Yang campaign holds on to hope in NYC mayoral race

It's election day in New York City. and Andrew Yang.

Editor's Note: This article was edited on June 22, 11 a.m. to clarity that this is a primary election.

 

It is anybody's race for New York City mayor as voter's go to the polls today to determine who will be the city's Democratic nominee for mayor.

Andrew Yang seeks to become NYC's first Asian American mayor by running as an outsider who will offer a new path and new ideas hoping that will counter his lack of political experience. 

The winner of the Democratic primary will almost certainly be New York City's next mayor because of the huge edge Democrats have no matter who the Republican nominee will be.

Yang's early lead has disappeared and in most polls, the former presidential candidate finds himself behind Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president..

In the finals days of the mayoral campaign, Adams, an African American, accused Yang and former Sanitation commissioner Kathryn Garcia of creating an allyship to tamp down the Black vote.

"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," Adams said.

Yang responded, "I've been Asian all my entire life."

"Imagine an administration that is led by someone who cuts corners and breaks rules and is constantly under investigation and then attacks whenever he's criticized and then invokes race as the rationale for any criticism that's directed toward him, and then you imagine hundreds of managers taking their cues from this person," Yang told The New York Times on Monday.

“I’m not even going to respond," to Adams' attack said Garcia, who is white who grew up in a multi-racial family. In a statement, she accused Adams of “resorting to divisive politics that erode New York City’s democracy.”

Garcia and Yang have been appearing together in the days leading up to voting day, which is not uncommon in elections that use ranked voting. The candidates hope to get their ally's supporter's second or third choice vote, which will come into play if none of the candidates receive more than 50% of the ballots. With eight candidates running for mayor, it is likely that no one will have a majority of the votes.

Yang's early lead slowly dissipated because of his inexperience in campaigning and apparent lack of knowing the weeds of public policy and critical issues resulting in some embarrassing gaffs that might seem inconsequential but played into the media portrayal of him as not a "real" New Yorker, despite living in the city for 25 years.

His supporters say the attacks are a form of the "othering" of Asian Americans, reinforcing the stereotyping of AAPI as perpetual foreigners.

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Andrew Yang rallies his New York City supporters. "Let's win this," he said.

In a bit of a jujitsu move, Yang turned his political inexperience into an asset by claiming the city needed new leadership with new ideas, not just the same old status quo. He's campaigned on public safety and revived a trimmed down version of his Universal Basic Income idea that was so popular during his presidential bid.

“We do feel like we are getting our voters out now," Yang's co-campaign manager Chris Coffey told Spectrum News. "It’s a very strong Asian number among folks who’ve already voted, Orthodox Jewish number is pretty good, Staten Island’s a little bit higher than it usually is, not by much, but a little bit.”

Yang's campaign to get strong support from young voters and those groups who are traditionally underpolled, including Orthodox Jews and Asian Americans.

“Our team just did a poll of the people that have actually voted and it had us in the lead," Yang said Friday. "The numbers show also that 30 to 40% of the voters are new voters and we think they’re coming out in droves for change.”

EDITOR'S NOTE: VOTE! New York City polls will be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.

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Andrew Yang's whirlwind campaign stopped in Chinatown Monday  to speak against AAPI hate.