Yang concedes, Adams leads in NYC mayoral race

Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang conceded the New York City mayoral race on Tuesday after early results showed him in a distant fourth place among more than a dozen Democrats seeking their party's nomination.

Gloria Tso reports.

Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang conceded the race for New York City mayor Tuesday, while Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams appeared to hold a clear lead in the closely contested Democratic primary.

Once seen as the frontrunner, Yang came in at a distant fourth place and conceded defeat shortly before polls closed Tuesday evening.

"I am a numbers guy.

I'm someone who traffics in what's happening by the numbers and I am not going to be the next mayor of New York City based upon the numbers that have come in tonight." With 90% of the in-person votes counted, Adams had been picked as the top choice on nearly a third of the ballots.

It's the city's first mayoral contest to use ranked-choice voting, where voters can rank up to five candidates in order of preference.

But with tens of thousands of absentee ballots yet to be processed, final results are not expected until mid-July at the earliest.

Speaking to supporters Tuesday, Adams acknowledged the race was far from over.

"But there's something else we know.

We know NYC said our first choice is Eric Adams." Maya Wiley, the former MSNBC analyst and civil rights lawyer who emerged as the leading progressive candidate, stood in second place as of Tuesday, while Kathryn Garcia, a former sanitation chief who campaigned as an experienced technocrat, trailed closely behind.

Any of the top three candidates would make history: Adams would serve as the city's second Black mayor, Garcia the first female mayor and Wiley the first Black female mayor.