Voters Set to Pick Who Will Lead New York City’s Economic Recovery, Fight Against Rising Crime and More

Voters stand in booths at a voting station in a file photo. Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images

• Voters in New York City head to the polls Tuesday to decide who will become Democratic nominee to be the city’s next mayor, and who will therefore likely lead its economic comeback, fight against rising violent crime and more.
• Eight Democrats are vying for the nomination, but polls have shown the top four pulling away from the rest of the field. NYC, however, is using ranked-choice voting for the first time, making it hard to predict who will emerge victorious.
• The primary campaign has been contentious, with candidates Andrew Yang and Kathryn Garcia teaming up during the final weekend of campaigning in an attempt to blunt frontrunner Eric Adams’ late momentum.
• The alliance drew sharp rebuke from Adams: “For them to come together like they are doing in the last three days, they’re saying we can’t trust a person of color to be the mayor of the City of New York when this city is overwhelmingly people of color.”
• Voters in New York City head to the polls Tuesday to decide who will become Democratic nominee to be the city’s next mayor, and who will therefore likely lead its comeback from the pandemic, its fight against rising violent crime and more.

Eight Democrats are vying to win Tuesday’s primary, but polls have shown the top four—Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, former city sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia and Maya Wiley, a former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio—pulling away from the other half of the field. New York City, however, is using ranked-choice voting, a method where voters rank their preferred candidates in order instead of picking just one, for the first time in its history, making it hard to predict who will emerge from Tuesday’s race as the victor.

Adams, a former New York Police Department officer who has campaigned on lowering the city’s crime rate and obtained the endorsement of most of the city’s police organizations, has led in recent polls. He has supported past use of stop-and-frisk, opposes the “defund the police” movement and has said that he will carry if elected, putting him at odds with many of his fellow candidates and making him a target of the progressive left.