Eric Adams, the current borough president of Brooklyn, has won the NYC Democratic mayoral primary, the AP says. Adam and opponent Kathryn Garcia, came within about 9,000 votes. The New York City Board of Elections released the results Tuesday evening.
(BREAKING NEWS)
New York, NY – A former police captain, Adams would be the city’s second Black mayor if elected. He speaks frequently of his dual identity as a 22-year police veteran and a Black man who endured police brutality himself as a teenager. He said he was beaten by officers at age 15. Adams became a police officer in 1984 and rose to the rank of captain before leaving to run for the state Senate in 2006. After winning a state Senate seat from Brooklyn in 2006, Adams made an impression with an impassioned speech favoring same-sex marriage rights in 2009, two years before New York’s state legislators passed a marriage equality bill. He became the Brooklyn borough president in 2013.
Adams campaigned against former city sanitation commisioner Kathryn Garcia, and former City Hall legal advisor Maya Wiley, was endorsed by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Andrew Yang, the 2020 presidential candidate known for his proposed universal basic income, ran, but conceded on election day.
Election day was June 22, but delays ensued as absentee ballots were counted and officials reckoned with challenges during the city’s first ranked choice voting election. Under rank choice, voters rank up to five candidates for mayor in order of preference. Candidates with too few votes to win are eliminated and ballots cast for them redistributed to the surviving contenders, based on the voter preference, until only two are left.
Adams will face Curtis Sliwa, the Republican founder of the Guardian Angels in the general election. Democrats outnumber Republicans 7-to-1 in New York City.
Find more BNA election coverage here.
