Lander offers less potential excitement than Myrie, a Brooklyn state senator who is just 37 and could make history as the city’s first Afro-Latino mayor. He might be less of a political brawler than Stringer, who has survived several tough primaries and can pull plenty of votes from his old West Side base. Ranked-choice voting makes this all less zero-sum: The anti-Adams voters can put Stringer, Myrie and Lander on their ballots.
Could Adams actually lose? The short answer is yes, even if it’s historically difficult to oust an incumbent mayor. Adams only managed to win the 2021 Democratic primary by fewer than 10,000 votes. Kathryn Garcia almost became mayor, and a large swath of the city also voted for Maya Wiley, the leading progressive candidate.
And yet centrists everywhere acted like it was a landslide victory demonstrating a new mold for Democrats nationwide.