After a crazy 2020 filled with the looming threat of the Coronavirus as well as the threat of former President Donald J. Trump being in office for another four years, New Yorkers are in for another crazy couple of months. The New York City mayoral election is in November 2021, and fortunately for most New Yorkers, current Mayor Bill De Blasio will not be able to run this year. However, this also means that New Yorkers now have to meet the new candidates, who will be eagerly campaigning for votes before the New York City Mayoral Primary on June 22. In this article, I will be outlining the top six candidates in the race for New York City mayor, including their policies, their political views, and what chance they realistically have at winning the Primary election on June 22.
Andrew Yang
The front runner for the New York City Mayoral Election, with almost 21% of the vote in recent polls, is no other than former 2020 Presidential candidate Andrew Yang, whose slogan #YangGang has gotten much media attention. Yang, who is 45, began his career as a businessman and entrepreneur, starting multiple companies and non-profit organizations. The Schenectady-born New Yorker’s policies center around economic equality, as Andrew Yang proposed universal basic income during his presidential campaign. Yang advocated for every citizen to receive $1000 per month from the government as a base income to shorten the economic gap between the rich and poor.
Eric Adams
Eric Adams, who has been consistently close to Yang in the polls, came second in this past week’s polls with ~17% of the vote. The 60-year-old Adams is currently working as the Brooklyn borough president, where he works on many public issues in the most populous borough of New York City. After suffering abuse from the NYPD in his youth, Eric Adams decided he wanted to work for the police department to aid in reforming the police culture from within. Adams worked in the NYPD for 22 years and retired as a captain in the department. This reflects in his policies, as he calls for police reform but believes he is “conservative on crime.” He does fairly well among moderate Democratic voters and he hopes to become just the second black mayor in New York City history.
Scott Stringer
After Adams and Yang, there is a major drop-off in the amount of support the candidates are getting just weeks before the NYC primary. Scott Stringer, who is one of those candidates, received 10% of the New York City vote in the most recent polls. Stringer has worked in public office his whole life, serving in the New York State Assembly. Other important seats that Stringer has served on include the borough president of Manhattan, and presently being the 44th Comptroller of New York City. The 60-year-old advocates for several issues, including affordable housing, gun control, LGBTQ+ rights, and campaign-finance reform.
Maya Wiley
Maya Wiley, who also scooped up 10% of the vote in the most recent mayoral polls, is hoping to narrow the gap to Adams and Yang as these next few weeks go by. Wiley served as a civil rights lawyer, working for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the Open Society Institute. She then was appointed by Mayor Bill de Blasio as top counsel, a position which she served on for two and a half years. Currently working as an MSNBC legal analyst and the senior vice president at The New School, Wiley is running on the platforms of combating police brutality and systemic racism. Serving as the former chair of the Civilian Complaint Review Board, Wiley has positioned herself as an avatar for addressing the city’s racial and economic inequalities.
Kathryn Garcia
Kathryn Garcia currently sits in 5th place in the race with 8% of the vote in the most recent primary polls. The former New York City Sanitation Commissioner under Bill de Blasio is credited with big reforms to the city’s sanitation system and expanding composting, and she doesn’t plan on stopping there, casting herself as New York City’s post-pandemic “crisis manager,” necessary to the city’s recovery. Garcia, who previously served as the interim chair and CEO of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) was named NYC’s food czar on March 22, 2020. This job meant Garcia had to ensure that during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, every New Yorker had adequate access to food. During her tenure as food czar, she distributed 130 million meals to New Yorkers.
Shaun Donovan
Shaun Donovan, who clocked in 6% of the vote in the most recent polls has one of the most impressive resumes out of the candidates for NYC mayor. Donovan served as the Commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development from 2004-2009 under mayor Michael Bloomberg, before shifting his work to the federal level. During his tenure as US Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under former President Barack Obama, Donovan oversaw the allocation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the 2009 post-great recession stimulus package) funds. Donovan is focusing his mayoral campaign on climate change, proposing environmentally friendly solutions to greenhouse gas emissions, new construction, and the operation of New York City buildings.
