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Reynoso, Cornegy, Simon lead crowded BP fi eld
COURIER LIFE, JUNE 25-JULY 1, 2021 3
BY BEN BRACHFELD, BEN VERDE
& MEAGHAN MCGOLDRICK
Brooklyn voters used
ranked-choice voting to pick
between nearly a dozen Democratic
candidates running
for borough president in the
primary election on Tuesday,
June 22, with three candidates
vying for the top spot in the
hotly contested race.
As of 11:30 pm Tuesday, Antonio
Reynoso held a sizable
lead over fellow term-limited
Councilmember Robert Cornegy,
with Assemblymember
Jo Anne Simon in third place,
with more than 88 percent of
precincts reported, according
to unoffi cial results from the
city’s Board of Elections.
Reynoso secured 28.49 percent
of the vote (47,748 votes),
with Cornegy and Simon neck
and neck behind him at 18.92
percent (31,700 votes) and 18.61
percent (31,190 votes) of the
vote, respectively.
Only preliminary unoffi -
cial results, including ballots
cast during the early voting
period and on Election Day,
will be available from the
Board of Elections Tuesday
night. Absentee ballots will
not be a part of the initial tally,
and fi nalized results aren’t expected
in races like this one
until at least July 12.
At a crowded Election
Night party at Williamsburg’s
Carneval, Reynoso said he
feels good “no matter what
happens.”
“I feel like the people that
are behind me did an amazing
job … I really feel like we did
everything we needed to do to
spread our message about how
we can build a Brooklyn for all
of us,” Reynoso told Brooklyn
Paper at the Grand Street bar.
“I’m just really happy, really
grateful and I hope, when it’s
all said and done, I can be the
next borough president.”
Reynoso currently represents
the 34th City Council District,
which includes parts of
Williamsburg and Bushwick.
But, when asked about his
campaign — which focused on
economic recovery, affordable
housing and climate change,
among other hot button issues
— and why he thinks it’s resonated
with voters, the candidate
said it’s about time leaders
start “pushing for radical
change,” and dealing in equity
across all neighborhoods.
“I want to build equity
into our system, I don’t want
that the only places that get
resources and help are the
places that have more political
capital,” he said. “I want to
go to the places like East New
York, Brownsville, and Coney
Island, and let them know that
regardless of the poverty rate
that someone’s going to show
up for them, all the time.”
Not far from Carneval, Cornegy
and his camp were awaiting
what unoffi cial primary
election results would come in
at The Brooklyn Bank on Dekalb
Avenue. There, the Bedford-
Stuyvesant and Crown Heights
Council member thanked supporters
for a race well run.
“I heard a lot of people talk
about these ‘people-led campaigns.’
There’s no bigger people
led campaign that what
ours was, and there was no
campaign that united the borough
like we did,” said Cornegy,
a 6’10” former basketball player
who was once recognized by the
Guinness World Records as the
world’s tallest politician.
Tuesday night, the borough
presidential hopeful
whose campaign prioritized
economic recovery post-pandemic,
small business development
and police reform, invoked
faith while thinking
ahead to the fi nal counts.
“As we look at the numbers,
and ours increase, and we ask
God to increase those numbers,”
he told a crowd of close
to 30 at The Brooklyn Bank,
a Black-owned event space in
his district. “Tomorrow, or the
next day, or the next day we’ll
be celebrating victory, but tonight
we celebrate all of you.”
The winner of the Democratic
primary in June will
presumably sweep the general
election in November and land
in Borough Hall in January
2022. The post has been held
by Eric Adams since 2014.
Other candidates included
another outgoing councilmember,
Mathieu Eugene, and
community leaders Kimberly
Council, Khari Edwards, Robert
Elstein, Pearlene Fields,
Anthony Jones, Lamor Miller
Whitehead, Trisha Ocona,
and Robert Ramos Jr.
Simon’s campaign did not respond
to a request for comment.
Antonio Reynoso, Robert Cornegy and Jo Anne Simon. Contributed photos
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