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      Ethiopia's Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed, Is Tearing the Country Apart

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      Ahead of Ethiopia’s general election on Monday, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has been laying out his grand ambitions for the country. He wants it to be “comfortable for all Ethiopians,” he recently told a TV interviewer, “where every Ethiopian moves around relaxed, works and prospers.” The country, he said, should be one whose “sovereignty is respected and feared, and whose territorial integrity is preserved.”He’s going about it in a horrifying way. For eight months, Mr. Abiy’s government has been waging brutal war on one of its regions, Tigray, killing thousands of people, displacing over two million and creating a disastrous famine. Comfort, relaxation, work and prosperity could not be farther away. Far from respect, the act has brought international outcry. And as for territorial integrity, the war effort has relied on Eritrean soldiers, whom Isaias Afwerki, the country’s leader, refuses to withdraw.But the war in Tigray, though exceptional in its brutality, is not an isolated case. Since he came to power on a wave of enthusiasm in 2018, Mr. Abiy has consistently demonstrated his tendency to ruthlessly centralize power. Political opponents, set against the creation of a new ruling party in Mr. Abiy’s image, have been sidelined, even jailed. Many have been shocked by this behavior — after all, Mr. Abiy was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 — but in fact, he’s following a coherent philosophy and strategy. Elaborately explained in his book “Medemer,” a word coined by the prime minister to mean togetherness, the approach seeks unity among the people of Ethiopia and cohesion in its state.And it’s tearing the country apart.For the disasters he’s unleashed, look no further than Tigray. Since Mr. Abiy announced the assault in November as a “law enforcement” mission, it has metastasized into all-out war. Numerous corroborated reports have revealed the horrific scale of violence, including massacres, endemic sexual violence and a famine that threatens the lives of more than 350,000 Tigrayans. While the world has yet to learn the real death toll, the region, with a population of more than six million, has been decimated. And there is no end in sight.Eduardo Soteras/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe war, which has become a gruesome byword for ethnic cleansing, is Mr. Abiy’s punishment for Tigray’s refusal to accept his authority. (The precursor to the assault was the region’s decision, in defiance of the government, to hold an election in September.) But Tigray is not alone in paying the price for challenging Mr. Abiy’s centralizing moves. In Oromia, where he’s from, Mr. Abiy has overseen a brutal crackdown — responsible, in 2019 alone, for over 10,000 arrests and a number of extrajudicial executions — in the name of countering a rebellion led by the Oromo Liberation Army, an armed opposition group.After the assassination of a popular Oromo musician, Hachalu Hundessa, in June of last year, repression became yet more violent. In protests against the killing, whose perpetrators are still unknown, at least 123 people were killed, including 76 by security forces. In the aftermath, numerous opposition politicians — including Mr. Abiy’s former ally, Jawar Mohammed — were jailed. In response, the two main opposition parties withdrew from Monday’s election, leaving Mr. Abiy’s party to run the country’s largest region all but uncontested.Against this baleful backdrop, the election — which is expected to coronate Mr. Abiy and his party, cementing his power — is distinctly underwhelming. Not only is Tigray completely excluded, but logistical difficulties have also hampered the voting process. After problems with security, voter registration, defective ballots and legal challenges, the election has been postponed to September in two other regions as well as in dozens of constituencies. And about half a million internally displaced Ethiopians are unlikely to be able to vote.It’s a far cry from the free and fair election Mr. Abiy promised when he became leader three years ago: The much-vaunted transition to democracy is not very evident. Far from supplying legitimacy to the government and stability to the country, the election — boycotted by opposition parties and undertaken amid a war — is likely to pull Ethiopia further apart, to calamitous effect.But that doesn’t seem to bother Mr. Abiy. Ignoring international entreaties to end the war in Tigray and agree to an inclusive political settlement, he is instead determinedly preparing to govern an Ethiopia neither respected nor whole. His legacy, at least, is secure. Mr. Abiy will forever be the Nobel Peace laureate who refused to give peace a chance.Tsedale Lemma (@TsedaleLemma) is the founder of the Addis Standard, an English-language monthly magazine based in Ethiopia.The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. More

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      From Nobel Hero to Driver of War, Ethiopia’s Leader Faces Voters in Election

