Is Eric Adams the Democrats' next national star?

It was in the Democratic primary during the first half of this year that Adams established his centrist bona fides. “He made combating gun violence and improving public safety a main focus of his campaign,” NPR noted, “while also calling for cuts to the NYPD’s budget and the shifting of some jobs to civilians that have been done by officers, which he says could save the city up to $500 million a year.” The New York Times described Adams as “one of the more moderate candidates in the Democratic primary race” who drew “contrast between his views on policing and crime, and those of left-leaning rivals like Ms. Wiley.”

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The leftist allure of Maya Wiley appealed to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who endorsed her, instead of more centrist candidates like Adams or Garcia, which gave Wiley a bump in the polls. Adams was also shunned by the United Federation of Teachers, an important cog in the Democratic machine, who endorsed New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer. In the primary—which for the first time in a New York mayoral race used a ranked-choice system, allowing voters to list up to five of their top choices for office—Adams received 50.4 percent of the vote to Garcia’s 49.6 percent. The difference was a mere 7,000 votes. Had Ocasio-Cortez endorsed Garcia instead of Wiley, Adams may not have won the primary…

If Adams is successful at controlling crime—as well as addressing New York’s historically hard-to-manage public school system and improving the economic fortunes of a city hit hard by high taxes and a crippling pandemic—his victory could have national implications for himself and for the Democratic party, which cannot overlook his strategy of distancing himself from the left only to win the general election in a massive landslide.

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