Democrat Eric Adams has been elected as New York City Mayor, defeating Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press.
Adams’ victory seemed all but assured after he emerged as the winner from a crowded Democratic primary this summer.
Sliwa, who founded the Guardian Angels anti-crime patrol four decades ago and is a well-known talk show host in New York, ran a campaign punctuated by his penchant for stunts and his signature red beret, part of the Guardian Angels uniform.
Adams dismissed Sliwa as a clown and painted him as untrustworthy for having admitted he made up claims years ago about being kidnapped and of other exploits from the Guardian Angels’ patrols.
Sliwa, in turn, portrayed Adams as an out-of-touch elitist who needed to spend more time in the streets with regular New Yorkers.
Adams will take office January 1, succeeding outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat who was limited by law to two terms.
Adams was endorsed by a number of Jewish communities.
In June, a group representing the Jewish community in Crown Heights, Brooklyn doubled down on their endorsement of the mayoral candidate after a video clip circulated attempting to convince them to throw their support elsewhere.
In late May, the Far Rockaway Jewish Alliance (FRJA) and other leaders of the Queens Jewish community gave Adams their support at an announcement event.
Sliwa came under fire when a 2018 video of him resurfaced in which he derided the Orthodox “bloc vote” and suggested they control politicians because of their money.
He later responded to the criticism of the 2018 speech and, while he declined to apologize for the remarks, he instead invited Orthodox Jews to sit down with him to “resolve our differences.”