NEW YORK CITY (CN) — New Yorkers aren’t known for their patience, but they don’t have much of a choice except to wait for the results of the election expected to decide who will be the Big Apple’s next mayor.
Eric Adams, Brooklyn borough president and a former police officer of 22 years, got the most first choice votes in the city’s Democratic mayoral primary Monday night — the first race of its kind to employ ranked choice voting. But new election laws and absentee ballots mean the winner may not be decided for weeks.
Based on in-person voting alone, Adams got more than 31% of first choice votes, according to New York City’s Board of Elections, as of 1 a.m. Eastern time.
Maya Wiley, former counselor to Mayor Bill de Blasio and an MSNBC legal analyst, is in second place with more than 22%, and former sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia, just shy of 20%, is in a close third.
Since no candidate got 50% of the vote, and absentee ballots won’t be counted until next Tuesday, the election will ultimately be decided by ranked choice voting. That leaves the possibility for another candidate to overtake Adams.
On Tuesday night, though, Adams leaned into his big lead. “The little guy won today,” he said shortly after 11 p.m.
He acknowledged that the early results counted first choice votes only.
“There’s going to be twos, and threes, and fours, we know that,” Adams said. “But there’s something else we know: New York City said, ‘our first choice is Eric Adams.’”
Adams went on to criticize reporters, and specifically young journalists, for paying attention to Twitter during the mayoral election, suggesting that “seasoned” reporters know and respect him.
“Social media does not pick a candidate,” he said. “People on social security pick a candidate.”
Later, in a somber moment, Adams remembered his late mother, who died in March, saying the city betrayed her by creating conditions under which she could not afford nutritious food and had to work three jobs.
He promised better days ahead. “Tonight, all of us, we are on the precipice of gaining the keys to the prosperity of our city,” Adams said.
Despite the unknowns of ranked choice voting, Adams’ 10% lead will be difficult — though not impossible — to overcome in the runoff rounds, said George Fontas, political analyst and founder of Fontas Advisors.
Back in January, Fontas said, his team predicted that New Yorkers wanted to elect a pragmatic, moderate Democrat with significant governing experience and a “roll-up-your-sleeves attitude.”
“Eric has really embodied that description to a T over the last six months,” Fontas said.
He added that, at the start of the campaign, the central issue was the Covid-19 pandemic. By the end, talk had turned to policing. Debate questions centered on whether to defund police budgets or increase officers’ presence on streets and subways.
Adams “met the campaign at the end,” Fontas said. “He was waiting there on the police and public safety issue,” and the campaign eventually made its way there, too.
In second place, Wiley, who emerged as the favorite progressive choice in recent weeks, appeared in good spirits throughout the evening, dancing with supporters and campaign staff as results came in.
Speaking with a campaign’s-end hoarseness in her voice, Wiley addressed her campaign, calling them “our people, who look like the City of New York.”
She said that she knows people are fearful about recovery: “Whether we recover what we love about this city, whether I recover my voice.”
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