Mayoral candidate Eric Adams casts ballot as NYC voting sites open for Election Day: ‘I am you
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NEW YORK — An emotional Eric Adams portrayed himself as the voice of everyday New Yorkers on early Tuesday morning as he cast his ballot at a Brooklyn elementary school, P.S. 81.
Holding up a photo of his late mother, Adams wiped away tears as he spoke about his journey from childhood poverty in Bedford-Stuyvesant to Gracie Mansion.
“I have only three words for you: I am you,” Adams said after voting at P.S. 81. “We won already.”
Adams, the Democratic Brooklyn borough president, is the overwhelming favorite to win election in the deep blue city. Republican Curtis Sliwa was expected to cast his ballot later near his home in Manhattan.
“I’m not supposed to be standing here,” Adams said. “But because I’m standing here, every day New Yorkers are going to realize they have the right to stand.”
Adams even stuck an “I voted” sticker on the framed photo of his mother, Dorothy Mae Adams, who died this year.
“This is for the dishwasher,” Adams said. “It’s for the child in the homeless shelter.”
Polls are open in all five boroughs from Riverdale to the Rockaways till 9 p.m. with results expected soon after that.
Supporters predicted Adams would use his life story to turn New York into a more inclusive place for everyone.
“We want a city (where) everybody must have an opportunity,” Anthony Williamson, a construction worker who joined the small crowd outside P.S. 81. “Eric has got the vision to make New York not only the financial capital of the world, but the safest city in the world.”
George Baker, 60, who voted just minutes before Adams, said public safety is the biggest issue.
“He could change the jail system,” Baker said. “The violence on the trains, all of that needs to be changed.”
Adams, a retired police captain, narrowly won a crowded Democratic primary that was decided using the new ranked-choice voting system.
The same system will be used to determine Tuesday’s winner but with only two major candidates it’s not expected to play a pivotal role.
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