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      Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed plunged Ethiopia into a war in the Tigray region that spawned atrocities and famine. On Monday, his country goes to the polls.ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — As war raged in northern Ethiopia, and the region barreled toward its worst famine in decades, a senior American envoy flew to the Ethiopian capital last month in the hope of persuading Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to pull his country out of a destructive spiral that many fear is tearing it apart.Mr. Abiy, though, wanted to go for a drive.Taking the wheel, the Ethiopian leader took his American guest, the Biden administration’s Horn of Africa envoy, Jeffrey D. Feltman, on an impromptu four-hour tour of Addis Ababa, American officials said. The prime minister drove him past smart new city parks and a refurbished central plaza and even crashed a wedding where the two men posed for photos with the bride and groom.Mr. Abiy’s attempt to change the channel, showcasing economic progress while parts of his country burned, was just the latest sign of a troubled trajectory that has baffled international observers who wonder how they got him so wrong.Not long ago Mr. Abiy, who faces Ethiopian voters on Monday in long-delayed parliamentary elections, was a shining hope for country and continent. After coming to power in 2018 he embarked on a whirlwind of ambitious reforms:  freeing political prisoners, welcoming exiles home from abroad and, most impressively, striking a landmark peace deal with Eritrea, Ethiopia’s old foe, in a matter of months.A light rail and rapid transit train, the first in sub-Saharan Africa, traveling past skyscrapers under construction in Addis Ababa in 2019. Mr. Abiy is pushing his vision of a modernized, economically vibrant Ethiopia.Finbarr O’Reilly for The New York TimesA worker with the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia explaining ballots last week in Addis Ababa before Monday’s general election.Finbarr O’Reilly for The New York TimesThe West, eager for a glittering success story in Africa, was wowed, and within 18 months Mr. Abiy, a one-time intelligence officer, had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.But in just nine months Mr. Abiy’s halo has been brutally shattered. The civil war that erupted in the northern region of Tigray in November has become a byword for atrocities against Ethiopian citizens.Mr. Abiy’s forces have been accused of massacres, sexual assault and ethnic cleansing. Last week a senior United Nations official declared that Tigray was in the throes of a famine — the world’s worst since 250,000 people died in Somalia a decade ago, he said.Elsewhere in Ethiopia, ethnic violence has killed hundreds and forced two million people to flee their homes. A smoldering border dispute with Sudan has flared into a major military standoff.Even the election on Monday, once billed as the country’s first free vote and a chance to turn the page on decades of autocratic rule, has only highlighted its divisions and fueled grim warnings that Ethiopia’s very future is in doubt.“These elections are a distraction,” said Abadir M. Ibrahim, an adjunct law professor at Addis Ababa University. “The state is on a cliff edge, and it’s not clear if it can pull back. We just need to get past this vote so we can focus on averting a calamity.”The prime minister’s office did not respond to questions and an interview request.An October 2019 street scene in Badme, the disputed town over which the border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea was fought from 1998 to 2000. Finbarr O’Reilly for The New York TimesAn Afar militiaman on the salt flats of the Danakil Depression in 2019. In the past month, 400,000 people have been forced from their homes in the Amhara and Afar regions.Finbarr O’Reilly for The New York TimesMr. Abiy’s Prosperity Party, formed in 2019 from the rump of a former governing coalition, is widely expected to win the election easily. But there will be no voting in 102 of Ethiopia’s 547 constituencies because of war, civil unrest and logistical failures.Senior opposition leaders are in jail and their parties are boycotting the vote in Oromia, a sprawling region of about 40 million people that is more populous than many African countries.Mr. Abiy has put a brave face on his nation’s problems, repeatedly downplaying the Tigray conflict as a “law and order operation” and pushing his vision for a modernized, economically vibrant Ethiopia. The United States, which gave Ethiopia $1 billion in aid last year, is pressuring him to shift focus immediately.After being chauffeured around Addis Ababa by Mr. Abiy in May, Mr. Feltman wrote a detailed analysis of his trip for President Biden and other leaders in Washington, even mentioning a sudden jolt by the vehicle that sent coffee spilling on the envoy’s shirt.Weeks later, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken imposed visa bans on unnamed Ethiopian officials.Other foreigners have left Ethiopia concerned that ethnic cleansing was underway. Pekka Haavisto, a European Union envoy who visited in February, told the European Parliament last week that Ethiopian leaders had told him “they are going to destroy the Tigrayans, that they are going to wipe out the Tigrayans for 100 years.”Ethiopia’s foreign ministry dismissed Mr. Haavisto’s comments as “ludicrous” and a “hallucination of sorts.”Global condemnation of Mr. Abiy, 44, most recently at last week’s Group of 7 summit, represents a dizzying fall for a young leader who until recently was globally celebrated.The whirl of reforms he instituted after being appointed prime minister in 2018 were a sharp rebuke to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, a party of rebels turned rulers who had dominated Ethiopia since 1991 in an authoritarian system that achieved impressive economic growth at the cost of basic civil