nyc mayor

NYC mayor's race: Adams confident, Wiley and Garcia say wait and see

The New York City primary is the first test of ranked choice voting in the city

Thursday, June 24, 2021

Adams confident, Wiley and Garcia say wait and see

Dave Evans has the latest on the remaining candidates in the race for New York City mayor.

NEW YORK (WABC) -- The frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for New York City mayor, Eric Adams, seemed as confident as ever and with his strong lead he warned President Joe Biden and Democrats across the country that if they don't adopt his blue-collar focus on Black and brown voters then Democrats he says are destined to lose.

"I am the future of the new Democratic party. Look at me and you're seeing the future of the Democratic party," Adams said.

Adams weighed in on a host of issues Thursday, advocating for no-kill animal shelters, he said it's time to let drones fly in the city, and he repeated his promise to hire a woman to lead the police department.

Insiders say NYPD Chief of Patrol Juanita Holmes is probably the next police commissioner.

But Thursday was mostly about presenting a positive, upbeat message about Eric Adams as mayor and bringing the city over the issue of safety.

"So no matter who didn't vote for me, when they go out and go to that park and not have someone injecting themself with heroin in front of that park they're going to say 'you know what, I didn't vote for that guy, but I'll be damned if I don't love him, he made my city safe," Adams said.

On Wednesday, second-place finisher Maya Wiley warned Adams, let's count all of the votes, let's see what happens between now and July 12.

On Thursday, fellow candidate Kathryn Garcia said much the same thing.

"I'm not counting any chickens before they are hatched," Garcia said. "We've got a lot of the absentees and then we're going to run the rankings."

Right now, Adams has about a 10-point lead over his closest competitor.

Experts say leap-frogging that size of a lead is almost impossible, but we won't know for sure until sometime in mid-July.

ALSO READ | Wing of Miami-area condo building collapses; Up to 50 missing, many feared dead