Zohran Mamdani may have won New York City’s mayoral election on Nov. 4, but it was not for a lack of trying on the part of ... his city’s athletes?
After every mayoral election, New York publishes the recipients of write-in votes—often a motley crew of celebrities and politicans past and present. This election’s field was no exception.
Here, per Spencer Gustafson of WPIX-TV in New York, are the athletes who received at least one write-in vote to become mayor of New York in Jan. 2026. The list includes the living and the dead, as well as representatives of three different sports.
| ATHLETE | POSITION | TEAM/ORGANIZATION | NOTES |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pete Alonso | First baseman | New York Mets | Five-time All-Star |
| Carmelo Anthony | Forward | New York Knicks from 2011 to '17 | Six-time All-Star with Knicks |
| Jalen Brunson | Guard | New York Knicks | Two-time All-Star with Knicks |
| Jaxson Dart | Quarterback | New York Giants | 1,556 passing yards in 10 games this season |
| Lou Gehrig | First baseman | New York Yankees | Two-time American League MVP; died in 1941 |
| Josh Hart | Shooting guard and small forward | New York Knicks | 11.8 points per game in 19 games this season |
| Aaron Judge | Right fielder and designated hitter | New York Yankees | Three-time American League MVP |
| Rob Manfred | Commissioner | Major League Baseball | Commissioner since 2015 |
| Cam Skattebo | Running back | New York Giants | 410 yards in eight games this season |
| Tom Thibodeau | Coach | New York Knicks from 2021 to '25 | 2021 NBA Coach of the Year with Knicks |
The list can be grouped with relative neatness into four brackets—the modern baseball figures (Alonso, Judge and Manfred), the faces of the Knicks’ 2020s renaissance (Brunson, Hart and Thibodeau), the Giants rookies (Dart and Skattebo) and the past greats (Anthony and Gehrig).
Mariners fans still grimacing at Judge’s MVP win over catcher Cal Raleigh must now ask themselves: would they trust the Big Dumper to run Seattle?
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Here Are the Sports Figures Who Received Votes in New York’s Mayoral Election.
