With promise of Latino voter support, Rep. Adriano Espaillat backs Eric Adams for NYC mayor
Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams scooped up an endorsement — significant even if secondhand — Sunday for his mayoral bid from Rep. Adriano Espaillat, who could help deliver support from Latino voters.
Espaillat initially backed city Comptroller Scott Stringer, but took back that endorsement after an allegation of sexual misconduct against the candidate.
Espaillat, who represents upper Manhattan and part of the Bronx in the House of Representatives, promised to turn out Latino support for Adams, saying at a rally in Washington Heights that those often overlooked voters could decide the packed race.
“The entire Latino community ... I think often in New York City is a second thought,” he said. “We hear from you saying, ‘The Latino vote will be the decisive vote,’ but I hadn’t heard candidates talk about that in their debate.”
A fellow Adams supporter, City Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez (D-Manhattan), put the role of Dominican voters in stark terms.
“People who look at us say, ‘Play some merengue and bachata; do some campaigning,’ ” he said. “No — there’s close to 400,000 Dominicans who vote in New York elections. And we will be making the difference.”
Nearly 900,000 people of Dominican heritage lived in the city as of 2019, according to the Pew Research Center, though reliable numbers on how many of those residents vote are hard to come by.
Adams, a front-runner in the rapidly approaching Democratic primary for mayor, is seen as more moderate than Stringer. The Brooklyn borough president has promised a tough-on-crime stance in contrast to Stringer and other candidates advocating NYPD reform.
Espaillat said he sees Adams as a progressive, although he added an odd contention in the same breath.
“I’m probably to the left of AOC,” Espaillat said, referring to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Queens, Bronx), an outspoken progressive New York Democrat.
Mayor de Blasio leaves office at the end of the year due to term limits. The Democratic primary for mayor is scheduled for June 22.
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