NEW YORK (AP) — Eric Adams, the winner of the Democratic primary for mayor of New York City, vowed Wednesday to guide the city to a new era of safety and prosperity.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
“New York is going to show America how to run cities,” Adams said on “CBS This Morning.” “Because I know how to run this city. I know how to lead.”
Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, bested a large Democratic field in New York’s first major race to use ranked choice voting. Results from the latest tabulations showed him leading former city sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia by 8,426 votes, or a little more than 1 percentage point.
The Associated Press called the race for Adams based on mail-in ballot results in the June 22 primary that were added to the vote count Tuesday.
Adams will be the second Black mayor of the nation’s largest city if he wins the general election in November.
Adams, 60, is a moderate Democrat who opposed the “defund the police” movement while acknowledging the reality of abuse such as he himself faced as a teenager when he was beaten by officers.
“I was arrested, I was assaulted by police officers,” Adams said on CBS. “I didn’t say, ‘Woe is me.’ I said, ‘Why not me.’ I became a police officer. I understand crime, and I also understand police abuse, and I know how we can turn around not only New York, but America.”
Asked what he would say to officers who are angry about calls to defund their departments, Adams said, “I say to my officers, ‘If you don’t want to be on the street any more, then get off my streets.’ I don’t want to hear someone say, because they don’t like what government is doing, you’re not going to protect my public. No.”
He promised, “I’m going to have the finest officers. I will have their backs, but they’re going to have the backs of the people of this city.”
Garcia conceded Wednesday and congratulated Adams. Maya Wiley, a civil rights attorney who was in third place in the primary vote tally, planned a news conference Wednesday.
With Democrats outnumbering Republicans 7 to 1 in the city, Adams will be heavily favored to defeat Republican Curtis Sliwa in the general election.
This is good news . In New York , he’s the most conservative person that would have any chance of winning . Many people are relived that the AOC- backed candidate, Maya Wiley , lost . We dodged a bullet .
I’m happy about this BUT people shouldn’t expect or even hope for a return to the 1990’s glory days of NYC under Rudy Giuliani. Adams is a Democrat and will face enormous pressure from his leftist base to tone down his anti-crime agenda. At best, . Adams will end the current “Wild West” atmosphere of the DiBlasio era and make NYC decent again. But we’ll never again be as safe as we were under Rudy. The left will see to that.
New Yorkers will be in serious trouble under Adam’s. Don’t waste the great opportunity to vote SLIWA.
It’s really the only choice and chance at saving the City.