Ray McGuire Appears to Wind Down NYC Mayoral Campaign
Real estate’s favored candidate thanked his backers as hopes for a first-place leap faded
By Aaron Short June 29, 2021 5:01 pm
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Democratic mayoral hopeful Ray McGuire thanked his donors and backers Tuesday as hopes for a dramatic first-place leap in the coming weeks faded.
“While we await official word from the Board of Elections on the final results, I want to be clear that I will work with New York City’s political, civic, and business leaders to ensure that our comeback is the greatest and most inclusive in history,” McGuire tweeted Tuesday afternoon.
The former Citigroup executive finished in seventh place, or with 2.3 percent of the vote, with 18,503 first-choice votes among the nearly 850,000 New Yorkers who cast ballots in the June primary.
The New York City Board of Elections is currently counting an additional 124,000 mail-in Democratic ballots ahead of running the city’s new ranked-choice voting system, which will redistribute the votes of last-place candidates over several rounds through a process of elimination until someone captures 50 percent. The final tabulation for all races is expected the week of July 12.
McGuire had hoped to avoid being in the bottom rung. He announced his bid in December with Oscar-directed fanfare in a slickly edited three-minute clip that his friend Spike Lee narrated.
His message resonated deeply with the city’s executive class and real estate leaders who compared him favorably to former Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
McGuire said on Tuesday that he ran because he believed the city needed a “new approach” concerning public education, crime and the economy, and he was “humbled” by the support from New Yorkers who embraced his candidacy.
But McGuire couldn’t carve out a lane in a crowded race. He struggled to connect with middle-class and working-class Black and Latino voters in outer-borough neighborhoods who favored Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, and failed to woo white progressive Manhattan voters who backed Kathryn Garcia.
His rivals were impressed with his effort on the campaign trail despite being a political novice.
“Thank you, Ray, for the ideas and energy you brought to this race,” Garcia tweeted. “As a fellow first-time candidate, my hat goes off to you and your team for running a top-notch campaign. You all should be proud. Best wishes for whatever comes next.”
Lupe Todd, a senior adviser on the McGuire campaign, said New York will continue to benefit from his work in the private sector and she was proud to work with him.
“To be honest, because I met Ray and got to know him, I come out of this election season a winner,” she told CO.
