Press Release
CSS Congratulates Eric Adams on His Primary Victory
The Community Service Society (CSS) congratulates Eric Adams on his historic victory in the Democratic primary. He will now face Republican primary winner Curtis Sliwa in the November general election. With Democrats outnumbering Republicans in the city by a 7 to 1 margin, the outcome is not in serious question; barring any surprises, Mr. Adams will become the 110th mayor of the City of New York and only the second African-American to hold the office.
In the lead up to the June primary, CSS held two mayoral candidate forums drawing the top candidates. We also produced a voter guide with the candidates’ positions on addressing a range of issues, from the disparate economic impact of COVID-19 and the preservation of affordable housing to healthcare affordability and criminal justice reform.
This mayor’s race was one of the most consequential of our lifetime, coming after a devastating pandemic that claimed thousands of lives, threatened our economy, and jeopardized the livelihoods of countless New Yorkers, particularly low-wage workers, women with children, people of color and immigrants.
Mr. Adams distinguished himself in the contest as someone who was uniquely suited -- because of his background as a captain with the NYPD and someone who had been on the receiving end of police brutality as a teen – to execute needed policing reforms and hold the NYPD accountable for misconduct and abusive treatment while also addressing public safety concerns in communities.
But in one of his first interviews as the Democratic nominee, Mr. Adams did not talk about law and order, but instead emphasized how poverty, food insecurity and economic inequality is still the norm for too many New Yorkers: “There’s a permanent group of people that are living in systemic poverty . . . . . You and I, we go to the restaurant, we eat well, we take our Uber, but that’s not the reality for America and New York. And so, when we turn this city around, we’re going to end those inequalities.”
As advocates for the working poor and one of the city’s oldest anti-poverty organizations, we welcome that vision, and look forward to working with Mr. Adams and his administration to improve the lives of all New Yorkers, especially low-income New Yorkers struggling to get ahead economically.