Although the city has not yet elected its new mayor, both of the candidates to emerge from the first round of voting on Saturday are women.

The top two contenders, City Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell and former Municipal Court Judge Desiree Charbonnet, will now face each other in a runoff election on Nov. 18. (New Orleans uses a top-two “jungle primary” system in which nonpartisan elections proceed to a runoff if no candidate gets over 50 percent on the first ballot.)

Cantrell received 39 percent of the vote to Charbonnet’s 30 percent. In the field of 18 candidates, former Civil District Court Judge Michael Bagneris came in a distant third place with 19 percent.

Cantrell, a community organizer who thwarted an effort to raze her Broadmoor neighborhood after Hurricane Katrina, is regarded as the more progressive of the two candidates.

Cantrell’s support for a $15 minimum wage and criminal justice reform earned her the backing of local left-leaning organizations like Step Up Louisiana and national groups like the Working Families Party. As a city councilwoman, Cantrell spearheaded the successful 2015 effort to ban smoking in New Orleans’ bars, restaurants and casinos.

Progressive groups backing Cantrell see in her bid an opportunity to add to a string of recent victories in local races. Candidates endorsed by the Working Families Party and its allies have won mayoral elections in recent months in Jackson, Mississippi, and Birmingham, Alabama, as well as a seat on the city council of South Fulton, Georgia.