New York City voters across the five boroughs elected Councilman Jumaane Williams in the special election for public advocate yesterday.
But results from the NYC Board of Elections (BOE) showed that many in living in areas of eastern Queens, central Queens and the Rockaways voted for Councilman Eric Ulrich in the 17-candidate race.
Unofficial election night results from 18 Queens assembly districts showed that Ulrich received nearly 5,660 more votes than Williams. The political competitors garnered 27,442 votes and 21,785 votes respectively.
Residents in assembly districts 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30, 38 and 40 cast their ballots in favor of Ulrich while a majority of those living in districts 29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 and 39 voted for Williams.
Overall, Williams received 133,809, or 33.22 percent of the city’s votes, while Ulrich got 77,026 votes, or 19.12 percent of the total votes.
In addition to outperforming Williams in Queens, Ulrich also received a majority of the votes cast in Staten Island. BOE results showed that he cinched 12,568 of the votes in Richmond County versus 2,691 for Williams.
The councilman for New York’s 32nd District is a Republican, but ran on the Common Sense party line in the nonpartisan race. Ulrich’s top three issues were to hold the mayor accountable, protect small businesses and make city government more transparent.
Williams, a Democratic councilman for New York’s 45th District, ran on the It’s Time Let’s Go platform. The public advocate-elect’s top issues were to address the city’s affordable housing crisis, increase government transparency and accountability and overhaul New York’s criminal justice system.
Ulrich took to Twitter to congratulate Williams last night after the results were announced.
Congratulations to Public Advocate- Elect @JumaaneWilliams on winning a hard fought campaign. The people of our great city have put their trust and faith in you.
I am asking all New Yorkers to join me in rooting for your success!
— Eric Ulrich (@eric_ulrich) February 27, 2019
At Ulrich’s election watch party in Howard Beach, Queens County GOP Chair Joann Ariola said that the results represented a “win for the Republican Party.”
“A Republican in a field of Democrats who had great name recognition can compete,” Ariola said.
Williams will serve as public advocate from now until the end of 2019. A second election to fill Letitia James’ vacated seat until 2021 will happen this coming November.
