Letitia James Democratic Jumaane Williams Democratic Pre-consolidation: Post-consolidation: Pre-consolidation: Post-consolidation: The 2019 New York City Public Advocate special election was held on February 26, 2019, to fill part of the unexpired term of Letitia James's vacated seat as New York City Public Advocate.

By statute, New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson served as acting Public Advocate for the time between James’ resignation and the inauguration of Jumaane Williams, who won the election.

As with all special elections in New York City, it was officially nonpartisan, and candidates who file for the race had to create a unique party line that will be displayed on the ballot.

Following ballot petition challenges and appeals, the Board of Elections certified the subsequent list of candidates that are in chronological order of petition filings, along with their unique party lines, who appeared on the ballot in this sequence:[2][3][4][5] § Indicates candidate has withdrawn from race but will still appear on ballot Speculation about a possible special election began before incumbent Tish James had won the Democratic primary for the office of New York Attorney General, with former speakers of the New York City Council Christine Quinn and Melissa Mark-Viverito being mentioned by the Gotham Gazette as potential frontrunners.

[21] Several other candidates entered the race over the course of late 2018, such as State assemblymen Daniel O'Donnell and Ron Kim, as well as City councillors Rafael Espinal and Ydanis Rodriguez.

[23] Mark-Viverito's campaign also suffered from many left-wing groups, which had previously supported her, becoming disillusioned with her as a result of her tenure as City council speaker, where she had compromised on reforming the New York Police Department and had closely collaborated with Mayor Bill de Blasio on controversial rezoning decisions.

[24] The issues of Amazon potentially opening a large headquarters in New York and the mayoralty of de Blasio were both highly prevalent among the campaigns.