Tali Farhadian Weinstein announced her candidacy for Manhattan district attorney in July 2020, joining a crowded field of candidates for the June 22 primary. At least eight other contenders have jockeyed for attention since last summer. And all of them, to varying degrees, have sought to position themselves as progressive or reform-minded alternatives to a stilted status quo. (Cyrus Vance, who has served as Manhattan DA since 2010, is not seeking reelection.)

Some candidates wear their progressive label more credibly than others. Janos Marton, a prominent advocate of closing the Rikers Island jail complex, announced his campaign with a plan to slash Manhattan’s jail population by 80 percent. Tahanie Aboushi, endorsed by the Working Families Party and Bernie Sanders, pledged to introduce a policy of non- or delayed prosecution for many misdemeanors and to provide alternative-to-incarceration programs in all cases, “no exceptions.” Eliza Orlins, a longtime public defender, has consistently led the race in small-dollar donations while campaigning on what she describes as a “decarceral vision” for the DA’s office. 

The presence of Aboushi, Marton, and Orlins in the race established a principled (and competitive) progressive pole against which more moderate candidates were forced to pitch their own positions — including former federal prosecutor Alvin Bragg, whom Marton endorsed after dropping out of the race in April. Even more significantly, Aboushi and Orlins demonstrated early on that a bold anti-incarceration agenda could be electorally viable in Manhattan by amassing endorsements, small donors, and volunteers.