rights.After coming to power in 2018, Mr. Abiy freed political prisoners and welcomed exiles home.Finbarr O’Reilly for The New York TimesJawar Mohammed, a media baron, is  one of Ethiopia’s most prominent opposition figures.Finbarr O’Reilly for The New York TimesMr. Abiy promised a new way. He allowed once-banned opposition parties, appointed women to half the positions in his cabinet and struck the peace with Eritrea that earned him a Nobel Prize.But in moving swiftly, Mr. Abiy also unleashed pent-up frustrations among ethnic groups that had been marginalized from power for decades — most notably his own group, the Oromo, who account for one-third of Ethiopia’s 110 million people. When mass protests erupted, he reverted to the old playbook: arrests, repression and police brutality.At the same time, tensions escalated with the T.P.L.F., which resented Mr. Abiy’s swaggering reforms. The party leadership retreated to Tigray where, last September, it defied Mr. Abiy by proceeding with regional elections that had been postponed across the country because of the pandemic.By early last November, word reached Washington that war was looming in Tigray. Senator Chris Coons, who has a longstanding interest in Africa, phoned Mr. Abiy to warn about the perils of resorting to military force.Mr. Coons, a Democrat from Delaware, said he reminded the Ethiopian leader that the American Civil War and World War I had started with promises of swift military victory, only to drag on for years and cost millions of lives.Mr. Abiy was undeterred. “He was confident it would be over in six weeks,” Mr. Coons said. Days later, on the evening of the American presidential election, fighting erupted in Tigray.Mr. Abiy has given few interviews. But people who have dealt with him describe a man brimming with self-confidence, even “messianic” — a description encouraged by Mr. Abiy’s own accounts that his ascent to power was preordained. When he was 7, Mr. Abiy told The New York Times in 2018, his mother whispered into his ear that he was “unique” and predicted that he would “end up in the palace.”Watching a television newscast showing Mr. Abiy shortly after he won the Nobel Peace Prize, at a roadside restaurant in the northern Afar region in 2019.Finbarr O’Reilly for The New York TimesRiot police officers, in a show of force, marching Saturday in a parade in Addis Ababa.Finbarr O’Reilly for The New York TimesA former adviser said that a strong Christian faith also guides Mr. Abiy. He is a Pentecostal Christian, a faith that has soared in popularity in Ethiopia, and is a staunch believer in the “prosperity gospel” — a theology that regards material success as God’s reward — said the former adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals. It is not a coincidence, the adviser added, that the party founded by Mr. Abiy in 2019 is called the Prosperity Party.Mr. Abiy’s evangelical faith has attracted influential supporters in Washington, including Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma, who told the Senate in 2018 how he first met Mr. Abiy at a prayer meeting where “he told the story of his journey and faith in Jesus.”Last month, Mr. Inhofe traveled to Ethiopia to show his support for Mr. Abiy against the American sanctions.Another crucial relationship for Mr. Abiy is with the dictatorial leader of Eritrea, Isaias Afwerki. Eritrean troops who flooded into Tigray to support Mr. Abiy’s campaign have been accused by the United Nations and rights groups of the worst atrocities of the conflict. Now they are a major factor in the region’s famine.Eritrean soldiers “using starvation as a weapon of war” are blocking aid shipments headed for the most vulnerable parts of Tigray, Mark Lowcock, the top U.N. humanitarian official, told the Security Council last week.The Eritrean issue is Mr. Abiy’s largest international liability, and some analysts describe him as being manipulated by Mr. Isaias, a veteran fighter with a reputation for ruthless strategic maneuvering. By other accounts, Mr. Abiy has little choice — were the Eritreans to leave suddenly, he could lose control of Tigray entirely.The election is likely to highlight the mounting challenges in the rest of Ethiopia. In the past month alone, 400,000 people have been forced from their homes in the Amhara and Afar regions, Mr. Lowcock said. The military has taken control in several parts of Oromia, where an armed rebellion has erupted.Weighing sheet metal at a recycling depot in Addis Ababa. Ethiopia is grappling with daunting economic and social challenges.Finbarr O’Reilly for The New York TimesDowntime at a coffee kiosk in a market in Addis Ababa. Washington said last month that it was cutting security and economic assistance to Ethiopia.Finbarr O’Reilly for The New York TimesMr. Coons, sent by Mr. Biden to reason with Mr. Abiy in February, warned the Ethiopian leader that the explosion of ethnic hatred could shatter the country, much as it did the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s.Mr. Abiy responded that Ethiopia is “a great nation with a great history,” Mr. Coons said.Mr. Abiy’s transformation from Nobel Peace Prize laureate to wartime leader has prompted quiet soul-searching among some of his allies. The glitter of the Nobel Prize, and a burning desire for a success story in Africa, blinded many Western countries to his evident faults, said Judd Devermont, a former U.S. national intelligence officer for Africa, now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.With limited interest in Africa, the West too readily categorizes the continent’s leaders as “good” or “bad” with little room for nuance, he added.“We have to acknowledge that we helped to contribute to Abiy’s view of himself,” he said. “We papered over these challenges very early. We gave him a blank check. When it went wrong, we initially turned a blind eye. And now it may be too late.”An urban park where letters spell “Addis Ababa” in Amharic.Finbarr O’Reilly for The New York Times More

