By Ariama C. Long
Report for America Corps Member
Amsterdam News Staff
New York City has voted in this Nov. 2 its second Black Mayor. Eric Adams is a lifelong Democrat, a health-conscious ex-cop, and the former borough president of Brooklyn.
Adams voted earlier this morning, showing up to the polls with a picture of his mother and shedding tears over his long journey to the Mayor’s office.
The Board of Elections (BOE) posted that there were 169,879 unofficial early votes, with Brooklyn pulling in 47,547 votes in what’s likely Adams’ core audience.
The New York Times reported that Adams had 135,412 votes, or 75.6%, around 9:17 pm on election night, and was declared the winner of the Mayoral race by the Associated Press.
His Republican opponent Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels, has 35,588 votes or 19.9%.
Adams ran a campaign laser-focused on public safety and crime reduction, and was the assumed victor in a city where Democratic votes usually outweigh Republicans. He has made hefty promises to stay true to his low-income Brooklyn and Queens roots during his campaign.
Adams’ watch party was held at the Brooklyn Marriott, just across the street from his borough hall offices.
A multicultural and religiously diverse crowd of supporters flowed into the hotel ballroom to await the election results around 8 pm, just before the closing of the polls.
Brooklyn resident George Patterson, of My Brother’s Keeper organization, said he is a big supporter and donor of Adams.
“He got with the crime reduction initiative, but it’s really the education plans that I think he’s going to be good at, 100 percent,” said Patterson at the event.
Cheers of “oh my god, we won” and “thank you New York City” were heard throughout the crowd.
Ariama C. Long is a Report for America corps member and writes about culture and politics in New York City for The Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by clicking here: bit.ly/amnews1
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