If you want a say in who represents you in Congress, your real chance is not in November. It is the Democratic primary on Tuesday, June 23, an election most New Yorkers will sit out, in a city where the primary is usually the whole ballgame.

The math is the reason. About two-thirds of city voters are registered Democrats, so in most districts whoever wins the Democratic primary cruises to victory in the fall. And turnout for that decisive primary is brutal: roughly a quarter of voters bothered in the 2021 mayoral primary. The election that decides who runs the city and represents it in Washington is the one almost no one shows up for.

This year that sleepy primary has a loud subplot: it is shaping up as a referendum on Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s clout, and he has already lost one round. In the April special election for a Manhattan City Council seat, Carl Wilson won with about 43 percent while the candidate Mamdani endorsed, Lindsey Boylan, finished 17 points back. It was the first real test of his endorsement power, and his pick lost.