Eric Adams says he 'duplicated' Biden's strategy in New York mayoral primary

published 11 July 2021

After Eric Adams was declared the winner of New York's Democratic mayoral primary last week, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said Adams' coalition of "working-class voters, African-American voters overwhelmingly, and voters who want to see progress on core issues" is not "dissimilar to the coalition that President Biden put together" to emerge from a crowded presidential primary field last year.

But Adams told CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday's edition of State of the Union that Klain was underselling the parallels. "He just made a small mistake," Adams said with a laugh. "He said ... 'similar to' — I duplicated it. I was encouraged when I saw what the president did, and I knew what I was hearing on the ground that everyday New Yorkers, just like everyday Americans, they wanted not a government of ... [an] ideological approach, but a pragmatic approach."

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.