Bill de Blasio Glides Into Second Term as New York City Mayor

Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio sailed to a second term Tuesday following a campaign where he persistently led in the polls.

A forceful critic of the Trump administration, de Blasio made the race against his GOP rival a referendum on the Trump administration — a strategy his campaign used for fundraising throughout the year, as a call to action for volunteers and in the final hours of the campaign.

Republican Staten Island Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis was the mayor's top challenger, but failed to get widespread recognition and support. Meanwhile de Blasio campaigned on record lows on crime, expanding free pre-K and increasing the number of affordable housing units across the city.

"I entered this race with eyes wide open, knowing the odds were stacked against me," Malliotakis told supporters at her election night party at a Williamsburg hotel. "But from the very beginning this race was never about me. It was about all of you." 

The mayor's first term was dogged by feuds with Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo and investigations into campaign donations and pay-to-play politics. The mayor has also had a rocky relationship with the NYPD. Rank and file cops have criticized the mayor for phasing out polling strategies like stop and frisk, while activists on the left say de Blasio hasn't gone far enough in curbing police misbehavior. 

On the campaign trail, de Blasio promised to improve police-community relations, saying every police officer will be outfitted with a body camera in the next two years. 

At a breakfast with the Association for a Better New York breakfast Monday, de Blasio also promised to reform the city's infamous property tax system if he won a second term.

"I said we'd do Pre-K, I said we'd do 200,000 affordable apartments, I said we would bring down stop-and-frisk — you name it, we've done it," de Blasio said. "We will create tax reform, property tax reform, that will end up with a better and fairer system for this city."

Outside a Brooklyn polling site Tuesday, South Park Slope resident Stephen Hulburt said he's been pleased with de Blasio's work in the last four years. But he said New Yorkers are still facing major problems that the next mayor will have to address.

"I think that affordable housing is a huge issue, and the homelessness issue is huge," he said. "I don't know the answer to that, but I think people really need to work on that."

Former NYPD detective Bo Dietl, known for his brash style and racially tinged tweets, received just about 1 percent of the vote for mayor, behind quieter rivals such as Sal Albanese of the Reform Party and Akeem Browder of the Greens.

A number of other incumbents also secured second terms, such as Comptroller Scott Stringer and Public Advocate Letitia James.

Two City Council races were too close to call. In District 30 in central Queens, Republican candidate Robert Holden, was leading the Democratic incumbent Elizabeth Crowley. He had a 0.7% edge over her with all precincts reporting, but absentee and affidavit ballots still need to be counted.  In District 43 in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, Democrat Justin Brannan held a slight edge over Republican John Quaglione -- but again, without counting absentee and affidavit ballots.

For more details, including contests for suburban county executive, see WNYC's results page.

With reporting from the Associated Press.