Wiley, Garcia concede in NYC mayoral primary

Kathryn Garcia and Maya Wiley conceded to Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor Wednesday after new vote totals showed Adams maintaining a slim, 1-point lead over Garcia. 

In separate remarks, Garcia and Wiley acknowledged they had fallen short of the 50-percent threshold needed to win the nomination, suggesting that neither would seek to challenge the primary results in court. 

But Garcia and Wiley also celebrated how close they had come to winning the Democratic mayoral nod in New York. The position has never been held by a woman.

“This campaign has come closer than any other moment in history to breaking that glass ceiling in selecting New York City’s first female mayor,” Garcia, who finished second, said, according to The New York Times. “We cracked the hell out of it, and it’s ready to be broken, but we have not cracked that glass ceiling.”

Garcia’s and Wiley’s concessions capped off a tumultuous primary race that was thrown into chaos last week after the New York City Board of Elections erroneously released — and later retracted — inaccurate ranked-choice vote tallies. 

That issue was resolved, but not before each of the three leading candidates filed lawsuits laying the groundwork for them to challenge the primary results. 

The Board of Elections released a new batch of results Tuesday that included an additional 118,000 absentee ballots. After the ranked-choice voting process, Adams finished on top in a two-way match-up with Garcia. 

The tally in the final round of ranked-choice voting showed Adams with 50.5 percent to Garcia’s 49.5 percent. 

Adams’s victory could be certified as soon as next week. He will enter the general election as the heavy favorite, given New York City’s strong Democratic tilt. The Republican nominee is Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the volunteer crime prevention group the Guardian Angels.