As important as it may be, the typical campaign discourse on how to handle such matters as public safety, housing, and transit can make your eyes gloss over. And that’s when there are two candidates: This month’s primary elections, on June 22, are pitting some 15 hopefuls — 13 Democrats and two Republicans — against each other in the race to be New York City’s next mayor. Knowing our colleagues at New York Magazine would be grilling each of them with the hard questions, we at the Strategist decided to ask 10 frontrunners one they may not get as often: What can’t you live without?
Retail politics — as in, the debates over what pen writes the smoothest or the best coffee sweetener — can galvanize as strongly as any of the more traditional fare. They can also enlighten. Life presents all types of problems and the most mundane often become the most important. The extent to which someone goes to find things that solve them speaks to the type of ingenuity they’d bring to the office.
From the Super Mario Monopoly Andrew Yang uses to engage the kids on family-game night, to the two razors Ray McGuire relies on for grooming (one for his head, the other his face), to the individually packaged wipes a NY1 makeup artist recommended to Scott Stringer for glasses-cleaning, we heard about lots of particularly useful stuff in speaking with the candidates. We also discovered some are more more alike than they may seem. Kathryn Garcia, Dianne Morales, and Maya Wiley all say mascara is a key component of their no-makeup makeup routines. Fernando Mateo and Eric Adams start each day by making a smoothie in a NutriBullet. Shaun Donovan and Curtis Sliwa write everything down on unlined notecards. And, like most people, many of the candidates told us they can’t live without comfy shoes, though very different styles. The most capable? We’ll leave that for you to decide.
The candidates
The Strategist is designed to surface the most useful, expert recommendations for things to buy across the vast e-commerce landscape. Some of our latest conquests include the best acne treatments, rolling luggage, pillows for side sleepers, natural anxiety remedies, and bath towels. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change.
