Rafael Salamanca Jr. (D) is eyeing Bronx borough hall. He has to topple Vanessa Gibson (D) to get there.
New York City Council Member Rafael Salamanca Jr. needs a new job. Term-limited from his South Bronx seat at the end of this year, the Democrat and chair of the council’s powerful Land Use Committee had a few possible paths to pursue.
He could go the route of fellow former Bronx elected officials including Marcos Crespo, Ruben Diaz Jr. and Latoya Joyner and take a job at Montefiore Einstein. He could wait for a higher office to open up – like fellow term-limited members Keith Powers and Justin Brannan, who are running for Manhattan borough president and city comptroller this year. Or he could primary an incumbent elected official who, like most others in her position, was otherwise looking at an easy path to reelection.
Salamanca chose option No. 3. He is running against Vanessa Gibson, a former member of the Assembly and City Council who in 2021 became the first Black person and first woman to be elected as Bronx borough president.
There are strategic advantages to not waiting to run until Gibson would be term-limited in 2029. Salamanca would face more competition in an open primary, and, out of office for a few years, would be less fresh in voters’ minds than he is now. “He’s never had a problem with my leadership before, and now, all of a sudden, he has a problem because he will no longer have a job at the end of the year,” Gibson said in an interview. “Term limits are real.”
https://www.cityandstateny.com/politics/2025/06/rafael-salamanca-jr-eyeing-bronx-borough-hall-he-has-topple-vanessa-gibson-get-there/405909/?oref=csny-homepage-top-story