Eric Adams wins race for New York City mayor

AP | Democrat Eric Adams has been elected New York City mayor, defeating Republican Curtis Sliwa on Tuesday in a contest far easier than his next task: steering a damaged city through its recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Adams, a former New York City police captain and the Brooklyn borough president, will become the second Black mayor of the nation’s most populous city. David Dinkins, who served from 1990 to 1993, was the first.

“Tonight, New York has chosen one of you – one of our own. I am you. I am you,” Adams told a jubilant crowd at his victory party at a hotel in his hometown borough of Brooklyn. “After years of praying and hoping and struggling and working, we are headed to City Hall.”

Adams’ victory seemed all but assured after he emerged as the winner from a crowded Democratic primary this summer in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans 7 to 1.

As a candidate, Adams referenced his working-class roots and being raised with 5 siblings by a single mother who cleaned houses. He described carrying a garbage bag of clothes to school out of fear his family would be evicted. He brought a photo of his late mother with him Tuesday as he voted in Brooklyn. He teared up as he described his life as a classic New York story, rising from a poor upbringing to become the leader of the city.

Adams, 61, will take office January 1 in a city where more than 34,500 people have been killed by COVID-19, and where the economy is still beset by challenges related to the pandemic. The tourism industry hasn’t come back yet. Office buildings remain partly empty, with people still working from home. Schools are trying to get children back on track after a year of distance learning.

Adams brings a nuanced perspective on policing and crime, drawing on his experiences as a former police captain, an officer who gained early attention for speaking critically about the department he served in, and as someone who experienced police brutality as a teen.
At age 15, he said, he was beaten by police officers when he was arrested for trespassing.

He rejected progressive mantras to “defund the police,” though, and said he was proud of his time in the department.

Adams became a transit police officer in 1984. As a police officer, he cofounded an advocacy group, 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, which pushed for criminal justice reform and decried police brutality.

Adams retired from the police department in 2006. He then won a seat in the state Senate, representing Brooklyn. In 2013, he was elected borough president.

Though seen as the moderate candidate in the crowded Democratic primary, one who offered a business-friendly approach, Adams has rejected the label and maintains he is a progressive.

He is a vegan who wrote a book in 2020 about how a plant-based diet helped him with diabetes.

Adams faced questions as a candidate about his residence after Politico reported he was sleeping at his Borough Hall office often. He co-owns an apartment in Fort Lee, New Jersey, with his partner, Tracey Collins. He tried to dispel the questions during the campaign by giving reporters a tour of a basement apartment in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood that he said is his primary residence.

Sliwa tried to spotlight the issue during the campaign by crossing a bridge to Fort Lee while holding a milk carton featuring a picture of “missing” Adams.

In his concession speech, Sliwa made it clear he wasn’t going to fade from the headlines.

“You will have Curtis Sliwa to kick around,” he vowed.