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.

Andrew Yang drops in poll as New Yorkers cast their ballots for the city's next mayor

 

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New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang cast his ballot Wednesday.

Updated June 18.

Since he declared his candidacy for New York City mayor, Andrew Yang led in the polls. No more.

According to a new survey, Yang is in second place with Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams atop a poll conducted by the lobbying firm Capalino & Company with the Honan Strategy Group.

Adams is the choice of 26 percent of likely Democratic voters, with former presidential candidate Andrew Yang in second place with 15 percent support.

Former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia and ex-City Hall counsel Maya Wiley are tied in third place, with 11 percent support each. The other four candidates are in single digits.

Still other surveys, such as the Marist poll released this week, place Yang in the middle of the pack

Early voting in the contest began last Saturday and will culminate on Election Day, June 22. In NYC's ranked voting, voters pick five of teh candidates in numerical order. If none of the candidates garner more than 50% -- which will likely occur -- the second and third choices will be added to their total.

The New York Post reports that tens of thousands of New Yorkers have already cast their votes: As of Wednesday, 84,132 ballots have come in through early voting, which kicked off on Saturday, according to the city Board of Elections.

“It was always going to be a very close race,” said Chris Coffey, a Yang co-campaign manager, in a phone interview with the Gotham Gazette. He also noted that the campaign’s internal numbers on early voting are positive. 

“We think we're winning in early voting based on who has voted, and identify them as Yang voters as they have been for a long time,” he said. “We think we're winning in early voting. Does that mean we're gonna win the entire election? I don’t know. But I don't at all accept that we are where Marist has us.”

Andrew Yang officially running for Mayor of New York City

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Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang is running for NYC Mayor. His co-chair is
newly sworn-in Rep. Ritchie Torres, right.

No one can accuse Andrew Yang of not being bold. Yang, who was virtually unknown before launching his Quixotic run in the Democratic presidential primaries in 2019, has thrown in his hat in the crowded race for New York City's next mayor.

Fresh from campaigning in Georgia for the two Democrats who successfully upset their GOP incumbents, Yang made his announcement in Manhattan's  Upper East Side near Columbia University, his alma mater.

"I'm running for mayor for a very simple reason," said Yang. "I see a crisis and believe that I can help."

Whether or not Yang, who was born and raised in upstate New York, can reproduce the magic that allowed him to outlast seasoned politicians during the campaign is an open question.

He has an enviable list of contacts of his supporters across the nation that rallied to his side known as the Yang Gang and helped him raise record amounts of funds. 

"As mayor, we will launch the largest basic income program in the history of the country. Right here in New York," Yang said referring to a program that was successful during his presidential campaign that advocated giving $1,000 to every adult in the U.S. 

"We will lift hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers out of extreme poverty, putting cash relief directly into the hands of the families who desperately need help right now."

Yang's political aspiration was well known in the city for weeks and was always a question of "when," not "if." The tech entrepreneur made his announcement on his 46th birthday.

The universal basic income proposal, his signature plank on the presidential trail, is back in a scaled back version. His belated entry in the crowded race for mayor of the financial capitol of the U.S. gave some of his opponents time to introduce the issue as their own. at least five out of the dozen rivals have some version of the UBI in their platforms.

Yang's new UBI plan gives the extra income to only the 500,000 of the poorest New Yorkers.

Yang lives in NYC and his two sons attend public schools.

" He pledged to improve access to high-speed internet, "take back control" of the subway system and "reopen intelligently."

"I'm running for mayor for my two boys, for you, and for every New Yorker," Yang said. "Let's fight for a future New York City that we can all be proud of."

The Democratic primary is in six months. The winner in that contest will likely win the mayorship of the city.