Yang, Garcia campaign together three days before NYC mayoral primary

New York City mayoral candidates Andrew Yang (D) and Kathryn Garcia (D) campaigned together on Saturday as the two seek to gain momentum ahead of the city’s Democratic primary on Tuesday.

“Today, Andrew Yang and I are campaigning together because — what’s good about ranked choice is you can actually vote for what you are for, not for what you are against. That you can disagree with people and have them be a part of your ballot,” Garcia, who served as the former NYC Sanitation Commissioner, said on Saturday.

Q&A with Andrew Yang & Kathryn Garcia https://t.co/fCLLu5cPAO

— Andrew Yang (@AndrewYang) June 19, 2021 

For the first time in the city’s history, residents will use ranked-choice voting. Under the system, the voters can rank their choices and the ballots for subsequent picks will be reallocated until one person gets 50 percent or more of the vote.

“Ranked choice to me is an opportunity for people to make their preferences known, to be able to support multiple candidates. And anyone who’s been paying any attention to this race knows I am a huge Kathryn Garcia admirer and fan,” Yang said.

“I would urge anyone who is supporting me as their first choice, please do have Kathryn Garcia on your ballot. We need to make sure that candidates who are going to do the right thing for New Yorkers get into City Hall,” Yang added.

The effort by two of the most prominent moderate Democrats comes as they both try to knock front runner and fellow moderate, Eric Adams (D), from his top spot in the polls. 

However, the Garcia-Yang campaigning spree Saturday was not well-received by Adams, who claimed that his fellow candidates formed a late alliance to prevent a person of color from winning the race. 

Should voters rank Yang or Garcia in the top two, it could significantly hurt Adams’ chance of winning the primary. 

“For them to come together like they are doing in the last three days, they’re saying we can’t trust a person of color to be the mayor of the City of New York when this city is overwhelmingly people of color,” Mr. Adams said, according to a report from The New York Times.

When asked for response to the comment, Yang said during the event: “I would tell Eric Adams that I’ve been Asian my entire life.” 

Adams later clarified that he was referring to a Black or Brown candidate becoming mayor. 

In a statement to The Hill, Garcia’s campaign said that “Adams’ cynical attacks to undermine this democratic system only serve to discourage New York City voters from taking advantage of a system they themselves enacted.”

Garcia’s campaign also noted that “Kathryn did not endorse Andrew as her #2 choice for mayor.”

–Updated on June 21 at 10:58 a.m.