Democrat Eric Adams was elected the new mayor of New York on Tuesday (2), according to projections by the Associated Press news agency and CNN. He will be the second black person to rule the city in history. The first was also Democrat David Dinkins​, between 1990 and 1993.
With 62% of the counting completed, Adams has 66.7% of the votes, which allowed him to determine the projection of his victory over Republican broadcaster Curtis Sliwa, who scores 28.2% of the preference.
Adams, 61, a former New York police captain, has focused his campaign on public safety and promises to fight crime more effectively. The city faces an increase in violent crime for the first time in 30 years. The new leader will have to lead the city through a post-pandemic rebound, as the health crisis has slowed tourism and emptied the office market for months. Both sectors are important sources of income for the largest US metropolis, home to 8.4 million inhabitants.
The Democrat’s campaign was financed by businessmen from the real estate establishment, in the city with the most expensive square meter in the country and the largest number of apartments for rent, which raises doubts about how much he will remain connected to this group when he takes office. He owns real estate and was accused of lack of transparency, failing to register at least one apartment.
Adams has already taken a stand against rental price control policies adopted during the pandemic. Asked about the topic, he said that regulating rents discriminates against “black and brown” small landowners like him. Most apartments for rent in New York, however, are owned by entrepreneurs with dozens of properties, and the real estate lobby is predominantly white.
The new mayor is now deputy mayor of Brooklyn and has drawn a diverse coalition of voters, from the conservative and predominantly white Staten Island to middle-class Latino neighborhoods in Queens and the Bronx.
Adams was born in Brooklyn to parents who moved from Alabama to New York in the 1950s. He was the fourth of six siblings and had a poor childhood. At 15, he was arrested for theft and beaten by the police.
The case, however, motivated him to join the security forces to try to change the way the corporation acted. He joined the NYPD in his youth, stayed at the institution for 22 years, and left as captain.
In the police, he led an association of black agents and worked with the Nation of Islam group. In 1997, he registered as a Republican, but in 2001 he migrated to the Democratic Party. In 2006, he was elected to the state senate and held that office until 2013, when he assumed the role of regional administrator for Brooklyn.
Democrats have ruled the city since 2014, when Bill de Blasio, who remains in office until the end of this year, succeeded Michael Bloomberg. The businessman led New York City Hall for 12 years —affiliated with the Republican Party and as an independent— and returned to the Democratic Party in the 2020 presidential election.
Also on Tuesday, Alvin Bragg was elected attorney general for the district of Manhattan. He will be the first black man to hold the position and will lead the investigation into former President Donald Trump’s business, which includes allegations of tax fraud.
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