Associated Press Calls NYC Democratic Mayoral Primary For Eric Adams; Former NYPD Captain Likely To Be City’s Second Black Mayor

The Associated Press Tuesday called the New York City Democratic primary for Brooklyn borough chief Eric Adams, a former NYPD captain who appears to have beaten out his closest rival Kathryn Garcia as well as third place Maya Wiley.

All three had trounced former presidential hopeful Andrew Yang in primary voting last month.

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With most absentee votes now counted, Adams led Garcia by 8,426 votes in the city’s first mayoral contest to be determined by so-called ranked-choice voting, a somewhat confusing system that allowed voters to rank all the candidates by preference. The city will announce official results in July. Adams, the overwhelming favorite to win in November against the Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa (founder of the Guardian Angels), would be the Big Apple’s second black mayor.

Garcia is the former Department of Sanitation commissioner. Wiley, who was the leading candidate among progressives, is former counsel to outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio.

According to Adams’ website, he is one of six children, born in Brooklyn’s Brownsville and raised in South Jamaica, Queens, by a single mom who cleaned houses. He was beaten by police in the basement of a precinct house at 15 and later joined the NYPD where he was outspoken in calling out racism and bias in the department and pushing for reform.

From the NYPD, he moved to the State Senate representing sections of Brooklyn. He was the first person of color to chair the Senate’s Homeland Security Committee. He was elected Brooklyn Borough President in 2013.

After being diagnosed with diabetes, he stepped up public health efforts across the city and pushed for increased education in schools and with high-risk populations in lower-income areas.

He received his master’s degree in public administration from Marist College, and is a graduate of New York City Technical College and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

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