It’s not official yet but Eric Adams is going to win the Democratic primary in New York City and that means he’ll become the city’s next mayor.

Eric Adams squeaked out a likely victory in the city’s Democratic mayoral primary on Tuesday based on a preliminary count of the final vote tally by the embattled Board of Elections.

Adams emerged narrowly ahead of Kathryn Garcia, 50.5 percent to 49.5 percent, according to unofficial figures posted on the BOE’s website.

The 403,333 votes for Adams gave him an edge of 8,426 over Garcia, who got 394,907.

You probably remember there was a disaster last week when the board of elections announced the initial totals and then admitted to making an error by counting “dummy” votes that were used to test the system.

After the error was corrected, Adams lead had shrunk substantially down to just under 15,000 votes. That was close enough that some progressives became hopeful the counting of more than 120,000 absentee ballots would hand the race to either Kathryn Garcia or Maya Wiley. But that didn’t happen. Adams’ lead was cut in half but 8,000 votes is more than the 3,700 absentee votes that are left to count. In short, even if every one of those outstanding votes goes against him it won’t be enough to change the outcome. The AP has a statement from Adams’ camp:

“While there are still some very small amounts of votes to be counted, the results are clear: an historic, diverse, five-borough coalition led by working-class New Yorkers has led us to victory in the Democratic primary for mayor of New York,” Adams said in a statement.

He said he was running to “deliver on the promise of this great city for those who are struggling, who are underserved, and who are committed to a safe, fair, affordable future for all New Yorkers.”

Maya Wiley, who picked up the endorsement of AOC, Elizabeth Warren and other progressives came in third. Maybe disappointed progressives will put the loss behind them and move on. Nah, who am I kidding. Somewhere in NYC “Not My Mayor” bumper stickers are being printed as we speak. And there’s a pretty clear reason for that.

After it was clear he was leading the vote count last month, Adams pronounced himself “the face of the Democratic Party.” He wasn’t referring to his race or his appearance but to his focus on reducing crime and making the city safer. “If the Democratic Party fails to recognize what we did here in New York, they’re going to have a problem in the midterm elections and they’re going to have a problem in the presidential election,” he said.

He’s absolutely right of course as even CNN’s Chris Cillizza is saying today. The fact that a law and order message won in NYC has to be giving other progressives chills about 2022. It’s just one more clear signal that the BLM sponsored “defund the police” message is a loser, even in deep blue territory. Now let’s see if Adams victory makes that clear enough to other Democrats.