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      Armenia’s Governing Party Wins Election Seen as Vote on Peace Deal

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      The party of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan won a snap parliamentary election in which rivals had talked of renegotiating his unpopular settlement with Azerbaijan.MOSCOW — The party of Armenia’s prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, won a snap election over the weekend that also signaled at least grudging acceptance by Armenians of a peace settlement negotiated last fall with Azerbaijan.Forced on Armenia by battlefield losses and negotiated by Mr. Pashinyan, the settlement remains deeply unpopular. It ended a six-week war over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic-Armenian area inside Azerbaijan, but at a steep cost for the Armenian side. The deal ceded territory that included centuries-old monasteries that are a touchstone for Armenian national identity.In the immediate wake of the deal in November, nationalist protesters stormed Mr. Pashinyan’s office and tore his nameplate from the door. It seemed unclear whether he could remain in power to enforce the tentative peace in the South Caucasus, a region where Turkey and Russia compete for influence.But the election results announced on Monday showed Armenian voters apparently willing to accept Mr. Pashinyan’s agreement, and with it a cleareyed view of their country’s difficult security challenges.Election officials said Mr. Pashinyan’s party, Civil Contract, had won 53.9 percent of the vote. Mr. Pashinyan celebrated the win as a “mandate of steel” from voters. In a video address, he said it would “restore social and national consolidation” after the war.A bloc of parties headed by a former president, Robert Kocharyan, came in second with 21 percent of the vote. Mr. Kocharyan said on Monday that the results were tainted by fraud.Mr. Kocharyan and other opposition candidates had criticized the peace settlement and suggested they might renegotiate the Russian-brokered deal through more forceful diplomacy.But this line of criticism, based largely on wishful thinking that Azerbaijan, Turkey and Russia might accept changes, failed to resonate with voters, said Richard Giragosian, director of the Regional Studies Center, a research group in Yerevan.Mr. Kocharyan and other opposition candidates had not suggested abrogating the agreement and did not directly criticize Russia’s role in the negotiations or the deployment of peacekeeping troops to Nagorno-Karabakh.The reluctance to criticize Russia’s role also highlighted Moscow’s growing sway in Armenian politics. No candidates ran in open opposition to Russia’s military presence in the region.“The net outcome of the war for Armenia means that Armenia is in the Russian orbit ever more firmly,” Mr. Giragosian said. “Armenian politicians across the board are pro-Russian.”Other factors in Armenian politics also helped Mr. Pashinyan: The opposition was divided by infighting and Mr. Pashinyan’s domestic policies of fighting corruption and focusing on road building and rural development remain popular, opinion polls have shown. The surveys suggested Armenians were more focused on economic issues than on the lost territories.In the fighting last fall, Azerbaijan captured districts it had lost in a conflict during the breakup of the Soviet Union three decades ago. Turkey’s role was pivotal, supplying drones and other assistance, and tipping the scales against Armenia.Turkish intervention also stirred worry of a wider war in the South Caucasus region that might draw in Turkey and Russia, because Moscow has a defense pact with Armenia.The settlement ended the fighting but also brought a greater Russian military presence to the South Caucasus, a region of mountains and multiple ethnic groups that has been an intersection of Turkish and Russian influence for centuries. It left Russian peacekeepers in de facto control of Nagorno-Karabakh, facing Azerbaijan’s Turkish-backed troops over a shaky line of control where the fighting ended. More

