Eric Adams just comes off as a New Yawka who knows how to talk to other New Yawkas. Also, it looks like older Black voters, specifically women, got behind him. And for some reason, a lot of Democratic candidates at all levels haven't learned that those are the real powerbrokers in a lot of these Dem primary races. And they don't sprint to appeal to those voters beginning early in the campaign.

Wiley, who personally seemed like the best candidate to me, suffers from the same problem that a lot of good Progressive folks do. They lean heavily on the popular policy platform alone and lag on the person to person relational stuff or the performative aspect of politics. It's why parties recruit military vets, good speakers, etc. Because those things connect to voters in ways that an inanimate list of policies don't.

Regardless of where they stand on individual issues, Adams comes off as someone "strong" whose gonna fight for whatever it is he feels needs to get done. And Wiley comes off as someone who is gonna get pushed around, especially in hard knocks city like NYC with powerful adversaries in the police union, press, public transportation, etc.