NEW YORK – Eric Adams was still holding onto his lead Wednesday in the Democratic primary race for mayor, with Maya Wiley narrowly holding onto second place over Kathryn Garcia.
The Brooklyn borough president had about 31% of the vote, pulling ahead of Wiley, a de Blasio administration lawyer, who had about 22% of the vote.
Garcia, the former city sanitation commissioner, was trailing with just under 20% of the vote.
There’s still a long way to go before the city Board of Elections declares anyone the winner, with absentee ballots and ranked-choice votes still to be counted.
Mail-in votes only needed to be sent by Tuesday and can arrive as late as June 29 to be valid. They will only be tabulated after that deadline passes.
But Adams was firmly in the driver’s seat in a contentious Democratic race that knocked out businessman Andrew Yang, a one-time front-runner who conceded Tuesday night after only scooping up about 11% of the vote.
Whoever wins the Democratic primary is all but certain to become the next mayor, though he or she will still have to square off against Republican Curtis Sliwa in the Nov. 2 general election to replace Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Turnout was better than expected. De Blasio said roughly 944,000 ballots had been cast as of Wednesday morning, a figure that includes votes cast in person during the early voting period and on primary day Tuesday, along with mail-in votes received so far.
“New York has reason to be proud,” de Blasio said Wednesday during his regular news conference.
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