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      What We Learned From the Final Sunday of Campaigning in Mayor's Race

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      On the last day of early voting before Tuesday’s primary in New York City, the eight leading Democratic candidates sprinted across the boroughs on Sunday, stopping at the usual rally points like churches, parks and barbecues, as they tried to lure more voters. They braved temperatures that hit almost 90 degrees, and canceled Father’s Day plans, to shake hands and even hula hoop with supporters.Here are five takeaways that stood out from the final weekend of campaigning.Garcia and Yang team up, but avoid endorsementsKathryn Garcia and Andrew Yang appeared together in Chinatown, marking the second time in just as many days that the pair came together on the campaign trail. That earned the ire of front-runner Eric Adams. (More on that later.)Mr. Yang has encouraged his supporters to mark Ms. Garcia as their second choice on the ranked-choice ballots. Garcia isn’t returning the favor. She’s praised Mr. Yang, but she isn’t explicitly asking her supporters to cast a vote for Mr. Yang.The show of unity from two of the strongest candidates underscored how ranked-choice voting has complicated the mayor’s race and how rival candidates can band together in a ranked-choice election to stem the momentum of a front-runner. In this case, Mr. Adams, the Brooklyn borough president.Accusations of voter suppressionThat alliance isn’t going unnoticed. Prominent Black leaders, including Representative Gregory W. Meeks of Queens, have echoed comments by Mr. Adams that the alliance is a an attempt at diluting the voice of Black voters. Mr. Adams has said that the show of unity is an attempt to prevent “a person of color” — specifically a Black or Latino person — from becoming mayor. H. Carl McCall, the former state comptroller, has also criticized the move, likening it to voter suppression. Both men have said they will rank Mr. Adams either first or second on their ballots.Mr. Yang dismissed the accusation that his alliance with Ms. Garcia was divisive. Maya Wiley disagreed with Mr. Adams that the partnership is intended to weaken the Black vote, saying candidates are going to strategize differently about ranked-choice voting.“I will never play the race card lightly unless I see racism, and I’m not calling this racism,” Ms. Wiley saidDoubts about releasing unofficial talliesMr. Adams has never been a fan of ranked-choice voting, which allows voters to select their top five candidates. Now, he is raising questions about how the Board of Elections plans to release results as his campaign faces growing efforts from opponents to slow his momentum.Mr. Adams, who has declined to say who he would list as No. 2, has said the Board of Elections should not release any results until it has the final tally. The city plans to start releasing partial and unofficial vote totals on Tuesday night, after polls close. And then they will periodically update the tallies until a final count on July 12.If no candidate gets the 50 percent plus one vote required for victory on primary night, the ranked-choice voting tabulation process will begin.Adams disagrees with the process but said he will not fight it. “These are the rules. We have to play by the rules,” he said. “We are going to tell our supporters and voters let’s remain patient.”Early voting on summer’s first dayNew Yorkers didn’t rush to polling sites on Sunday, the last day of early voting. Instead parks and beaches and restaurants and bars were packed across the five boroughs as temperatures almost hit 90 degrees Fahrenheit. That was a reversal from last year when more than a million people waited hours in lines that stretched blocks to vote in November’s presidential election. This time, there were barely any lines, and waits of just 20 minutes at the most congested polling sites.Candidates make it a family affairNeither the heat nor Father’s Day could keep candidates off the campaign trail on Sunday, with some turning their final pitches to voters into a family affair.Scott Stringer, a top contender early on whose candidacy was derailed by allegations of sexual assault, brought his wife and two sons to canvas on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Both sons were handing out pamphlets and wearing Team Stringer T-shirts. “I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Mr. Stringer said of his Father’s Day.Mr. Yang made campaign stops in Forest Hill, encouraging young New Yorkers and their four-legged siblings to wish their dads a happy Father’s Day.And New Yorkers across the city celebrated Father’s Day with their families, many still carefully considering how they will cast their votes on Tuesday. More

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      Adams and Yang Tussle Over Race in Frantic Last Days of Campaign

