As mayor, the billionaire Michael R. Bloomberg once spent millions to try to overhaul New York City’s closed primary system, but his wealth and power were no match for the city’s entrenched partisan interests.
Now, more than two decades later, a renewed effort is underway to open the city’s primaries to registered voters regardless of party affiliation — and this time, the push has the support of Mr. Bloomberg’s daughter, Emma Bloomberg, whose data company recently studied the issue.
Open primaries are typically supported by political independents, wealthy interests and civic groups who say that outsiders stand little chance of breaking through the Democratic Party machinery that tends to control politics in New York City.
Opposition generally comes from politicians in power, and this year is no exception: A leading opponent is Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who won last year as a democratic socialist, benefiting from the closed primary system.
If the push for open primaries gains steam, a potential showdown between its backers and Mr. Mamdani awaits. The current closed primary system favors incumbents — giving Mr. Mamdani an edge at a time when his brand dominated state and federal races last month.
Mr. Mamdani said he was “quite content” with the city’s system of closed primaries at a recent, unrelated news conference and cited his own primary victory last year as an example.
“It shows that the system of primaries that we have, and more and more New Yorkers participating in them, are not a contradiction, or in any way at odds,” Mr. Mamdani added.
Ms. Bloomberg, who runs the data company Murmuration, spoke favorably about open primaries.
In an email, she said she was “a proponent for all kinds of civic renewal projects that bring more Americans back into our collective civic life and help more Americans feel that their civic participation matters.”
She said she had not donated to the latest effort but noted that her company conducted a recent study with Represent Women that found that nearly four in five Americans “say it is more important to have an election system that gives voters greater flexibility to support their preferred candidates than one that gives political parties more control over who appears on the ballot.”
Leading the latest effort is Unite NY, a statewide nonprofit that focuses on election reforms and civic engagement. The group, founded by the former Silicon Valley chief executive, Martin Babinec, has long wanted the city to shift to nonpartisan primaries, noting that New York is one of 10 states in the country with an entirely closed primary system. In a blue state like New York, primaries often determine final electoral outcomes.
Unite NY wants to allow candidates, regardless of party affiliation, to appear on a single ballot that all registered voters could weigh in on each June. The candidates’ party affiliation would appear after their names, but they would not be running under the heading of a party. The top three contenders would advance to a general election.
“Nowhere in the Constitution does it say you have to join a political party to cast your ballot,” Anthony Thomas, executive director of Unite NY, said in an interview.
He said about 1.1 million active voters in the city are not enrolled with a political party, and thus cannot participate in New York primaries.
“They’re signed up but they can’t play,” added Mr. Thomas, who said he is a registered Democrat. “These election reforms bring more people into the arena to cast their ballot and have their say.”
The organization filed more than 45,000 petitions from registered voters to the city clerk’s office on July 2, more than enough for the measure to go before the City Council for consideration. If the Council does not approve Unite NY’s open primaries measure, the organization can try to collect another 15,000 petitions to qualify for placement on the ballot.
It would ultimately be up to voters to decide whether to change their election system, and Unite NY is hoping to present the question to them on the ballot this November. Owen Stone, a spokesman for Unite NY, said the organization has until Sept. 4 to submit the additional 15,000 petitions.
Julie Menin, the speaker of the City Council and a Democrat, declined to comment.
Although open primaries have long been backed by a cadre of well-heeled New Yorkers who, like Mr. Bloomberg, trend moderate and have a distaste for the hyperpartisan flavor of politics in the city, many of them have not gotten behind this latest effort. Mr. Bloomberg is not involved, according to his political adviser, Howard Wolfson.
“We haven’t given any money to it, haven’t been asked to,” Mr. Wolfson said. “And I’m not sure what it is.” Asked if Mr. Bloomberg would consider donating to the cause, he replied, “My job is to listen to everything.”
Longtime proponents of nonpartisan primaries in the city’s real estate industry, as well as Lisa Blau, wife of a prominent developer and the co-founder of a capital firm that focuses on women’s health, are also not part of this initiative.
One person familiar with the push, who was not authorized to speak publicly, said previous supporters worried that Mr. Mamdani would be successful in using his popularity and his reach to turn New Yorkers against open primaries.
The Partnership for New York City, a consortium of business executives, supported nonpartisan primaries long before the rise of democratic socialists.
“If it shows real opportunity and real life closer to November, then we would reserve the right to weigh in then in a significant way,” Steven Fulop, president of the organization, said of the ballot measure. “You’re in a more polarized environment than you ever were before, so this has merit.”
Ms. Bloomberg’s support of open primaries was highlighted in an email to potential donors from Tucker Green, president of the consulting firm Threshold Group, according to a copy of the email obtained by The New York Times.
Mr. Green did not respond to requests for comment.
Unite NY uses data, acquired through a national partnership with Rank the Vote, from Ms. Bloomberg’s company, according to someone familiar with the matter.
Mr. Thomas, the Unite NY chief, declined to estimate how much the campaign would cost, and would not name any donors.
Both Mr. Thomas and John Avlon, the board chair of Citizens Union, a civic engagement group that has long backed open primaries, said that the surge in democratic socialist power had nothing to do with the revived push.
“It’s about 1.1 million New York City residents who are independents who are effectively disenfranchised from participating in the elections that matter most,” Mr. Avlon said.
Though most major American cities utilize open primaries, New York City is not alone: Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington also have closed primaries.
Several members of a previous Charter Revision Commission, which revises the city’s charter, tried to put open primaries on the ballot in 2025, as Eric Adams was finishing his term as mayor. The commission noted tremendous public support for the measure.
But the commission’s leaders opted to keep it off the ballot and focus instead on housing issues, three people involved in that effort said.
“They were worried about the far left,” said Kathy Wylde, the former president of the Partnership for New York City, and a member of Mr. Adams’s commission. “If open primaries were on there, it would drown out the housing amendments, and it would attract opposition that could take down all the amendments.”
“I argued the other direction,” she added.
The proposal has not won the support of other political groups and parties, including the Working Families Party, the state chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. and the New York City chapter of Democratic Socialists of America.
Jasmine Gripper, the director of the New York Working Families Party, defended the current system, saying in a statement that political parties “allow unions, community organizations and civic groups to leverage their collective resources and shared interest to propel candidates to victory.”
Gustavo Gordillo, the co-chair of the city chapter of the D.S.A., said the group had no official position, adding, “I haven’t heard anyone in leadership or membership who supports the proposals on the table for open primaries.”
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