Zellnor Myrie was one of the first candidates to launch a campaign for mayor, but his head start in the race doesn’t have him in the front of a crowded field — at least not yet.

A son of Costa Rican immigrants, the 38-year-old has been a Brooklyn state senator since 2019, and is hoping ranked-choice voting could give him the political jolt he needs.

NY1 shadowed Myrie on the campaign trail in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens.

This Brooklyn native is working for votes ahead of the upcoming Democratic mayoral primary.

Knocking on the doors of potential Queens voters, Zellnor’s father Mel Myrie is a former public school teacher.

“He wants it, he wants to get the job done. He feels like he’s very capable of doing it. It just feels like there’s no one else to get this done but him,” Mel Myrie said.

Zellnor Myrie told NY1 his upbringing helped shape his politics.

“I’m just like every other New Yorker who takes the subway every day, who is still trying to pay back student loans, who is still trying to make my way. It is the capital of opportunity, this city. It is why my parents came here close to 50 years ago,” he said.

Alongside other progressives, Myrie’s 2018 election win ended a years-long alliance between moderate Democrats and a Republican minority in the State Senate.

“It takes painstaking work in the background. That isn’t glamorous, that isn’t press conferences, that isn’t being in front of the camera. That is building relationships,” Zellnor Myrie said.

In Albany, he voted to change New York’s bail and discovery laws, strengthen pro-tenant protections, sponsored gun control and election laws and wrote the “Clean Slate Act.”

“You should be able to apply for a job. You should be able to get some housing, get some financial aid,” he said.

In 2020, Myrie was pepper sprayed by NYPD officers during a police reform protest.

He sued the department in federal court, and, although a city investigation substantiated allegations against the officers involved, no disciplinary action was taken.

As mayor, Myrie says he would hire more cops.

“My mom doesn’t want me to get pepper sprayed, but she also feels safe when she sees more cops. That’s the type of mayor that I want to be. To incorporate both of those sentiments and say we need a robust, well-run, accountable police department,” he said.

But the Brooklyn Democrat finds himself polling in the middle of the pack. He’s raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions and qualified for matching funds.

“We need universal after-school. That’s not a partisan thing, that’s not a ‘where in the spectrum are you?’ That is: we need to help working families have some relief. We need to have our kids off the street,” Myrie said of how he plans to gain traction.