new apartments be paid by the party who hired them — usually the landlord. The law took effect on June 11.
Ossé, who does not appear to have a campaign website, said in his City Council biography that he “recognizes local government as democracy in its most impactful form, and works to faithfully represent the people of his district while building New York City into a beacon of prosperity and successful governance for the nation to follow.”
Reginald Swiney
Swiney, who was born and raised in Coney Island, is a longtime resident of the district who first ran for Council in 2021.
One of Swiney’s biggest concerns, he’s said in the past, is revitalizing the workforce in District 36. On his campaign website, he said residents of the district have been “shut out” of local jobs and pledged to ensure equal work opportunities.
Swiney also wants to improve conditions and quality of life at local NYCHA complexes, adopt new policies and local habits to clean up the streets and reduce rat populations, and develop new medical institutions to care for mentally ill and homeless New Yorkers. He states on his campaign website that public safety is his “number one concern,” and that he will prioritize “quality-of-life policing.”
“I believe that the voters want to restore the faith they once had in the democratic process,” he said on his website. “Electing a candidate to hold public office is a huge responsibility, and voters’ confidence should be in someone whom they can entrust with decisions that change the course of their lives.”
New York’s primary election will be held June 24, with early voting scheduled from June 14 to June 22. To find your pollsite, visit vote.nyc. The winner of the Republican primary will move on to the general election on Nov. 5.
This roundup is part of an ongoing series. Check back for more information on candidates in competitive races across Brooklyn, and check out our candidate roundups for Brooklyn Borough President, Council District 35, Council District 38, Council District 39, Council District 41, Council District 47, Council District 48, and Civil Court Judge.
