And Mark-Viverito, 49, is far from the only one to have noticed.

In the Feb. 26 special election for public advocate, roughly two-thirds of the 17 candidates are minorities and four are women, and many have made the need for more diverse representation a prominent part of their campaigns.

Whoever wins would have an instant platform to run as mayor in 2021, when Mayor Bill de Blasio leaves office because of term limits, especially in a city where 65 percent of the population is black, Latino or Asian.

“People of color are not being represented as we should,” said Michael Blake, 36, a black assemblyman from the Bronx who is running for the position. “In a city as diverse as we are, it’s essential that the next public advocate is a person of color.”

Mark-Viverito has put race and gender at the forefront of her campaign. She has repeatedly noted that de Blasio; Scott Stringer, the city comptroller; and Corey Johnson, who succeeded Mark-Viverito as the speaker, are all white men.

“How can this be?” she asked during her campaign kickoff speech in November.

The seat became vacant after Letitia James, who is African-American, was elected attorney general in November and left the office Jan. 1. By quirk of city law, Johnson is filling in as the city’s acting public advocate, simultaneously holding two of the city’s top offices.

“We have 2 1/2 white people from Massachusetts who are leading our city,” said Rafael Espinal, 34, a councilman from Brooklyn who is running for public advocate, referring to de Blasio and Johnson. “This is a good opportunity to have someone of color break the ice.”

While the number of female and minority candidates elected to Congress in 2018 set a record, the leadership of the country’s largest cities remains startlingly white. All but five of the 15 largest cities in the country are run by white men.

In New York, the 2009 mayoral election marked the first time that the majority of people who voted were black, Asian or Latino. Yet the city has had only one black mayor and no female mayor.

The desire to see diverse groups of people elected to office is slowly trickling down to the city level, said Basil Smikle, a former executive director of the state Democratic Party and a lecturer on politics and public policy at City University of New York.

“The midterms showed there is more of an appetite than ever for a much more diverse cohort of leaders,” Smikle said. “Now, there is an expectation to produce more diverse candidates, and if voters don’t see that, they will automatically say this is a problem.”

The position of public advocate exists because it was intended to address the problem of a lack of minority leadership, said Eric Lane, who served as executive director and counsel to the 1989 Charter Revision Commission. (Later that year, David Dinkins was elected as the city’s first and only African-American mayor.)

The commission agreed to expand the City Council to 51 seats, up from 35, to increase the chances that minority candidates would be elected, but citywide representation remained a problem.

“There was considerable racial tension in the city,” Lane said, “and a sense that despite the minority population growing, there was not adequate minority representation in government.”

There were also calls to abolish the position of City Council president. Lane and others argued that eliminating the position would prove harmful to minorities and not be approved by the U.S. Justice Department, which had to approve revisions to the City Charter under the Federal Voting Rights Act.

The commission initially kept the title of City Council president but redefined the position into more of an ombudsman role. The City Council officially changed the name to public advocate in 1993.

Lane believes the commission made the right call. James became the first black woman elected to citywide office as public advocate in 2013. Her election to state attorney general made her the first black woman elected to statewide office.

“An African-American woman used that job as the basis to become the attorney general of New York, and she could have become the mayor,” Lane said. “Whoever wins this election is going to be immediately a candidate for mayor — if they want to.”

But many of the leading minority candidates are walking a careful line when talking about their ambitions.

If elected to do so, Espinal said, he would serve the remainder of James’ term and run for the two full additional terms available, for a total of a decade in office if he is successful.

“Have I thought about running for mayor? Anyone who wants to see the city progress would like to have the opportunity to take the mantle,” Espinal said.

Dawn Smalls, 41, a former lawyer in the Obama administration who is African-American and running for public advocate, said that she was not running for mayor — ever.

Councilman Jumaane Williams, a candidate for public advocate who narrowly lost a Democratic primary for lieutenant governor, said he is “100 percent” not running for mayor in 2021 and has “no desire to be mayor.”

“I can’t say what happens 10 years from now,” he said.

Mark-Viverito will not rule out running for mayor in 2021 but said she is focused on being the public advocate. Ron Kim, an assemblyman from Queens, said he is similarly focused and single-minded.

Blake also said he had no plans to run for mayor in 2021. “People need steady leadership now,” he said.

That has not stopped many of the candidates from framing their campaigns around topics that affect minority New Yorkers, amid a national debate about institutionalized racism and income inequality.

In recent forums with Ilana Glazer, one of the creators and stars of “Broad City,” several candidates invoked those themes. Nomiki Konst, a journalist and activist, spoke of the city’s vast inequality that punished the poor; Smalls criticized the mayor for not giving priority to homeless women and children in the city’s affordable housing lottery.

Kim cited the recent debate over de Blasio’s proposal to change admission to eight of the city’s specialized high schools and a plan to expand a program to increase diversity at the schools. City officials did not do enough outreach with Asian-Americans, he said.

“Coming from a community that’s one of the fastest-growing minority groups, we often feel like we don’t have a voice in citywide decisions. We are not even invited to the table,” Kim said.

In spite of their focus on diverse representation, most of the candidates couched their remarks by saying they were the best candidate regardless of race or gender. Mark-Viverito and Williams got into a spat about identity politics during their forum with Glazer. Williams seemed to take exception to Mark-Viverito’s repeatedly talking about the lack of women in leadership.

“Gender is particularly important in 2019. I always say it can’t be the only thing. I always call identity the gravy of the meal,” Williams said before being interrupted by Mark-Viverito.

“I said I’m the most qualified candidate, also a woman,” she chimed in.

As for the five white male candidates — Eric Ulrich, a Queens councilman; Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell of Manhattan; David Eisenbach, a Columbia history professor; A. Manny Alicandro, a lawyer; and Jared Rich, a lawyer — perhaps Rich can speak for the group.

Rich said that he values a government that is representative. But, he added, “it’s hard for me to say only a woman, only a person of color should get this job.”

Inevitably, Rich then gave his candidacy a plug.

“Even though I’m a white guy,” he said, “I’m actually the best-qualified candidate for the job.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.