Kathryn Garcia, the former sanitation commissioner whose problem-solver pitch and widespread appeal launched her to the top of the city’s crowded Democratic mayoral primary field, conceded on Wednesday morning after narrowly falling to Eric Adams.
“While it is only by a razor-thin margin, Eric Adams will be the winner of the Democratic primary,” Garcia, 51, said at the Women’s Rights Pioneers Monument in Central Park. “I spoke to Eric earlier today and congratulated him.”
Her bid to lead City Hall brought the city the closest it’s ever been to electing a female mayor, though Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, ultimately prevailed on the strength of his public-safety platform and support from voters of color.
Adams declared victory Tuesday night after the release of new results showed him with a 1% edge over Garcia in the final round of ranked-choice elimination. The Associated Press called the race — which is expected to determine the next mayor in deep-blue New York City — at almost the same time as Adams’ campaign.
Garcia’s bid was once thought to be a long shot, but she built significant momentum in May after scoring endorsements from the editorial boards of The New York Times and the Daily News.
The opinion pages lauded her for her experience and her no-nonsense approach to government, and the rest of the voting public began to take note.
Though she lacked the attention-grabbing charisma of Adams, a former NYPD captain, and the progressive promise of Maya Wiley, the civil rights lawyer who finished in third, Garcia brought steady and steely confidence to the race.
Running as a moderate, she dismissed left-wing hopes of defunding the police, but she simultaneously promised to weed out bad actors in the NYPD. And she touted her experience running the Sanitation Department and the New York City Housing Authority as proof of her bureaucratic know-how.
Her campaign thrilled many New Yorkers, who have seen far too many years pass without a woman handling the reins at City Hall.
She was boosted by her strategic approach to the ranked-choice campaign. Though she trailed Adams in all four outer boroughs and struggled to make deep inroads with Black voters, she avoided launching the negative attacks that often characterized the bruising contest.
In the last weekend of the race, Garcia campaigned with Andrew Yang, who had seen his chances dwindle during a gaffe-prone run. The gambit appeared to help Garcia attract secondary votes from the former presidential hopeful’s supporters.
Garcia trailed Adams by more than 10% in first-choice votes, according to an incomplete count by the Board of Elections, but nearly closed the entire gap after the tallying of second choices.
On Wednesday morning, Garcia described herself as proof that “outsiders without the backing of the establishment — and determined women — are a force to be reckoned with.”
“For 400 years, no woman has held the top seat at City Hall,” she said. “This campaign has come closer than any other moment in history to breaking that glass ceiling and selecting New York City’s first female mayor. We cracked the hell out of it.”