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      Black leaders continued to raise concerns on Sunday about a new alliance in the New York City mayor’s race between Kathryn Garcia and Andrew Yang after the front-runner, Eric Adams, argued that the strategy was intended to dilute the voice of Black voters.H. Carl McCall, the former state comptroller, called their alliance “an attempt to bring the disgraceful national campaign of voter suppression to New York.” Representative Gregory W. Meeks, chairman of the Queens Democratic Party, said the “stunt reeks of desperation and our community is too engaged to fall for this.” Mr. McCall has endorsed Mr. Adams while Mr. Meeks has said that Mr. Adams will be the second choice on his ranked-choice ballot, after Ray McGuire.Mr. Adams is arguing that Mr. Yang and Ms. Garcia are working together to prevent “a person of color” — specifically a Black or Latino person — from becoming mayor. His supporters have asserted that the alliance could disenfranchise Black voters. (Mr. Yang has responded by saying, “I would tell Eric Adams that I’ve been Asian my entire life.”)In a news conference in Chinatown, Mr. Yang said Mr. Adams was being divisive when he criticized his alliance with Ms. Garcia. “New Yorkers know that we need to come together, that if the next mayor comes into office and we’re still divided, we’re still sniping at each other, we’re never going to overcome the challenges that are getting more serious around us all the time,” he said.Mr. Yang said that he and Ms. Garcia began campaigning together on Saturday in part because he wanted to ensure the city’s next mayor would “stand up for people and families and not be beholden to special interests” or “enter under a cloud of investigation and suspicion.” He declined to say whether he was talking about Mr. Adams.In Chinatown, Mr. Yang sought to give voice to the concerns of Asian-Americans about rising anti-Asian violence, saying “we are vulnerable.” A vote for him, he suggested, would help rebuff the idea that Asian Americans in the city did not belong.“One way to send that message would be to have the first Asian American mayor of the City of New York,” Mr. Yang said.Mr. Yang appeared in Chinatown with Ms. Garcia at a rally against anti-Asian violence. Another candidate, Maya Wiley, also appeared at the event, but separately. Ms. Wiley, who is a Black woman, said she did not agree with Mr. Adams’s assertion that the Yang-Garcia alliance was an attempt to dilute the Black vote. She said that candidates are going to make different decisions about strategy under ranked-choice voting.“I will never play the race card lightly unless I see racism, and I’m not calling this racism,” Ms. Wiley said. Ms. Wiley also defended the ranked-choice system, asserting that Mr. Adams is complaining about it because he is concerned about her momentum. “I believe that ranked-choice voting is better for democracy period — whoever people vote for,” Ms. Wiley said. More

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      Scott Stringer Recruits Family to Campaign on Father's Day

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      A competitive and grueling mayor’s race does not take Father’s Day off.Just look to Scott M. Stringer, who turned campaigning into a family affair on Sunday afternoon, when he, his wife and two sons canvassed on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Mr. Stringer, the city comptroller, said.It was not Mr. Stringer’s first time getting out the vote on Father’s Day. He has been an elected official in some capacity in New York since 1993. That experience has been a major theme in his campaign for mayor. Mr. Stringer has hoped that his extensive political career would appeal to voters looking for know-how, while his shift toward progressive politics would attract left-leaning Democrats.But Mr. Stringer’s campaign faltered after two women accused him of sexual misconduct, allegations dating from decades ago. Mr. Stringer has denied the allegations and suggested that both were politically motivated. But a number of progressive groups and lawmakers who had endorsed him moved their support to other candidates, particularly Maya Wiley, who has sought to establish herself as the left’s best chance at the mayor’s office.Still, as Mr. Stringer stopped to talk to voters, many of whom greeted him enthusiastically, he sounded optimistic about his path to victory on Tuesday.“As you can see on the streets, the reaction is great,” he said. “It’s a different view than the pundits may have. I’ve been in these elections before, and I’ve never been, you know, the pundit candidate. But we end up pulling these elections off, and I’m hopeful.”While he acknowledged that his message and Ms. Wiley’s had become very similar in recent weeks, he still believed that his time in politics made him well-suited to lead.As he spoke and posed for photos with voters, his children — Max, 9, and Miles, 7 — were able to take part in the campaigning. Both sons, wearing blue “Team Stringer” shirts, were enthusiastically handing out Mr. Stringer’s pamphlets to voters. (Their success rate at stopping neighborhood residents was higher than their parents. Childlike cuteness has its advantages with voters.)At one point, a neighborhood resident asked Mr. Stringer for a photo.“That’ll cost you a first-place vote,” Mr. Stringer joked afterward.“Deal,” the man responded, shaking Mr. Stringer’s hand. More

