New York City's 37th City Council district is one of 51 districts in the

New York City Council The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five Borough (New York City), boroughs. The council serves as a check against the Mayor of New York City, mayor in a may ...

. It is currently represented by

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

Sandy Nurse Sandra Nurse (born April 3, 1984) is a Panamanian-born American carpenter and Democratic politician from New York City who has served as the New York City Council member for the 37th district since 2022. District 37 covers Bushwick and other ...

, who took office in 2022.

Geography

District 37 covers a series of majority-Hispanic neighborhoods along

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

's northern border, including a large swath of

Bushwick Bushwick is a neighborhood in the northern part of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is bounded by the neighborhood of Ridgewood, Queens, to the northeast; Williamsburg to the northwest; East New York and the cemeteries of Highland Par ...

as well as Ocean Hill, Cypress Hills, City Line, and small parts of

East New York East New York is a residential neighborhood in the eastern section of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City, United States. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise, are roughly the Cemetery Belt and the Queens borough lin ...

and Brownsville. The district overlaps with Brooklyn Community Boards 4, 5, and 16, and with New York's

7th 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube (algebra), cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion ...

and 8th congressional districts. It also overlaps with the

18th 18 (eighteen) is the natural number following 17 and preceding 19. In mathematics * Eighteen is a composite number, its divisors being 1, 2, 3, 6 and 9. Three of these divisors (3, 6 and 9) add up to 18, hence 18 is a semiperfect number. ...

, 19th, and 25th districts of the

New York State Senate The New York State Senate is the upper house of the New York State Legislature; the New York State Assembly is its lower house. Its members are elected to two-year terms; there are no term limits. There are 63 seats in the Senate. Partisan com ...

, and with the 53rd, 54th, 55th, and 60th districts of the

New York State Assembly The New York State Assembly is the lower house of the New York State Legislature, with the New York State Senate being the upper house. There are 150 seats in the Assembly. Assembly members serve two-year terms without term limits. The Assem ...

Recent election results

2021

In 2019, voters in New York City approved Ballot Question 1, which implemented

ranked-choice voting Ranked-choice voting may be used as a synonym for: * Ranked voting, a term used for any voting system in which voters are asked to rank candidates in order of preference * Instant-runoff voting (IRV), a specific ranked voting system with single-w ...

in all local elections. Under the new system, voters have the option to rank up to five candidates for every local office. Voters whose first-choice candidates fare poorly will have their votes redistributed to other candidates in their ranking until one candidate surpasses the 50 percent threshold. If one candidate surpasses 50 percent in first-choice votes, then ranked-choice tabulations will not occur.

2020 special

In January 2020, Councilman

Rafael Espinal Rafael L. Espinal Jr. (born June 30, 1984) is an American politician and non-profit executive. A Democrat, he represented the 37th district of the New York City Council, which includes portions of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brownsville, Bushwick, ...

resigned in order to take a job with the

Freelancers Union Freelancers Union is a nonprofit organization based in New York City that provides advocacy, programming and curated insurance benefits for freelancers through partnerships. The organization dessiminates information through monthly meetings. Rafa ...

, leaving his seat vacant. An April special election was called, but due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was moved to align with the concurrent 2020 elections. While the election initially appeared to be a competitive contest between

Darma Diaz Darma V. Diaz (born August 5, 1968) is a Democratic politician. She is a former New York City Councilmember for the New York City's 37th City Council district, 37th district, which includes Bushwick, Brooklyn, Bushwick, East New York, Brooklyn, ...

, and several other candidates, a complex series of judicial rulings and political maneuvers meant that all candidates but Diaz were removed from the ballot, and Diaz won both the primary and general elections uncontested.

2017

2013

References

{{New York City Council New York City Council districts