BREAKING NEWS: Eric Adams declared winner of the New York City primary putting him on track to succeed Bill de Blasio as mayor in November
- Adams, 60, is a former police officer and president of the borough of Brooklyn
- On Tuesday night the Associated Press called the election for Adams
- His strongest challenge was mounted by Kathryn Garcia, former sanitation chief
- Adams has promised to improve law and order in the city amid surging crime
- A Democrat, he will take on Republican Curtis Sliwa in November and likely win
- Bill de Blasio, the current mayor, is unable to run for third term and steps down
Eric Adams has been declared the winner of the New York City mayoral primary by Associated Press, setting him on course to be the next mayor of the biggest city in the United States.
Adams, a 60-year-old former police officer and current president of the borough of Brooklyn, fought off a fierce challenge from Kathryn Garcia – a former sanitation chief, hoping to become the first female mayor.
Adams, a Democrat, will take on his Republican challenger Curtis Sliwa in November.
In the strongly-Democrat city, Adams’s victory is all-but guaranteed.
He will take over from the immensely unpopular Bill de Blasio, also a Democrat, who cannot run for a third term.
Eric Adams, 60, has been declared the victor in the Democratic primary to replace Bill de Blasio as mayor of New York City. He will take on the Republican challenger in November, with his success in the strongly Democrat city almost guaranteed
Adams is seen speaking to reporters on June 24 in New York City
The election was the first time that New York City used ranked choice voting (RCV).
The experiment was not without problems: last week, the Board of Elections had to admit that they had mistakenly counted test ballots, and redo their count.
Yet on Tuesday night they felt confident enough in the results to publish them, leading AP to make the call.
Dave Wasserman, House editor of the Cook Political Report, agreed, tweeting: ‘It’s been a wild ride, but I’ve finally seen enough: Eric Adams (D) is the apparent winner of the NYC Democratic mayoral primary, defeating Kathryn Garcia (D).’
Wasserman, known for his election analysis, said that Garcia performed less well when absentee ballots were counted.
‘How did Adams win? Garcia didn’t get as much of an RCV boost from absentee voters as in-person voters,’ he tweeted.
‘By my math… In-person voters: Adams 32%-19% 1st choice, Garcia 46%-24% non-1st choice.
‘Absentee voters: Adams 24%-21% 1st choice, Garcia 40%-26% non-1st choice.’