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      Garcia and Yang Campaign Together for Second Day in Mayor's Race

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      Kathryn Garcia and Andrew Yang appeared together in Chinatown on Sunday ahead of a get-out-the-vote rally focused on attacks against people of Asian descent, the second display of unity between the two Democratic mayoral candidates in as many days.Ms. Garcia, a former sanitation commissioner, and Mr. Yang, a former presidential candidate, met with a hug and a handshake at Kim Lau Square before walking together to the nearby rally. Mr. Yang said at a news conference before their meeting that he had long admired Ms. Garcia and that his supporters should include her on their ranked-choice ballots. He said he expected to campaign with Ms. Garcia again before Tuesday’s primary. “New Yorkers know we need to come together,” Mr. Yang said. That two of the leading candidates would appear together days before the vote underscored how ranked-choice voting has complicated the mayor’s race. It also showed how rival candidates can band together in a ranked-choice election to stem the momentum of a front-runner — in this case, Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president.“Andrew Yang No. 1 and Kathryn Garcia No. 2. That’s the way I want your ballots to look,” Mr. Yang said at the rally.But the message has not been equal from both candidates. Ms. Garcia has stopped short of explicitly asking her supporters to rank Mr. Yang — a position she reiterated on Sunday before meeting him in Chinatown.“I want his No. 2’s,” she told a voter before the rally, emphasizing she had not endorsed Mr. Yang. Later, during the rally, Ms. Garcia said voters should fill in all five choices offered on their ballots, and that people could have a “No. 1 and a No. 2.”For his part, Mr. Yang was repeatedly pressed at the news conference about Ms. Garcia’s comments — and whether he had expected an explicit endorsement from her. But he did not answer the question.“I’m thrilled to be campaigning with Kathryn yesterday and today,” he said.For all Ms. Garcia’s ambivalence about Mr. Yang, Ms. Garcia seemed to appreciate the possibility that some of his support would rub off on her.As the two candidates walked together for about two blocks, a crowd of his supporters marched around them. Periodically, they would start chanting Mr. Yang’s name emphatically. After the cheers died down, Ms. Garcia turned to him and said, wryly, “They really love you.”Another leading candidate, Maya Wiley, also attended the rally separately. More

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      Giuliani Embraces Eric Adams Before Primary. Adams Says No Thanks

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      Eric Adams may not want Rudy Giuliani’s support, but he got it anyway on Friday when the former mayor of New York City said that if he were a Democrat he would back Mr. Adams in the mayoral primary.“There’s no question that Adams gives us some hope,” Mr. Giuliani said, stopping short of a full-throated endorsement. The former mayor highlighted Mr. Adams’s approach to crime, a top issue for voters across the city.In a subsequent campaign appearance on Friday, Mr. Adams did not seem particularly pleased by Mr. Giuliani’s comments and suggested it was an attempt by the former mayor to sabotage the campaign of a sometimes former critic.“I don’t need Giuliani’s endorsement, and we don’t want his endorsement,” Mr. Adams said. “One of the ways you sabotage a campaign is that you come out and endorse the opponent that you don’t want to win, and that’s what I believe he has attempted to do.”Mr. Adams became a Republican during Giuliani’s tenure, only to return to the Democratic Party later. Over the years, he has sent mixed messages about the former mayor, criticizing police brutality under his watch while also crediting him for the city’s falling crime rate.Mr. Adams is currently the frontrunner in the mayor’s race, though credible polling is sparse and the race remains fluid. He has also won praise from right-wing TV host Tucker Carlson, praise that Mr. Adams has also rejected.After Mr. Giuliani’s remarks, Mr. Adams’s opponents pounced.“Eric Adams is RUDY GIULIANI’S #1 pick in the Democratic primary,” said Eric Soufer, an adviser to Andrew Yang, the former presidential candidate, on Twitter.That prompted Rebecca Kirszner Katz, a campaign adviser to the campaign Scott Stringer, the New York City comptroller, to note that Stephen Miller, the architect of former President Donald J. Trump’s anti-immigration policies, has praised Mr. Yang for taking “positions antithetical to the progressive left in a very progressive primary.”“Andrew Yang is Stephen Miller’s #1,” she said on Twitter. “Don’t rank either of them.” More