As a forum for New York City’s mayoral candidates kicked off last month, a seat onstage remained empty.
The vacant chair was not a passive-aggressive protest against the incumbent, Mayor Eric Adams, who at the last minute skipped the event, citing his defense lawyer’s advice.
It was meant for another candidate, State Senator Jessica Ramos, who was late. A budget hearing in Albany had run long, and the train back to Manhattan was slow. About 45 minutes into the forum, which was sponsored by a powerful union, she sat down beside her fellow candidates. A lingering cold and a desire to see her children only added to her stress.
But she had been needed in Albany, too.
“When you have budget hearings, and you know how important this budget is to your district, you can’t miss that,” Ms. Ramos, who represents several neighborhoods in Queens, said in an interview.
It is rare for state lawmakers to run for New York City mayor. But this year, the crowded field of candidates in the Democratic primary includes three: Ms. Ramos, State Senator Zellnor Myrie of Brooklyn and State Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani of Queens.
The roughly 150-mile commute to the State Capitol can be a slog for any downstate member, and complaints about delayed trains, shifting schedules and competing priorities are common. Adding a high-stakes mayoral campaign to that workload compounds the challenge.
Still, Mr. Adams’s plummeting popularity and the federal corruption charges he faces have emboldened this crop of lawmakers — all of whom are under 40 — to jump into the fray.
But seizing the moment means they have and will continue to be pulled in different directions as the June 24 primary nears. The state budget is due April 1, and the legislative session ends in early June.
Tools like Zoom and Google Meet make campaigning from afar more feasible, but they cannot replace shaking voters’ hands, appearing at fund-raisers, and showing unions and Democratic clubs the respect of appearing in person for endorsement interviews.
“It is just really, really grueling,” said Leticia Remauro, who served as campaign manager for Nicole Malliotakis, who was a State Assemblywoman when she ran against Mayor Bill de Blasio in 2017.
Ms. Malliotakis, a Republican who now serves in the House, was the last state legislator to run for the city’s top job. The last Democrat to do so was Assemblyman Herman D. Farrell Jr., who challenged Mayor Ed Koch in the 1985 primary.
Herman D. Farrell III, the former assemblyman’s deputy campaign manager and son, said his father hated missing votes. The elder Mr. Farrell, who went by Denny, represented Upper Manhattan in the Assembly from 1974 to 2017 and was the longtime chair of the Manhattan Democratic Party.
Sometimes he would call his son from the car phone in his Black Chrysler and tell him to fill in at a campaign appearance. The bemusement of Brooklyn churchgoers who expected to see a powerful lawmaker and instead encountered his son stayed with him, the younger Mr. Farrell said.
“Denny tried his best to make it down, but it was really hard to do and it obviously cost him a lot,” Mr. Farrell said. “It got worse as it went into April and May and the votes became more critical.”
State Senate districts include about 320,000 people on average, and State Assembly districts are even smaller, with an average of between 130,000 and 140,000 people. This means state lawmakers don’t have sizable voter bases baked in when they launch their campaigns.
Stu Loeser, a longtime Democratic strategist, said it can be hard for state lawmakers to grab the spotlight.
“It’s inherently difficult when there are dozens of legislators, they all vote en masse and they don’t really differentiate policies through their work as well,” he said.
The three lawmakers running for mayor regularly introduce legislation and handle constituent issues, while also constantly evaluating when it’s OK to miss a vote or skip a hearing.
Legislative records show that Mr. Mamdani has not missed a day in Albany since the session began in January. Ms. Ramos had missed two as of March 13 — and one was because she was sick with a bad cold.
“As someone who is trying to meet as many New Yorkers as possible right now, I decided that the safest thing for everybody was for me to stick to outreach on the phone,” Ms. Ramos said.
In the same period, Mr. Myrie missed more days (13) than he was present (10). He skipped one, for example, to appear on MSNBC alongside Representative Dan Goldman, a Democrat from Brooklyn who had just endorsed him. But he was in town for budget hearings that related to his work as the chair of the Senate Codes Committee.
He, like the others, will sometimes come to Albany for the day and then return to New York City in the evening to campaign. Mr. Myrie brought a large rolling suitcase to the forum Ms. Ramos arrived at late.
The bag made riding the subway harder, he said. He described feeling a sense of embarrassment — the kind that only New Yorkers know — when his luggage slowed his passage through a subway turnstile and elicited frustrated stares from commuters.
Scheduling conflicts happen, he said.
“Our conflicts just happen to be close to 150 miles north of New York City,” Mr. Myrie said.
Candidates in local posts, such as Brad Lander, the city comptroller, can simply walk outside their Manhattan offices and make news before a captive audience. Mr. Myrie, Ms. Ramos and Mr. Mamdani can’t campaign inside the Capitol and regularly step out to take fund-raising calls or do video interviews.
“I am outside freezing when I make those phone calls,” Mr. Mamdani said. “I’ll also sit at an outdoor picnic table and I’ll do video interviews and hope that nobody interrupts me.”
Mr. Mamdani has shown signs of momentum in recent polls, emerging as the most popular of several progressive candidates in the race. He and the others are seeking to draw a contrast with former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who is leading after entering the race this month.
The distance from New York City has been a challenge, he said, but his campaign has been adept at making the most of his presence in Albany and using social media to attract a network of younger volunteers back home.
This week, Mr. Mamdani posted a video imploring voters to donate to his campaign before a fund-raising deadline. The backdrop was a park — not in his Queens district, but on the west side of the Capitol. And he created a campaign moment when he was front and center on Wednesday for a protest against President Trump’s border czar, Thomas Homan, who met with Republican lawmakers at the Capitol.
The protest focused on the administration’s mass deportation plans and its detention of the pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent legal resident. Video of Mr. Mamdani shouting “Do you believe in the First Amendment, Tom Homan?” traveled far and wide on social media.
Like Ms. Ramos and Mr. Myrie, Mr. Mamdani packs his weekends with campaign events in New York City. One Sunday this winter, he filmed a video at the swearing-in of New York’s dog mayor. As he left, his team recorded another video about the first wave of ICE raids in New Jersey.
Immediately after the second video wrapped, he got in the front seat of another state senator’s car, ready to head back to Albany.