2021 New York state elections

The 2021 New York City mayoral election was held on November 2, 2021. Incumbent Mayor Bill de Blasio was term-limited and ineligible to run for re-election.

On June 22, 2021, the primary elections for the Democratic and Republican primaries were held. The 2021 primaries were the first New York City mayoral election primaries to use ranked-choice voting rather than the plurality voting of previous primaries. On election night, Guardian Angels founder and radio talk show host Curtis Sliwa won the Republican primary with 67.9% of the vote, defeating New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers founder Fernando Mateo. Brooklyn Borough President and former police officer Eric Adams had a lead on election night in the Democratic primary but did not reach 50% of the vote, meaning that ranked-choice voting would come into play. In the final round of tabulation of the ranked-choice vote in the Democratic primary, Adams defeated former New York City Department of Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia, 50.4%–49.6%.

In the general election, Adams handily defeated Sliwa with 67.0% of the vote to become the 110th mayor of New York City and the city's second black mayor, after David Dinkins.





== Background ==

New York City used proportional representation (single transferable voting) from 1937 to 1947. Such a system produced benefits to voters and elected a more diverse city council than had been produced under first-past-the-post voting before and after.