Mayoral front-runner Eric Adams broke down in tears early Tuesday in Brooklyn, moments after he voted in what he described as a “historical” primary for a city at a critical crossroad.
Adams — the candidate endorsed by The Post — had a huge smile as he turned out to vote early with 25-year-old son Jordan in Bed-Stuy, saying, “I feel great!”
But he soon got emotional outside as he spoke to a large group of supporters about how he “took my son’s hand and placed it on my name” — just like his own late mom had done to him in an election in 1977.
“Mom has gone. she transitioned a few months ago at the height of the election, and I never had the time to mourn,” he said, needing to pause several times as he broke down at the recent loss.
After joking how his mom, Dorothy Mae Adams, “loved” all her six children “but adored me,” he recalled how he had been alone with his mother when she died in a hospital bed.
“I held Mommy’s hand … her heart stopped. And we sat there alone,” he said.
“This city betrayed Mommy,” he said, citing health care, unhealthy food given to children, and inadequate resources to help her with a child with learning disabilities.
“It betrayed her when she had to work three jobs to provide for her six children. It just betrayed her,” he said.
“And now all these years later her son walked into a polling place and he placed her grandson’s son on his name to run to be the Mayor of the City of New York — and finally stop the betrayals,” he said.
“That’s what this is about. It’s about just ending the betrayals of everyday families in this city,” he said to applause from supporters.
Progressive candidate Maya Wiley had a far different reception — with just a handful in Flatbush greeting the candidate who had to introduce herself to others.
“Hi, l’m Maya Wiley. I’m running for Mayor,” she told one voter, with none of the crowds that mobbed Adams nearby also in Brooklyn.
As The Post has noted, the election is the most important vote for New Yorkers in a generation.
Whom you pick as mayor will determine whether three decades of prosperity and safety will return, or if the dark turn under failed Mayor Bill de Blasio will continue.