Eric Adams, a former NYPD captain and Brooklyn borough president, will be the next to lead New York City, becoming the city's second Black mayor, NBC News projects.
Adams, a Democrat, beat Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, who founded the 1970s-era anti-crime patrol, the Guardian Angels.
Adams previously defeated a slew of candidates in the city's Democratic primary in June, running as a tough-on-crime moderate after the city became an epicenter of protests against police brutality in the wake of George Floyd's death.
The primary election in June was the city's first use of ranked-choice voting, which allowed voters to pick their top five choices. But the results were thrown into chaos after the Board of Elections released an initial batch of votes with 135,000 test ballots, showing that Adams was leading his closest competitor by only a small margin. After correcting the error, Adams emerged as the clear victor weeks later.
Adams opposes the "defund the police'' movement and promised during the campaign to modernize the NYPD and reallocate police resources to focus on combating gun violence, among other areas. He plans to publicize a list of cops the department is monitoring for bad behavior and hire more minority officers, and has said he will hire the city's first female police commissioner.
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Sliwa campaigned on easing Covid-related mandates, particularly the mandatory vaccinations for city workers and vowed to overhaul the tax system to benefit low- and middle-income families.
When he arrived at his polling site on Tuesday, the known cat lover who has reportedly adopted more than a dozen felines brought one of his cats with him, according to The New York Times. Sliwa sparred with election workers who informed him that pets were not permitted at the site, and that he would have to remove a jacket with his name on it in order to comply with electioneering rules. While casting his vote, Sliwa's ballot jammed in the machine, which had to be repaired, the newspaper reported.
Adams drew national headlines during the campaign when questions were raised about his residency — prompting Adams to give reporters an awkward walk-through of his Brooklyn brownstone to dispel the rumor that he lived in New Jersey.
When he takes the reins from Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio, Adams will oversee the injection of billions in federal aid to a number of programs, including housing, education, transportation and infrastructure.